Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, recently celebrated his 95th birthday. Buffett is the king of value investing and a master of buy-and-hold strategies. Not only is his success amazing, but so is his longevity. He took control of Berkshire in 1965 and only recently has announced his retirement at the end of the year.
Investors watch Berkshire's portfolio closely, and for good reason. The stock's annual return over the last 60 years has been 19.9%, nearly double the compound annual gain of the S&P 500 in that period. Buffett has led Berkshire to an overall gain of 5,502,284% since 1965, while the S&P 500 rose a comparatively meager 38,504%.
Buffett believes in investing in companies with strong management, consistent profits, a history of taking care of their investors, and distinct competitive advantages. Three Buffett stocks that investors should be looking at right now are Apple (AAPL -0.81%), Bank of America (BAC 1.44%), and Kroger (KR -0.56%).
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Apple
For years, Apple has been Berkshire's largest holding. And while Buffett has been trimming the company's position in the tech giant, it still has a huge stake of 280 million shares. That's 22% of its overall portfolio, with a value of $66.4 billion.
This position looked brilliant for a long time. Apple is the unquestioned leader in smartphones and has developed some other amazing technology: wireless earbuds, wearable tech, tablets, and revolutionary personal computers in the Macintosh and MacBook.
It was the most valuable company in the world for much of the 2010s, and in 2018 became the first company to achieve a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Times have been a little tougher lately, however. Revenue and earnings flattened starting in 2022 and have never really recovered. Apple is facing increased competition in China, where Huawei sells its own 5G phones, cutting into Apple's profits and market share. It currently has a 15% market share in China, putting it in fifth place.
On the plus side, a federal judge's ruling in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the federal government against Alphabet is seen as a positive for Apple. The judge rejected the government's bid to split up Alphabet and said it can continue to pay Apple $20 billion per year to make Google the default search option in Apple's Safari browser and Siri voice assistant. Apple stock was up 3% the day after the ruling.
Bank of America
We've already established that Buffett likes companies with a big competitive advantage. Bank of America is the nation's second-largest bank, behind JPMorgan Chase, with 3,700 locations and 15,000 ATMs, as well as a digital banking system that serves 59 million customers.
The company added 175,000 new net checking accounts in the second quarter, marking the 26th consecutive quarter of net growth. It now has $6.1 trillion in deposits, loans, and investment balances.
Revenue in the second quarter was $7.1 billion and $0.89 per share, versus $6.9 billion and $0.83 per share in the same quarter a year ago. Management also authorized a $40 billion stock repurchase program and increased its dividend 8% to $0.28 per share. That should make Buffett happy since Berkshire holds 605.2 million shares of Bank of America, giving the company a quarterly dividend payment of $169.4 million.
Kroger
Everyone needs to eat, and that means that grocery stores are often a solid play for investors. And in true Buffett form, it's often best to invest in one of the biggest names. Kroger ranks No. 2 in market share behind Walmart. The company operates more than 2,700 stores, 2,000 in-store pharmacies, and 1,500 fuel centers.
Despite a federal judge blocking Kroger's planned $25 million purchase of competitor Albertsons, the company is still bringing in strong numbers. Revenue in the first quarter was $45.12 billion, down slightly from a year ago, but profits of $1.32 billion outpaced the $1.29 billion the company recorded a year ago.
And Kroger raised its full-year guidance for comparable-store sales excluding fuel to increase from a range of 2.25% to 3.25%, versus its previous guidance for an increase between 2% and 3%. The company said it is seeing more people opt to spend on groceries than dine out because they are concerned about the economy.
Kroger has a dividend yield of 2%, paying $1.40 per share. For Berkshire's 50 million shares, the conglomerate can expect a dividend payout of $70 million.
