The end of the year is a time for introspection and evaluation, and that should include a review of how your stocks are doing and where you might need to change course. One fount of inspiration many investors turn to is stock-buying guru Warren Buffett, who, along with his team at Berkshire Hathaway, has regularly beaten the market over many decades.

Berkshire itself made several stock moves, according to its most recent quarterly filing, demonstrating that even long-term investors sometimes find the need to rebalance their portfolios to maximize gains and minimize risks. If you're looking for some stock-buying ideaas as we close out 2023, consider these three top Buffett (and Berkshire) stocks as candidates for purchase.

1. Visa: Unmatched profit margins

Visa (V -0.23%) is an excellent value play for almost any kind of portfolio. Its performance usually mirrors the economy, which means it grows most of the time. What's unusual of late is that the economy has been volatile over the past few years, but Visa has rebounded from early pandemic declines and continues to demonstrate robust growth. In the 2023 fiscal fourth quarter (ended Sept. 30), revenue increased 11% over last year, and earnings per share (EPS) were up 18%.

That's partially because it has developed several strong growth initiatives outside of its simple processing network, where it scores a small fee every time one of its cardholders makes a swipe. Since it has 4.2 billion cards worldwide and growing, that's a lot of swipes and a lot of revenue. But the highest growth comes from other sources, such as new flows, which are alternative payment types. It grew sales 17% year over year in Q4. Value-added services, another high-growth initiative, increased sales by 18%.

You might think Visa is already everywhere, but it continues to ink new deals and attract new clients. It signed commercial partnerships with 500 new fintech companies in Q4, a 25% increase over last year. Merchant count increased 17% year over year.

The beauty of the model is that it all comes at a low cost to Visa, which can generate higher revenue without incurring equally higher costs. Its new growth programs are also asset-light, like the traditional parts of the business, leading to incredible and unmatched profit margins. Net profit margin was 54% in Q4.

Visa's stock price is up 24% this year, slightly outperforming the S&P 500. It should continue to outperform the market for many years, and it also pays a dividend.

2. Nu Holdings: Profitable growth at scale

Nu Holdings (NU 1.66%) runs a banking operation in Brazil. It's all digital, with low fees and an easy-to-use interface, and it's been rapidly attracting new members. In the 2023 third quarter, revenue increased 53% year over year, and net income soared from $8 million last year to $303 million this year. This was its fifth consecutive quarter with positive net income.

Nu's strategy is to acquire new customers for one of its low-fee products and then upsell and cross-sell to achieve higher revenue per user. One of the main ways it measures its growth is through average revenue per active user, which hit $10 for the first time in Q3 2023, up from $7.90 last year.

What should impress investors even more is that it has done that without correspondingly increasing its cost to serve. That's called scaling profitably, and it leads to an incredibly efficient company that can generate higher sales and profits at the same time. It's a Visa-like, asset-light business that lends itself to long-term growth and shareholder value creation.

Since Nu is a bank, it has tons of cash on hand, which is likely one of the main features that attracted Buffett when he and his team invested in Nu at an early stage phase before its initial public offering (IPO) in December 2021. It has seen strong momentum in its credit business, with a 26% increase in deposits year over year in Q3. While banks often suffer from higher defaults in a high-interest-rate environment, they can leverage the trends to increase net interest income and margin. Nu's net interest margin expanded to a record high of 18.8% in Q3.

Nu stock trades at a forward 1-year price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 21, which is an incredible bargain for a high-growth stock, and it's a top stock to buy heading into 2024.

3. Bank of America: Buffett's favorite bank stock

Whereas Visa offers reliable growth and Nu offers high growth, Bank of America (BAC -0.21%) offers stability and a high-yielding dividend. These are important elements for a diversified portfolio.

Bank of America is the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, and while it's known for its consumer products, it has been gaining market share in investment banking as well. In Q3, it demonstrated strength despite macro headwinds.

Consumer banking net income decreased 7% from last year, and average deposits were down 8%, in line with economic trends. But it added 200,000 new checking accounts and more than 1 million credit cards. In global banking, it added 1,900 new clients, with a 26% increase in business loans. Net income increased 26%, driving a 10% increase in company net income over last year.

Bank of America stock is down 7% this year because investors are treading carefully with stocks that have a lot of exposure to interest rates right now. At this price, Bank of America's dividend yields a high 3.1%.

Bank of America is a classic Buffett bank stock, with a great brand, lots of cash, and a growing dividend, and it's a great stock to buy for the new year.