In this piece, we will take a look at Warren Buffett's 12 longest held stocks. If you want to skip our introduction of the billionaire investor, his life, and investment strategy, then head on over to Warren Buffett's 5 Longest Held Stocks.
Warren Buffett is the richest investor in the world. While his firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A) is technically an investment holding company, he is most commonly lumped together with the financial gurus of the hedge fund industry. However, unlike the hedge funds, Berkshire does not charge performance based fees, and, also unlike all hedge fund owners, Mr. Buffett is worth more than $100 billion.
In fact, according to Forbes Magazine, the legendary investor who has rightly earned the title of being the 'Oracle of Omaha' is worth $114 billion as of mid July 2023. And mind you, this is despite the fact that Mr. Buffett has donated a whopping $51 billion to a variety of charitable causes. At the same time, he is among the handful of billionaires who have pledged to give away all their wealth to charity after their death.
Warren Buffett's decades spent in the stock market come simply due to the fact that he is a math geek. In his childhood, he would sell newspapers, gum, and similar products and even then, one of his favorite hobbies would be to see how much money could he earn from weighing machines to buy more machines and then earn more money from them to buy even more. His interest in stocks also came at an early age, and during his school days, he would short shares that his teachers had invested in just to annoy them.
However, the Oracle's current trading strategy is far from shorting. Rather than partake in the exciting endeavor that makes investors cling to the edge of their seats, Mr. Buffet is a patient, patient, man. He invests in firms that he believes have solid business models and then uses the dividend and earnings from these investments to gradually increase the investment over time. The investor credits his father as having a significant influence on his life and decisions and considers himself lucky in this area.
For his professional career, he initially worked as a financial salesman and a stock analyst. After working for different firms, he would eventually go on to set up his own firm. It was during his career as an employee that would introduce the next principle to his investment strategy - namely the need to sift out the true value that a company offers instead of partaking in speculative trades. This strategy is often called passive investment, where stocks are sifted out carefully and then bought and held for years to build value. When coupled with Mr. Buffett's first love of compounding, these two have made him into the investor (and billionaire) that he is today.
His journey on the stock market, which has been ongoing for decades, has seen him make the right calls at the right time. For instance, one of Mr. Buffett's most important investments when it comes to timing is his stake in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). This investment marks the first major shift in his investment strategy, and it came at a time when he met his now long time friend and business partner Mr. Charlie Munger. Prior to the Amex buy, Mr. Buffett was a hunter for companies whose shares were performing but the business model was solid to merit future price gains (like his bet on the The Sanborn Map Company that saw management buy back his shares to enable the Oracle to profit 50% in two years).
But, with Amex, he instead bought a company that was the first to introduce credit cards as a status symbol and offer consumers discounts in return for regular transactions. Mr. Buffett smelled an opportunity when Amex's shares dropped in 1964 when a subsidiary engaged in fraudulent practices that came to be known as the Salad Oil Scandal. Taking advantage, he would buy the stock and hold it for five years.
The investor recalled this memorable time in American stock market history in 1991 in a lecture to students when he shared:
There was one other little wrinkle which was terribly interesting. American Express was not a corporation. It then was the only major publicly traded security that was a joint stock association. As such, the ownership of the company was assessable. If it turned out that the liabilities were greater than the assets, [then] the ownership was assessable. So every trust department in the United States panicked. I remember the Continental Bank held over 5% of the company and all of a sudden not only do they see that the trust accounts were going to have stock worth zero, but it could get assessed. The stock just poured out, of course, and the market got slightly inefficient for a short period of time.
He would go on to hold the shares for five years and sell most of the stake in 1967 after amassing enough to account for 40% of Berkshire's holdings which was the firm's upper limit at the time. Explaining the decision to Berkshire's shareholders in 1968, he would write:
Last year I referred to one investment which substantially outperformed the general market in 1964, 1965 and 1966 and because of its size (the largest proportion we have ever had in anything – we hit our 40% limit) had a very material impact on our overall results and, even more so, this category. This excellent performance continued throughout 1967 and a large portion of total gain was again accounted for by this single security. Our holdings of this security have been very substantially reduced and we have nothing in this group remotely approaching the size or potential which formerly existed in this investment.
