Berkshire Hathaway Stocks at December 2008

Warren Buffett’s Share Portfolio Remains Highly Diversified

Mar 9, 2009
Daniel Workman

: Warren Buffett - Oracle of Omaha - Woopidoo! Biographies

One of the world's smartest value investors, Warren Buffett started 2009 with this carefully selected group of 41 stocks.

Investors around the globe closely scrutinize companies found in the stock portfolio of one of the world’s richest men, legendary stock picker Warren Buffett.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett grew his investment group’s holdings to US$51.9 billion as of December 31, 2008.

Warren Buffett continued to aggressively buy shares of Burlington Northern last year, growing stock ownership of the freight railroad company by 79.6%. Freight railroads are well-positioned to benefit from an expected upsurge in transporting construction materials required to support upcoming American infrastructure projects.

In February 2008, Berkshire Hathaway acquired close to 140 million shares of Kraft Foods. The deal elevated the packaged food giant Kraft into one of Warren Buffett’s biggest stock investments.

Coca-Cola remains Berkshire Hathaway’s largest individual stock holding in value.

Top 10 Berkshire Hathaway Stock Holdings

The following 10 companies account for 86% of the total value of stocks that Berkshire Hathaway owned on December 31, 2008. These stocks are diversified across consumer, financial, transportation, energy and health care sectors.

Coca Cola … US$9.1 billion (200 million shares, 17.5% of total Berkshire portfolio)
Wells Fargo … $8.6 billion (290.2 million shares, 16.5%)
Procter & Gamble … $6 billion (96.3 million shares, 11.5%)
Burlington Northern … $5.3 billion (70.1 million shares, 10.3%)
ConocoPhillips … $4.1 billion (79.9 million shares, 8%)
Kraft Foods … $3.7 billion (138.3 million shares, 7.2%)
American Express … $2.8 billion (151.6 million, 5.4%)
Johnson & Johnson … $1.7 billion (28.6 million shares, 3.3%)
US Bancorp … $1.7 billion (67.6 million, 3.26%)
Wesco Financial … $1.6 billion (5.7 million shares, 3.2%).

Other Warren Buffet Stock Picks

The 17 firms listed below represented 11.9% of total value of Berkshire holdings on December 31, 2008. Included are big box discount retailers Wal-Mart and Costco, stores that should see sales accelerate as the recession deepens.

Wal-Mart … US$1.1 billion (19.9 million shares, 2.2% of total Berkshire portfolio)
Moody's … $964.3 million (48 million shares, 1.9%)
Washington Post … $674.3 million (1.7 million shares, 1.3%)
Constellation Energy Group … $499.2 million (19.9 million shares, 0.96%)
Union Pacific … $425.7 million (8.9 million shares, 0.82%)
Nike … $389.7 million (7.6 million shares, 0.75%)
M & T Bank … $385.5 million (6.7 million shares, 0.74%)
Costco Wholesale … $275.8 million (5.3 million shares, 0.53%)
Wellpoint Inc. … $201.3 million (4.8 million shares, 0.39%)
Comcast Corp … $193.8 million (12 million shares, 0.37%)
NRG Energy … $168 million (7.2 million shares, 0.32%)
United Health Group … $167.6 million (6.3 million shares, 0.32%)
Eaton Corporation … $159.1 million (3.2 million shares, 0.31%)
Lowes … $139.9 million (6.5 million shares, 0.27%)
Carmax Inc … $139 million (17.6 million shares, 0.27%)
USG Corporation … $137.3 million (17.1 million shares, 0.26%)
Ingersoll-Rand … $135 million (7.8 million shares, 0.26%).

Smaller Berkshire Hathaway Stock Investments

While the following 14 companies represent only 2.1% of Berkshire’s value at the start of 2009, they also show how diversified Berkshire Hathaway’s investment approach is.

For example, Torchmark is an accident and health insurer while General Electric is an international conglomerate that owns thousands of operations spanning technology, media and financial services. Sanofi-Aventis is a biotechnology and drugs company. Iron Mountain offers data management and recovery services. Wabco provides electric and electromechanical products for commercial vehicles and passenger cars.

Torchmark … US$126.2 million (2.8 million shares, 0.24% of total Berkshire Hathaway portfolio)
General Electric … $126 million (7.8 million shares, 0.24%)
Sanofi-Aventis … $125.5 million (3.9 million shares, 0.24%)
Nalco Holding Co … $100.8 million (8.7 million shares, 0.19%)
SunTrusts Banks … $94.7 million (3.2 million shares, 0.18%)
Norfolk Southern … $90.9 million (1.9 million shares, 0.18%)
Home Depot … $85.2 million (3.7 million shares, 0.16%)
Iron Mountain … $83.4 million (3.4 million shares, 0.16%)
United Parcel Service … $78.8 million (1.4 million shares, 0.15%)
Bank of America … $70.4 million (5 million shares, 0.14%)
GlaxoSmithKline … $56.3 million (1.5 million shares, 0.11%)
Wabco Holdings … $42.6 million (2.7 million shares, 0.08%)
Gannett … $27.6 million (3.4 million shares, 0.05%)
Comdisco … $12 million (1.5 million shares, 0.02%).

Warren Buffett is Human

The Oracle of Omaha never claimed to have a 1.000 batting average. Indeed, newspaper publisher Gannett publishes newspapers is unprofitable. However, Warren Buffett also owns the more diversified education and media company the Washington Post that continues to make money.

What Warren Buffett does insist on is intelligently diversifying stock holdings as an essential way to manage long-term investment risk.