What Does Berkshire Hathaway Own?

What does Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -2.66%)(BRK.B -2.13%) own? Shares in a surprisingly small number of companies, as it turns out. Warren Buffett's Nebraska-based holding company has $290 billion invested in only 46 publicly traded companies. Read on to find out more about the Oracle of Omaha’s holdings.

List of investments

What does Berkshire Hathaway own?

Berkshire Hathaway is known for its outstanding return on investments. If you'd bought Berkshire Class A stock when Buffett took over the company in the mid-1960s, your return through 2023 would have been about 4,380,000%.

The return is even more impressive when you consider that Berkshire has accomplished it with relatively few investments. Instead, Buffett focused on a long-term buy-and-hold strategy, buying stocks in well-managed companies with a good chance of succeeding and holding them over the long term.

As Buffett once put it in a letter to his shareholders, "Never count on making a good sale."

Still, Buffett hasn't totally sat on his hands over the last year. Berkshire has been trimming its holdings lately. Berkshire sent a shot across the bow of Wall Street, reducing its stock holdings by $133 billion in the first nine months of 2024.

According to the company's Form 13F, Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks over the last six quarters. Meanwhile, its cash holdings have grown to $325 billion, more on the sidelines than Berkshire has ever reserved.

The increasing amount of cash held by Berkshire, however, doesn’t mean it's getting out of the stock-picking business. Around 70% of the company's portfolio is invested in just six stocks.

Major Berkshire holdings

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1. Apple

Apple (AAPL -3.82%): Buffett has joked that Berkshire is a tech company simply because of the massive number of Apple shares it owns. At the end of 2023, Berkshire held more than 915 million shares of the tech giant, with an estimated value of $168 billion -- more than five times the value of any other holding and almost 6% of the company.

Even so, the company trimmed its Apple holdings in the fourth quarter of 2023, selling about 1%. The pace of selling accelerated rapidly during the first nine months of 2024, as Buffett reduced his Apple holdings by two-thirds to an estimated value of $71.1 billion.

Despite the sales, Apple is still Buffett's largest holding, making up almost 25% of the Berkshire portfolio.

2. American Express

American Express (AXP -1.76%): Through the first nine months of 2024, American Express accounted for 15.3% of Berkshire's assets, making it Buffett's second-largest holding. It's another financial stock that Buffett has touted over the years, largely because it benefits from both facilitating transactions and loaning money.

The financial giant does especially well when the economy is growing, but its focus on well-off consumers -- who are less likely to change their spending when the economy isn't doing so well -- helps it to thrive in most economic climates.

Shares of the bank soared in 2024, rising 58.4% on strong earnings per share (EPS) growth and the addition of about 3 million credit cards to its already robust network.

3. Bank of America

Bank of America (BAC -1.7%): Berkshire reported cutting almost one-quarter of the 1 billion shares of Bank of America stock that it owned at the end of 2023. Buffett has been a believer in bank stocks for many years, and Bank of America's size and scale have made it an attractive stock for investors.

Even though the banking industry as faced headwinds from charge-offs rising and high interest rates putting a damper on loan demand, the bank is still Berkshire's third-largest holding, with shares valued at $34 billion. As inflation slows, however, the bank may see a rebound from consumer spending even as competition intensifies.

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4. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (KO -0.19%): The Atlanta-based beverage giant is another one of Buffett's longest-held positions. Buffett has made it clear he doesn't have any plans to sell Coca-Cola stock; the Dividend King has proven its resilience, even as inflation prompted many consumers to curb their grocery spending.

Buffett's affinity for Coca-Cola stock isn't just professional; he described himself as "one-quarter Coca-Cola" to Fortune in 2015, claiming the beverage accounts for 25% of his daily caloric intake. It's another example of one of his wise investment maxims: Buy stock in companies whose business you understand and appreciate.

Berkshire held $24.4 billion of Coca-Cola stock, or 9.3% of its outstanding shares.