The Amex bonanza would influence Mr. Buffett's further dabbling into the stock market and make him invest in both banks and other firms. He would return to Amex in 1991 by buying 10% of the firm for $300 million. If you're wondering, 10% of Amex is worth nearly $13 billion right now. An oracle's an oracle, right?
So what are some of Warren Buffett's longest-held stocks? Some notable picks are American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), and Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO), and head below to look at all of them.
Warren Buffett's 12 Longest-Held Stocks
Our Methodology
To compile our list of Warren Buffett's longest held stocks, we individually searched his Q1 2023 portfolio to see which companies he has invested in consistently for the longest time period. Out of these, the top 12 longest held stocks are as follows.
Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) is a food company that sells some of the best known products in America such as Oreo and Dairy Milk. Mr. Buffett first bought the firm's shares in 2012, and his latest investment in the company sits at $40 million. However, the number of shares has considerably dropped since then.
By the end of this year's first quarter, 51 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had also bought Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ)'s shares. Out of these, the largest investor is John Overdeck and David Siegel's Two Sigma Advisors through a $186 million investment.
Along with The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), and Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO), Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) is one of Warren Buffett's oldest stock picks.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is one of the largest car manufacturers in America. As of March 2023, Berkshire Hathaway owned 40 million shares worth $1.8 billion - however, the firm had owned a peak of 80 million shares in 2020.
Along with Berkshire, 73 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had invested in the car company in the same time period. It is still the largest investor though; although, Natixis Global Asset Management's Harris Associates is a close competitor through 28 million shares.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a payments platform provider. Warren Buffett's stake in the firm peaked in 2011 when he owned 11.46 million shares that were worth $290 million back then. Right now though, Berkshire's 8.2 million shares are worth $1.8 billion - also making it Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)'s third largest shareholder.
Insider Monkey took a look at 943 hedge funds for their March quarter of 2023 investments to find out that 173 had bought Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)'s shares. The firm's fortunes fluctuate with the economic environment, as a prospering economy leads to more transactions, and its largest shareholder is Chris Hohn's TCI Fund Management through its $4.3 billion investment.
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is another payment platform provider. Warren Buffett first bought the shares in 2011, and unlike some other stocks on this list, the number of shares that he has owned has remained relatively stable. Right now, he owns 3.9 million shares that are worth $1.4 billion.
138 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's Q1 2023 database had invested in the company. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)'s largest shareholder is Charles Akre's Akre Capital Management courtesy of 5.8 million shares that are worth $2.1 billion.
DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) is a specialized medical company that provides services to kidney patients. Over the years, Berkshire has increased the number of shares owned, which have grown from 5.3 million in 2011 to 36 million in 2023 so far.
After sifting through 943 hedge funds for their March quarter of 2023 investments, Insider Monkey discovered that 32 had bought a stake in DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA). Berkshire's $2.9 billion investment makes it the largest investor.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) is a logistics and courier company. While Mr. Buffett's firm had owned 1.4 million shares of the firm until Q1 2012, it cut these down to 59,400 soon and hasn't looked back since then.
Insider Monkey researched 943 hedge funds for this year's first quarter and discovered that 39 had bought United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS)'s shares. Out of these, the largest investor is Michael Larson's Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust courtesy of a $143 million investment.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is one of the biggest pharmaceutical and healthcare products companies in the world. Warren Buffett reduced his stake in the firm by 99% in 2012 Q2 and right now, he owns 327,100 shares that are worth $50 million.
As of Q1 2023, 86 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had bought and owned a stake in the company. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)'s largest shareholder is Ken Fisher's Fisher Asset Management through a $967 million stake.
American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), and Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO) are some of Warren Buffett's longest held stocks.
