It's official. Warren Buffett is no longer the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.20%) (BRK.B 0.32%). He stepped down from this role at the end of last year, passing the torch to Greg Abel. From this point on, it's Abel who will be ultimately responsible for approving the conglomerate's stock picks.
And this begs the question ... how might Berkshire's stock-picking change with Buffett no longer at the helm? Only time will truly tell. But, given what we know about Abel -- and Berkshire Hathaway -- we can come up with some reasonable guesses as to at least three stocks the new chief executive may already be eying.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Occidental Petroleum
Warren Buffett repeatedly said he had no interest in Berkshire owning the entirety of oil and gas outfit Occidental Petroleum (OXY +5.74%). But Abel might feel differently. His background is in the energy space, after all. He was an executive with utility outfit CalEnergy/MidAmerican Energy when Berkshire acquired the company back in 1999, after all, becoming CEO of the organization that would eventually become Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
In other words, he's not exactly unfamiliar with the energy industry.
NYSE: OXY
Key Data Points
Meanwhile, Berkshire already owns 27% of Occidental. In an environment where Abel is going to struggle as much as Buffett did to find compelling investment opportunities, this oil company may be at the top of any list of something constructive to buy with the conglomerate's current cash hoard of $382 billion.
Alphabet
Buffett never entirely warmed up to technology stocks. But his aversion at least cooled enough to allow 17.8 million shares of Alphabet (GOOG 1.42%) (GOOGL 1.45%) into Berkshire's portfolio during the third quarter of last year. That's more than $5 billion worth of Google's parent company today, although that's still less than 2% of the total value of Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio.
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Key Data Points
Abel may not have the same aversion to technology names that Buffett did, however. Abel may also recognize there's little point in owning relatively small positions in any stock. Given how Alphabet is a well-proven and well-positioned growth name, there's some logic to the idea of adding more to the existing position.
Digital Realty Trust
Finally, add Digital Realty Trust (DLR 0.48%) -- or a name like it -- to a list of tickers Buffett wouldn't have bought but Abel might.
NYSE: DLR
Key Data Points
It's not a household name, although there's a good chance you or someone in your household regularly benefits from this company's service. Digital Realty Trust owns over 300 data centers, delivering a range of cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence solutions, to customers like Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon. It's organized as a real estate investment trust (or REIT), however, passing along the bulk of its quarterly profits to shareholders in the form of dividends ... something Buffett loves.
This ticker's forward-looking dividend yield stands at 3.1%. Although the underlying payment hasn't grown since 2022, with interest rates coming down and this company's revenue growth expected to accelerate this year and beyond, dividend growth may be in Digital Realty's foreseeable future.
