In this article, we discuss Berkshire Hathaway’s stock portfolio and Warren Buffett’s recent buys. To skip the detailed analysis of Warren Buffett’s investment strategy and his latest bets, you can go directly to Warren Buffett's Recent Buys: Top 3 Stocks.
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Edward Buffett, is the most successful investor in the world. He is the highest paid hedge fund manager of all time and has a net worth of $118.3 billion as of August 23, 2023. Warren Buffett’s net worth is way less than what it would have been if he had kept the money to himself. Along with his close friend Bill Gates, he launched the Giving Pledge program in 2010, where they asked billionaires to donate at least 50% of their wealth to charitable causes. Buffett himself has given away $51 billion to such causes. He has pledged to donate 99% of his wealth to charity after his death.
Warren Buffett was born in Omaha and due to his lifetime of success, he has been named the ‘Oracle of Omaha’. He was born to the US congressman, Howard Buffett, who has been a major influence on his life. He liked math since his school days and under his high-school yearbook entry, it was written: "likes math; a future stockbroker." Warren Buffett had a knack for business from a young age. He started his career at a very young age by selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola, and magazines. He started investing in the stock market at the age of 11 and filed taxes at the age of 13.
Every successful hedge fund manager has their own investing strategy. Warren Buffett likes to pay close attention to companies’ fundamentals and buys them for the long term. His value investing strategy is dependent on earnings and dividend accruement over the years. One of his famous quotes about his investment strategy is:
"Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it's going to rain next year. They buy it because they think it's a good investment over 10 or 20 years."
Warren Buffett is not a big fan of portfolio diversification. In Q2 2023, over 91% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio was represented by the firm’s top 10 stock picks. Over half of Berkshire’s portfolio is covered by one company, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which the firm has owned since the first quarter of 2016. At that time, the average price of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock was $24.91 and it reached over $174 by Q2 2023. Here is what Warren Buffett says about portfolio diversification:
"Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."
Warren Buffett’s Latest Bets
In the second quarter of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F portfolio was worth a staggering $348.194 billion, compared to nearly $325.109 billion in the previous quarter. The firm purchased 3 new stocks in the quarter and increased holdings in two. The firm closed out 3 stocks including Vitesse Energy, Inc. (NYSE:VTS) which Berkshire Hathaway had bought in the first quarter of 2023. Furthermore, the hedge fund decreased holdings in 5 stocks in the second quarter of 2023.
In the second quarter, Warren Buffett made all his new bets on the home construction segment. Home construction companies might be seeing a positive run as new home purchase mortgage applications increased by 35.5% in July. On July 14th, Raymond James also upgraded several home construction stocks including Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN), which is one of Mr. Buffett’s latest buys. Analyst Buck Horne said:
"We are keenly aware that the optics of turning more positive on homebuilders after the group has already achieved a new all-time high is far from ideal[...]But we must always reassess what we missed earlier."
Horne emphasized coming up with a new valuation approach as his team was late in discerning the bottled-up demand for single-family homes added to the “proven resilience of builders' de-risked operating models.”
It looks like Wall Street analysts also agree with Warren Buffett’s bets which isn’t a surprise. Some of his top picks include Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). If you want to view more stocks from Warren Buffett’s portfolio, you can check out Warren Buffett’s 11 Growth Stock Picks.
Warren Buffett's Recent Buys:
Our Methodology
For this article, we chose the latest buys of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. As Warren Buffett is known to be a long-term investor, we chose the stocks that his firm added in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first two quarters of 2023. We did not add Vitesse Energy, Inc. (NYSE:VTS) to the list which was bought in the first quarter of 2023 because Berkshire Hathaway sold out of the company’s stock in the second quarter of 2023.
The stocks in the article are listed according to their percentage of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio as of Q2 2023.
Percentage of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio as of Q2 2023: > 0.01%
Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) is a home construction company headquartered in Florida. The company is one of the largest home construction companies in the United States. Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) closed approximately 69,000 houses in 2022.
As of the last three months, 10 out of 16 analysts are bullish on Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) and have kept a Buy or Outperform rating on the company stock. The average price target of Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) by Wall Street analysts is $134.40, which shows a nearly 15% upside to the company’s stock price of $117.17 at the time of market close on August 23. On July 14, Raymond James upgraded Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN)’s stock to Outperform from Market Perform.
Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) was added to Warren Buffett’s portfolio in the second quarter of 2023. Berkshire Hathaway initiated the position with 152,572 shares worth nearly $17.24 million, representing less than 0.01% of the firm. Other hedge funds were also bullish on the company stock in the second quarter of 2023. Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) was owned by 66 hedge funds in Q2 compared to 51 in the previous quarter. Their combined stake value in the company was $2.65 billion in Q2, up from $1.85 billion in Q1.
Greenhaven Associates was the biggest stakeholder of Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) in Q2 with over 9.066 million shares worth $1.136 billion. Its second-largest stakeholder, Balyasny Asset Management, increased its holdings in the company by 232% in Q2 to over 1.1 million shares worth $138.200 million.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) are some of the best stocks in Warren Buffett’s stock portfolio in addition to Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN).
Percentage of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio as of Q2 2023: 0.01%
Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) is a UK-based alcoholic beverage company. It owns some of the most famous alcohol brands such as Johnnie Walker, Gordon’s Gin, Don Julio, J&B, Smirnoff, and Guinness. Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) is the 6th largest beverage company in the world as of April 2023.
According to Berkshire Hathaway’s Q2 13F filings, Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) is the firm's 8th smallest holding out of 48 (based on the percentage of the firm’s portfolio). Warren Buffett initiated a position in the company in the first quarter of 2023 with 227,750 shares worth $39.510 million and his position in the company remained unchanged in the second quarter. In Q2, Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) represented 0.1% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. The most prominent stakeholder in the company in Q2 was Markel Gayner Asset Management with 1.35 million shares worth $244.63 million.
Percentage of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio as of Q2 2023: 0.02%
NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) is an American home construction, mortgage banking, and title services company headquartered in Virginia, USA. The company’s stock is the second most expensive stock in the US stock market - $6,133.95 at the time of market close on August 23. Despite that, NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) is one of the cheapest stocks in Warren Buffett’s portfolio at a trailing twelve-month PE ratio of 13.26.
NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) posted its second-quarter 2023 results on July 25. The company reported a net income of $404.0 million or $116.54 per diluted share compared to $433.3 million or $123.65 per diluted share in the same quarter of 2022. The company’s revenue also declined by 12% year-over-year to $2.34 billion.
In the first half of 2023, NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR)’s consolidated revenue was $4.52 billion, down 10% from the previous year’s $5.04 billion. Its 1H 2023 EPS of $216.52 was also down 9.8% from 1H 2022’s $240.05.
NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) is another new addition to Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. The firm initiated a position in the company with 11,112 shares worth $70.568 million in the second quarter of 2023, covering 0.02% of Warren Buffett’s portfolio. Berkshire Hathaway was the fifth most prominent hedge fund holder of NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) in Q2 while Diamond Hill Capital held the most prominent stake with 96,989 shares worth $615.940 million.
NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) is one of the prominent stock picks of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway along with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP).
Right Tail Capital made the following comment about NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“One investment where I’ve been a patient long term holder over much of the past 5 years has been NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR).
