These Are Warren Buffett’s Top Stocks Now

You need to keep up on Warren Buffett stocks, because while the Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) chief sticks to a winning investing formula, that doesn’t mean sitting still.

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In the volatile fourth quarter of 2022, Buffett ‘bought the dip’ in Apple (AAPL), picking up 333,856 more shares. AAPL stock is the No. 1 holding in Berkshire’s Dow stocks-heavy portfolio by market value and the No. 2 holding by number of shares.

Buffett’s Berkshire also added to Louisiana Pacific (LPX), a manufacturer of building products and engineered wood components. In Q4, Berkshire also boosted its significant position in Paramount Global (PARA), whose Paramount+ streaming service is an emerging rival to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. The conglomerate first bought LPX stock in Q3 2022 and PARA stock in Q1 2022.

Meanwhile, Berkshire slashed its stake in Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), just a quarter after first picking up shares in the Apple chip supplier. Taiwan Semi, also known as TSMC, is the world’s largest contract chipmaker.

Among other key Q4 moves, Berkshire left its existing position in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) unchanged. But it trimmed a stake in oil major Chevron (CVX), according to Berkshire’s latest quarterly 13F filing, published on Feb. 14. Berkshire grew positions in OXY stock and CVX stock to hefty levels in 2022 as oil prices surged.

In the final quarter of 2022, the conglomerate was a big seller of bank stocks.

But Berkshire kept many of its biggest and longest-held positions steady. Besides Apple, those holdings include Bank of America (BAC) and Kraft Heinz (KHC), as well as Coca-Cola (KO) and American Express (AXP).

Buffett has owned KO stock and AXP stock since Q1 2001, for example.

Top Warren Buffett Stocks By Size

At the end of 2022, these were the top 10 Warren Buffett stocks by number of shares:

• Bank of America (BAC), 1.01 billion
• Apple (AAPL), 895.1 million
• Coca-Cola (KO), 400 million
• Kraft Heinz (KHC), 325.6 million
• Occidental Petroleum (OXY), 194.4 million
• Chevron (CVX), 162.9 million
• American Express (AXP), 151.6 million
• Nu Holdings (NU), 107.1 million
• HP (HPQ), 104.5 million
• Paramount Global (PARA), 93.6 million

Berkshire Hathaway Investment Strategy

Buffett is known as a buy-and-hold investor, hanging on to stocks for years and even decades. But there has been major turnover lately.

In 2022, Berkshire Hathaway dumped Taiwan Semi, AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) and Royalty Pharma (RPRX), not long after buying them for the first time.

The prior year, the conglomerate exited Biogen (BIIB), Merck (MRK), Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) and Merck spinoff Organon (OGN),  also not long after opening stakes in those drug stocks.

In 2020, Berkshire bought, then quickly sold Pfizer (PFE) and Barrick Gold (GOLD). It also ditched Costco (COST), as well as all of its airlines stocks amid the coronavirus hit to global air travel.

Berkshire exited drywall maker USG (USG) in 2019, IBM (IBM) in 2018, and General Electric (GE) in 2017.

Top Buffett stocks tend to be dividend growers. Take Coca-Cola stock, which Buffett began gathering in 1988 and which has grown dividends for 61 years in a row.

Between 1965 and 2022, the widely followed Berkshire Hathaway portfolio posted a 19.8% compound annual gain, double that of the S&P 500 index, with dividends included.

Apple Stock Is No. 1 By Value

While Bank of America is the No. 1 Warren Buffett stock by number of shares, Apple is the No. 1 stock in Berkshire’s portfolio by market value, worth a whopping $116.30 billion at the end of 2022.

Apple stock makes up nearly 42% of Berkshire’s total equity portfolio, up from 6% at the end of 2016. It accounts for a big chunk of the portfolio’s surge in value over that period.

The Oracle of Omaha is a major institutional owner of AAPL stock, which you could call the poster child for Warren Buffett stocks due to its strong earnings, returns and management.

Warren Buffett Investment Strategy

Investor’s Business Daily created a screen of stocks based on the Buffett investment strategy.

IBD generally uses a different stock-picking strategy than Warren Buffett does. But companies owned by Buffett can sometimes be found on the IBD Leaderboard and  IBD 50 list of top growth stocks.

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