5. Chevron

Chevron (CVX 0.65%): With a few exceptions, the oil and gas industry has fallen on hard times. In the 1980s, the sector made up almost 30% of the S&P 500; these days, it hovers around 3%. Despite the uncertainty prompted by a transition to low-carbon fuels, Buffett has increased his holdings in Chevron, betting that the energy industry will recover from a rough few years.

As of the third quarter of 2024, Berkshire owned about 118 million shares of Chevron, a slight drop from the previous year but still almost 6.3% of its entire portfolio and almost 7% of Chevron's outstanding shares. Chevron is the second-largest oil company in the United States.

6. Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum (OXY 1.82%): One of two energy stocks owned by Berkshire, Occidental is heavily focused on upstream production, which makes it highly susceptible to falling crude oil prices. It also reported $24.1 billion in net debt, a not-inconsiderable sum even for a major oil company. In addition, disruption caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Middle East tensions have failed to make a substantial dent in the global supply.

Buffett's bet on Occidental, however, is looking smarter by the day. An increasing global appetite for oil and a lack of exploration make it possible that there will be a gap between supply and demand.

Buffett owns about $15.1 billion in Occidental stock, more than 28% of its outstanding shares. He picked up 8.9 million additional shares in the week before Christmas 2024 as the oil company's stock sagged 24% for the year.

Other holdings

Other Berkshire holdings

The six stocks above make up more than 70% of Berkshire's total holdings -- but there's more. Near the end of 2024, Berkshire held billion-dollar stakes in another 19 companies, ranging from consumer staples to technology stocks. Here are some smaller holdings:

• Kraft Heinz (NYSE:KHC): Buffett admits that the purchase of Kraft Heinz stock initially didn't quite work out as hoped. The company's stock fell 9% in 2023 and another 18% in 2024, even as the S&P 500 rose.
  
  Still, Berkshire hasn't walked away from the company that provides staples ranging from Kraft Mac and Cheese to Maxwell House, and there's hope for the future. It's overhauling its logistics structure to save $2.5 billion by the end of 2027 and had already identified about $1 billion in potential savings.
• Moody's (MCO -2.19%): Best known as a ratings agency, Moody's has been a part of Berkshire's portfolio for almost a quarter-century. The company has little major competition outside of S&P Global and Fitch Ratings, giving it a huge advantage and immense pricing power.
  
  Moody's has everything that Buffett searches for in an investment: a competitive edge, strong management, a leading position, excellent profitability, strong recurring revenue, and a high free cash flow. Not including dividends, Berkshire's stake in Moody's is up more than 4,600% from its reported cost basis.
• Mitsubishi (MSBHF -0.46%): On the surface, a Japanese trading house might not be one of the first investments you think about when you consider options for Berkshire Hathaway. But it's a big component of Buffett's portfolio, which now holds about 8% of the conglomerate.
  
  Why? Easy. Like other large Berkshire holdings, Mitsubishi has been in business for a long time (since 1870), indicating stability. It's a bargain, with shares trading at roughly nine times trailing 12-month earnings. And finally, it's incredibly diversified, owning almost 1,700 companies in 10 industries, spreading risk better than most exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
• Mitsui & Co. (MITSF -2.12%). Buffett increased his holdings in Japan's five biggest trading houses in 2023, with Mitsui becoming his 10th-largest holding. It's one of five sogo shosha (trading houses) Buffett first bought in 2020. The company recently raised its net profit estimate for the fiscal year, based on asset sales and a promising outlook for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business.
  
  Like Mitsubishi, Mitsui is a diversified giant that owns companies involved in chemicals, steelmaking, life insurance, construction, banking, engineering, and even brewing. Berkshire has said it hopes to increase its stake to 9.9% of each of the five major trading houses, just shy of the country's 10% approval threshold for foreign investment.

Smaller investments

Smaller Berkshire investments

Using "small" to describe billion-dollar holdings would be laughable in almost any other context, but the sheer size of Buffett's largest holdings almost reduces these holdings to a rounding error.

