By APARNA NARAYANAN

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from the billionaire investor at Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. REUTERS/Scott Morgan/File Photo

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Buffett opened a position in Constellation Brands (STZ), the parent of Corona beer, while exiting Ulta Beauty (ULTA) after just a few quarters of owning the Sephora rival, a 13F filing showed.

Among other key Q4 moves, Buffett's Berkshire maintained its massive stakes in Apple (AAPL) and Chevron (CVX) after hefty cuts in preceding quarters. But Berkshire soured on bank and financial stocks, paring large positions in Bank of America (BAC), Nu Holdings (NU) and Citigroup (C).

In the current first quarter, Berkshire has bought Sirius XM (SIRI) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY), while selling Bank of America further, filings and news reports suggest.

Top Warren Buffett Stocks

As of March 2025, these are the top stocks in Berkshire's portfolio by number of shares, based on 13F and other regulatory filings tracked whalewisdom.com:

• Bank of America (BAC), 680.2 million

• Coca-Cola (KO), 400 million

• Kraft Heinz (KHC), 325.6 million

• Apple (AAPL), 300 million

• Occidental Petroleum (OXY), 265 million

• American Express (AXP), 151.6 million

• SiriusXM (SIRI), 119.8 million

• Chevron (CVX), 118.6 million

• Kroger (KR), 50 million

• Nu Holdings (NU), 40.2 million

All told, Buffett and his investment team oversee around 50 stocks in Berkshire's equity portfolio, which is valued at around $272 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway Investment Strategy

Apple stock is among the top five holdings in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio by number of shares. But it is easily No. 1 by market value.

At the end of March, that Apple stake was worth a whopping $75.13 billion.

In fact, you could call Apple the poster child for Warren Buffett stocks due to its strong earnings, returns and management.

Top Buffett stocks tend to be dividend growers. Take Coca-Cola, which has grown dividends for more than 50 years.

Between 1965 and 2024, Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio posted a 19.9% compound annual gain. That is nearly double the 10.4% return of the S&P 500 index, with dividends included.

Buy And Hold For The Long Term

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

Since 2020, the investing legend has dumped many financial, drug and airline stocks — not long after buying them for the first time.

However, Buffett continues to prioritize finding and buying quality stocks at a fair price — and holding them for the long term. He patiently builds those positions over time.

Buffett has owned Coca-Cola and American Express for several decades, and Apple since 2016.

Apple now makes up 28% of Berkshire's total equity portfolio, up from 6% in 2016.

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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Source: IBD