Within a couple of years, investing in the stock market has become quite tricky. As the coronavirus pandemic hit the world in full force and lockdowns were imposed, investors lost billions of dollars on the market as economic sentiment was sapped. However, within a year, the market recovered and technology stocks boomed as work from home mandates changed the dynamics behind the demand for consumer products.
Then, just as investors were taking a sigh of relief, the historic inflationary cycle and the Russian invasion of Ukraine jostled the world once again in 2022. This effectively divided the market into two halves. One of these was the high growth technology stocks that bled large portions of their value. The other was commodities and energy companies that saw remarkable highs. For the prudent investor, playing the macroeconomic environment would have led to significant gains even as countless others lamented their losses and licked their wounds.
This year, all anyone can talk about is a recession. The Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hiking cycle that kicked off last year is designed to slow down the economy to cut down wages and reduce spending power to bring down prices. A consequence of this is a significant economic slowdown that can lead to a prolonged drop in growth which can in certain scenarios be described as recessionary.
So, what does one do to invest during these times? Well, one approach is to take a look at what the professionals are doing. And the professional of professionals is none other than the Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire is one of the largest investment holding companies in America, and Mr. Buffett has seen his firm's share price grow by thousands of percentage points over the past couple of decades. A class A share of Berkshire, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A), is the most expensive share on the stock market with one share being worth a stunning $492,000 as of June 2023. This same share was worth $985 in 1983, Accounting for inflation, $985 in 1983 would be worth $3,000 today, so it's safe to say that Mr. Buffett's firm has done a lot of things right over these past few decades.
Over the past couple of months. Mr. Buffett has shared his take on the economy several times. During an interview with CNBC a month back, he provided insights into which businesses might do well and those that were struggling. Some of his favorites, as usual, were in the insurance industry. The legendary investor's remarks were as follows:
Well I know what a lot of different businesses is doing, and I just got a report from one of them that happens to be in the retail end of this. It was minus 22% in February from the year ago. In sales, profits are down a lot more than that. On the other hand, some of our businesses are doing fine, but they all are reporting that, some of them are living off of orders that were placed months earlier and that sort of thing. But, it's a tougher world out there in a great many businesses. Not in the insurance business. Insurance business should be better this year than last year. That doesn't mean it will be, because we can't predict everything that happens, but on a probability basis, it should be better than last year. And the railroad business is down, and [inaudible]. But it isn't dramatic, and of course we got the utility business, and that doesn't read very much with things. But, overall, I think people that run our business, that do have any sensitivity to the economy are surprised where they are now compared to where they felt they would be six months ago. But that doesn't mean the world is coming to an end or anything. Fifty eight years I've been running Berkshire, we've run into all kinds of problems, but that's what business is about and we run o business so that we don't depend on anything being hunky dory always! We run it so that we will be the last man standing. And that's the way millions of people are going to give me their money and tell me to take care of it. We're going to try and take care of it. And if we don't make as much money, as if we might have if we'd leveraged more or done other policies so be it!
With these details in mind, let's take a look at which of Warren Buffett's stock picks are gaining attention among other billionaire hedge fund managers. Some top stocks on the list are Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO).
10 Warren Buffett Stocks Other Billionaires Are Loading Up On
Our Methodology
To compile our list of which Warren Buffett stocks are popular with billionaires, we first looked at Berkshire Hathaway's first quarter of 2023 portfolio and selected the top fifteen stocks. Then, we looked at the portfolios of 27 billionaire hedge fund managers in Insider Monkey's database and scanned their portfolios to see which Warren Buffett stocks were popular with the billionaires.
Warren Buffett Stocks Other Billionaires Are Loading Up On
10. VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)
Number of Billionaire Investors in Q1 2023: 8
VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) is a software company headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The firm is an internet company that provides different services such as allowing firms to maintain their servers, access domain names, and run security applications.
By the end of this year's first quarter, 37 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had held a stake in the company. VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)'s largest investor in our database after Warren Buffett is Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies which owns 3.1 million shares that are worth $672 million.
Along with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) is a hot stock for both Warren Buffett and other billionaires.
DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) is a healthcare company operating out of Denver, Colorado. It focuses its efforts on targeting patients with kidney problems since it runs inpatient and outpatient dialysis centers. The firm also provides laboratory services as well as physician services and kidney care products.
After digging through 943 hedge funds for their March quarter of 2023 investments, Insider Monkey discovered that 32 had bought DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA)'s shares. The firm's second largest investor in our database is Jeffrey Gates' Gates Capital Management since it owns one million shares that are worth $84 million.
The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) is a food products company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The firm makes and sells a wide variety of products such as cheese, meals, meats, dairy products, spices, coffee, and others. It was set up in 1869 making it one of the oldest companies on our list and is currently headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
34 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's Q1 2023 database had held a stake in the food company. The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)'s largest hedge fund investor is Jean-Marie Eveillard's First Eagle Investment Management with a $256 million stake that comes via 6.6 million shares. However, Warren Buffett is the largest overall investor through a $12 billion investment.
American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is a payments platform provider. The firm is best known for offering debit and credit cards to banks for their customers. Its platform enables users to make digital payments, and the company also provides travel services to both corporate and private customers. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was set up in 1850 and is based in New York, New York.
After digging through 943 hedge funds for their first quarter of 2023 portfolios, Insider Monkey discovered that 77 had invested in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns a $25 billion stake in the company that comes via 151 million shares.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is an American bank headquartered in New York, New York. It is one of the oldest banks in the world since it was set up in 1812. Citigroup has a global operational presence, with operations across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It caters to the needs of both retail and investment customers, providing services such as accounts, and investment management, foreign exchange trading, and loans.
By the end of this year's first quarter, 79 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had held a stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C). The firm's largest investor is Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway which owns 55 million shares worth $2.5 billion.
Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) are some top stock picks among billionaires.
