As of the end of 2022, Berkshire Hathaway has returned 3,787,464% to shareholders since 1965. CEO Warren Buffett has a special gift for spotting value that others miss, so it's to your benefit to know what stocks Berkshire holds, and most importantly, why.

Three Motley Fool contributors recently combed through Berkshire's holdings to find three stocks that are worth buying this month. Here's why they see upside for shares of Kraft Heinz (KHC -0.55%), Coca-Cola (KO), and General Motors (GM 0.48%).

Buffett has $11 billion in this top food stock

John Ballard (Kraft Heinz): At the end of June, Berkshire Hathaway held 325 million shares of Kraft Heinz worth $11.5 billion. The stock has sharply underperformed the broader market over the last five years, down 40%. But there are good reasons Buffett remains extra patient with this top consumer brand.

Owning shares of companies with the ability to raise prices on their products can pay huge dividends for shareholders, especially during times of high inflation. The owner of Velveeta, Jell-O, and Oscar Mayer has continued to grow sales and profits as it has successfully passed inflationary costs in its supply chain on to customers.  

In the second quarter, Kraft said organic (non-GAAP) sales increased by 4% year over year. It credited higher prices for the top-line growth, but the company also made gains in operating efficiency, which lifted adjusted earnings per share nearly 13%.

What's more, the Kraft Mac & Cheese owner delivered these results while investing for more growth through marketing, research and development, and technology. Management expects the momentum to continue through the second half of the year. 

Kraft's shareholder-friendly capital returns, pricing power, and top brands are why Buffett owns the stock. Indeed, the stock looks like a genuine bargain right now. It currently pays a high dividend yield of 4.8% and trades at a low forward price-to-earnings ratio of 11.5. 

Buffett's longest-held equity position

Jennifer Saibil (Coca-Cola): Coca-Cola is the leading beverage company worldwid, with $44 billion in trailing 12-month revenue. It has carved out this position with a focus solely on beverages in contrast with rival PepsiCo, which also sells snacks and breakfast foods. Its star product is its Coke brand, which comes in several variations, but it actually owns about 200 brands, including well-known drinks like Minute Maid, Sprite, and Fuze Tea. An impressive 26 of these brands bring in more than $1 billion each annually. 

Coca-Cola has been feeling the pressure of inflation, but it's still been demonstrating impressive growth. Revenue increased 6% year over year in Q2 2023, with 11% growth in organic revenue from existing brands. It has incredible brand and pricing power due to its popular drinks, and it's engaging with customers to drive more loyalty and sales.

Management has met the changing retail environment with innovations like smaller packages at cheaper prices, which let customers partake of their favorite beverage experiences even when there's inflation. That helps move sales and contributes to better profitability.

Buffett built up a position of 400 million shares of Coca-Cola stock from 1988 to 1994, and he has said that he would never sell it. It's a cash machine for Berkshire Hathaway, bringing in $704 million in dividends in 2022 alone.

Coca-Cola is a Dividend King and has raised its dividend annually for the past 61 years. The stock is down 12% this year, compared with the S&P 500's 12% gain. That's probably because it outpaced the broader market last year when investors flocked to secure dividend yields amid a volatile economy. This year, investors are moving back into growth stocks.

At the current price, Coca-Cola's dividend yields 3.3%. It usually hangs out around 3% depending on where the stock is, which is a very attractive yield. It's not the highest-yielding dividend, but it's as reliable as they come and a surefire bet for continued growth and stability for decades.

Too cheap to ignore

Jeremy Bowman (General Motors): Berkshire Hathaway actually sold nearly half of its General Motors stock in Q2, perhaps frustrated after a decade of flat returns from the automaker stock. But if you're willing to look past the uncertainty in the United Auto Workers strike and the now-diminished risk of a recession, GM offers attractive growth potential in new markets at a great value.

First, GM continues to deliver robust sales regardless of the broader fears about the auto market. In the third quarter, the company gained nearly a full point of market share and saw a 21% total sales increase, with electric vehicle (EV) sales up 28% from Q2.

While its core business continues to operate effectively, the company has also made smart investments in EVs and autonomous vehicles (AVs) to lead the next generation of automaking. It produced more than 50,000 EVs in the first half of the year and is on track to put out roughly 100,000 in the second half of the year.  Meanwhile, its Cruise AV division already has driverless cars on the road in San Francisco ferrying passengers around.

You might expect that a stock with this kind of positioning in emerging markets would trade at a premium, but the opposite is the case. Investors are fearful of the effect of elevated interest rates and believe a new contract with the UAW could eat into profits. GM stock currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 5, a valuation that seems to reflect the worst-case scenario and then some.

However, unless there's a deep recession or the company falls hopelessly behind in new technology, the stock looks like a good bet to be a winner from here.