Although Apple is one of the ultimate tech stocks, Buffett has also dedicated a significant amount of cash to a couple of other tech-focused companies. Berkshire has:

• $2.2 billion invested in Amazon (AMZN -2.58%), holding a miniscule 0.1% of the company’s outstanding shares.
• $2.7 billion in VeriSign (VRSN -1.63%), accounting for 13.8% of the company.

Besides Mitsui and Mitsubishi, Buffett also held major stakes in:

• Marubeni Corp. (MARUY -0.54%), with $2 billion in stock, about 8.5% of outstanding shares.
• Itochu Corp. (ITOCF -2.43%), with $5.5 billion, about 7.5% of shares.
• Sumitomo Corp. (SSUM.F -1.63%), with $2.1 billion in shares, about 8.4% of outstanding shares.

Other major investments in financial stocks include:

• $3.9 billion of Citigroup (C -3.59%) stock, about 2.9% of outstanding shares.
• $2.6 billion in Visa (V -1.33%), 0.4% of the company.
• $2 billion in Mastercard (MA -0.66%) stock, or 0.4% of outstanding shares.
• $1.6 billion of Capital One (COF -2.09%), 2.4% of the company.

Buffett has made several investments in media centered on:

• Liberty Formula One Series C (FWON.K -0.49%), $704.5 million or 3.5% of outstanding shares.
• Liberty Live Series C (LLYV.K -2.39%), $725.8 million, about 17.2% of the company.
• Liberty Live Series A (LLYV.A -2.31%), $322.1 million, or 19.5% of outstanding shares.
• Liberty Latin America Series A (LILA -0.77%), $17.1 million, or 6.5% of the company.
• Liberty Latin America Series C (LILA.K -0.76%), $8.3 million, or 0.8% of outstanding shares.
• Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI -1.74%), with $2.4 billion in holdings, or 34.6% of the company’s outstanding shares.

It's also worth noting that Buffett has only one major healthcare holding, DaVita (DVA -3.1%), a dialysis provider that controls more than one-third of the U.S. market. The Denver-based company focuses on treating end-stage renal disease, an affliction that is becoming more common as the U.S. population ages. Buffett held more of DaVita's shares than any other stock, with $5.5 billion invested in 44% of the company's outstanding shares.

Potential future acquisitions

What companies could Buffett buy in the future?

It's hard to predict which stocks Berkshire Hathaway might add since Buffett favors very long-term buy-and-hold positions. The Oracle of Omaha tends to favor companies that have been around for a very long time -- like a century, in the cases of American Express and Coca-Cola.

Having said that, there may be a few options in areas where Buffett has focused, such as finance, energy, and consumer staples:

• U.S. Bancorp (USB -2.11%) is one-quarter the size of Bank of America. It has $74.9 billion in market capitalization, making it the fifth-largest U.S. bank. Unlike its larger siblings in the banking industry, it was relatively unscathed by the 2007-09 financial crisis. It has a decent dividend yield of almost 4.2% and trades at 14.7 times this year's expected earnings.
• Buffett values stable companies with predictable revenue, which means Enbridge (ENB 0.74%) might be a good fit if he decides to add to Berkshire's energy holdings. The Canadian pipeline and utility company reports that 98% of its earnings come from cost-of-service arrangements and long-term contracts, which means it's not affected by oil and gas prices.
• If Buffett is searching for an established, well-run company with a lengthy history, he might consider adding IBM (IBM -0.75%) shares to the Berkshire portfolio. True, Big Blue struggled over much of the last decade, selling off low-margin units for cash that it then spent on buybacks rather than business improvements. The company appears to be stabilizing, though, buoyed by investments in AI that helped its shares climb 44% when including reinvested dividends.

Related investing topics

The bottom line on companies Berkshire Hathaway owns

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Even so, a 4,384,748% return over a lifetime of investment isn't something to dismiss. The vast majority of investors could do worse than following Buffett's example of investing in stable, well-run, established companies that focus on core businesses.

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