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Six blue-chip stocks aggressively backed by Warren Buffett are on sale on Wall Street as the year draws to a close, mainly due to broad economic factors and stock market fashion.
That makes them worth a look, even for lower-risk investors whose retirement accounts are mostly invested in standard low-cost mutual funds. Even allocating just a small percent of your portfolio to individual stocks, alongside funds, could nudge the performance dial over time.
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U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum OXY and Japanese conglomerates Mitsubishi MTSUY, Sumitomo SSUMY, Mitsui MITSY, Marubeni MARUY and Itochi ITOCY have plunged in price lately and all of their shares can be bought easily in New York by U.S. investors. Occidental has fallen with the oil market, while stocks in the Japanese companies have fallen with the yen and with concerns about neighboring China’s economy.
Occidental stock has fallen to $120 lately, from $171 last April and a peak of $185 in 2022. This follows the slump in global oil prices, dragged down by worries about the Chinese economy, fears that the trade policy of the incoming Trump administration may hurt global economic activity, and — understandably, though little reported — that the new administration’s pro-oil stance is likely to lead to a surge in output.
The decline isn’t deterring Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate has been aggressively buying more Occidental stock lately. Buffett’s company already owns 28% of all Occidental stock, worth $12.7 billion.
Occidental stock does not look especially cheap at first glance: It trades at 15 times forecast per-share earnings for the next 12 months, with a dividend yield of just under 2%. Buying the stock is really a bet on two things: That the global oil price will recover, and that Buffett knows what he is doing. Both things have been reliable in the past, though there are never any guarantees.
The Japanese conglomerates, or “trading houses,” are more intriguing. It is hard to describe these companies in Western terms, which is why most media coverage keeps referring to them, vaguely and unhelpfully, as “trading houses.” They are, really, highly diversified conglomerates, active in ventures around the world from mining to manufacturing to banking to consultancy, healthcare and logistics. They own or part-own solar and wind farms, roast and trade coffee, operate hospitals and water waste systems, manufacture railroad carriages and motorbikes, own real estate and forests, farm salmon, make medical devices and lease trucks.