How does Warren Buffett pick stocks?
He looks at each company as a whole so he chooses stocks based solely on their overall potential as a company. Buffett doesn't seek capital gain by holding these stocks as a long-term play. He wants ownership in quality companies that are extremely capable of generating earnings.
Over the decades, Buffett has refined a holistic approach to assessing a company—looking not just at earnings, but its overall health, its deficiencies as well as its strengths. He focuses more on a company's characteristics and less on its stock price, waiting to buy only when the cost seems reasonable.
Buffett is seen by some as the best stock-picker in history and his investment philosophies have influenced countless other investors. One of his most famous sayings is "Rule No. 1: Never lose money.
Buffett uses compound interest, dividend reinvestment, and the power of constantly reinvesting the operating cash flow generated by Berkshire's businesses to his advantage. How powerful is this? Berkshire has averaged a 20.1% annualized return since Buffett took over in 1964, compared with 10.5% for the S&P 500.
Warren Buffet's 2013 letter explains the 90/10 rule—put 90% of assets in S&P 500 index funds and the other 10% in short-term government bonds.
| Stock | Number of Shares Owned | Value of Stake |
|---|---|---|
| Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) | 400,000,000 | $23.8 billion |
| Chevron (NYSE:CVX) | 126,093,326 | $18.9 billion |
| Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) | 248,018,128 | $15.1 billion |
| Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) | 325,634,818 | $11.3 billion |
Buffett often makes use of the Rule of 72, a straightforward formula to estimate the time required for an investment to double in value. This rule is determined by dividing 72 by the annual rate of return.
A 70/30 portfolio is an investment portfolio where 70% of investment capital is allocated to stocks and 30% to fixed-income securities, primarily bonds.
Key Points. Warren Buffett made his fortune by investing in individual companies with great long-term advantages. But his top recommendation for anyone is to buy a simple index fund. Buffett's recommendation underscores the importance of diversification.
Buffett presented a three-step exercise to help streamline his focus. The first step was to write down his top 25 career goals. In the second step, Buffett told Flint to identify his top five goals from the list. In the final step, Flint had two lists: the top five goals (List A) and the remaining 20 (List B).
What did Warren Buffett tell his wife to invest in?
The percentage may shock you.
Part of the cash would go directly to his wife and part to a trustee. He told the trustee to put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.
Still, Buffett admitted greater ambitions when asked at last year's annual meeting about prospects for the cash. “What we'd really like to do is buy great businesses,” he said. “If we could buy a company for $50 billion or $75 billion, $100 billion, we could do it.”
Imagine you wish to amass $3000 monthly from your investments, amounting to $36,000 annually. If you park your funds in a savings account offering a 2% annual interest rate, you'd need to inject roughly $1.8 million into the account.
- Rule 1: Never lose money. This is considered by many to be Buffett's most important rule and is the foundation of his investment philosophy. ...
- Rule 2: Focus on the long term. ...
- Rule 3: Know what you're investing in.
Warren Buffett has long recommended the S&P 500 index fund and ETF, and through his holding company Berkshire Hathaway, he also owns two of these types of investments: the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY).
- Palo Alto Networks Inc. (ticker: PANW)
- Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
- Apple Inc. (AAPL)
- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
- Alphabet Inc. (GOOG)
- Tesla Inc. (TSLA)
- AllianceBernstein Holding LP (AB)
- Walt Disney Co. (DIS)
| Ticker | Company | % Portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| MSFT | Microsoft Corp. | 33.98% |
| BRK.B | Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | 16.80% |
| CNI | Canadian National Railway Co. | 16.29% |
| WM | Waste Management Inc. | 14.92% |
Apple is Berkshire's largest public stock holding by far. Berkshire's $155 billion Apple stake is roughly four times larger than its second-largest holding. Buffett first bought Apple shares in the first quarter of 2016, and Apple's stock price is up more than 500% since the beginning of 2016.
Indeed, the Oracle of Omaha has said that he spends “five or six hours a day” reading books and newspapers. And while it may be difficult to set aside nearly a full work day's worth of hours to read, it recently got a little bit easier to consume information like Warren Buffett.
His early life set the foundation for his future achievements. By age 21, Buffett's net worth was nearly $20,000, and by 26, it had grown to $140,000. By age 30, his net worth had grown to $1 million, a significant sum compared to the average family income in the U.S. at that time, which was around $5,600 per year.
What is the Warren Buffett indicator?
The Buffett Indicator is the ratio of total US stock market value divided by GDP. Named after Warren Buffett, who called the ratio "the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment".
The 120-age investment rule states that a healthy investing approach means subtracting your age from 120 and using the result as the percentage of your investment dollars in stocks and other equity investments.
There are no set ages to get into or to get out of the stock market. While older clients may want to reduce their investing risk as they age, this doesn't necessarily mean they should be totally out of the stock market.
This principle recommends investing the result of subtracting your age from 100 in equities, with the remaining portion allocated to debt instruments. For example, a 35-year-old would allocate 65 per cent to equities and 35 per cent to debt based on this rule.
Bank of America Corp (BAC)
At the end of March 2023, Buffett's company owns 1.01 billion shares, a value of about $33.45 billion. Buffett became a major investor in Bank of America when he bought $5 billion of shares during the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis.
