Apple Is Berkshire's Largest Stock Holding, but Buffett and Co. Own a Bigger Share of These Companies

Dow Jones2022-02-16

Berkshire Hathaway owned at least 10% of eight other companies' stock as of the end of 2021, according to a new filing

This is 13F season -- when investment companies report their holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It's always instructive to look at Berkshire Hathaway's holdings to see if CEO Warren Buffett has been up to anything new, and of course to think about his favorite stock investments.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA) is, of course, primarily a conglomerate of insurance companies, but also railroads, utilities and companies involved in power generation. Through its stock portfolio, Berkshire also has large investments in other industries, as you can see below.

The company's quarterly 13F listing its stock holdings as of Dec. 31 was filed with the SEC on Feb. 14. One change of note from the previous quarter was that Berkshire Hathaway had bought shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. $(ATVI)$ before the video game developer agreed to be acquired by Microsoft Corp. $(MSFT)$ on Jan. 18. This is an all-cash deal valued at $68.7 billion, which will need to clear regulatory hurdles before completion.

Berkshire's Activision shares were worth $975 million as of Dec. 31, which the Associated Press described as a "big stake." However, that was actually Berkshire's 24th largest stock holding as of the end of 2021. That's hardly enough to move the needle for Berkshire.

Buffett has been a long-term holder of Apple Inc. $(AAPL)$, and Berkshire's Apple shares were worth $157.5 billion as of the end of 2021. But Berkshire's ownership stake in Apple was 5.41%. Within Berkshire's stock portfolio, the conglomerate had larger ownership percentages in 15 companies.

Two lists of Berkshire's largest stock holdings

First, here are the 20 companies for which Berkshire held at least 3% of common shares as of Dec 31:

CompanyTickerValue of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings -- Dec. 31, 2021 ($mil)Company market cap -- Dec. 31, 2021 ($mil)Berkshire ownership stake
DaVita Inc.DVA$4,106$11,59235.42%
Kraft Heinz Co.KHC$11,690$43,94326.60%
Liberty Media Corp. Series A Liberty SiriusXMLSXMA$1,028$4,95420.74%
American Express Co.AXP$24,804$126,71719.57%
Liberty Media Corp. Series C Liberty SiriusXMLSXMK$2,197$11,45119.19%
Moody's Corp.MCO$9,636$72,60913.27%
Bank of America Corp.BAC$44,939$364,11012.34%
VeriSign Inc.VRSN$3,253$28,19411.54%
Coca-Cola Co.KO$23,684$255,7879.26%
Store Capital Corp.STOR$840$9,3808.95%
Bank of New York Mellon Corp.BK$4,203$47,9648.76%
U.S. BancorpUSB$7,101$83,2898.53%
RHRH$974$11,5068.46%
Kroger Co.KR$2,780$33,2788.35%
Globe Life Inc.GL$595$9,4646.29%
Apple Inc.AAPL$157,529$2,913,2845.41%
General Motors Co.GM$3,518$85,1234.13%
StoneCo Ltd. Class ASTNE$180$4,4324.07%
Verizon Communications Inc.VZ$8,253$218,1283.78%
Nu Holdings Ltd. Class ANU$1,005$32,4403.10%
Sources: Berkshire Hathaway 13F filing on Feb. 14, 2022; FactSet

You can click on the tickers for more about each company.

Click here Tomi Kilgore's detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Here are Berkshire Hathaway's largest stock investments by market value as of the end of 2021 -- 23 companies valued $1 billion or more:

CompanyTickerValue of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings -- Dec. 31, 2021 ($mil)Company market cap -- Dec. 31, 2021 ($mil)Berkshire ownership stake
Apple Inc.AAPL$157,529$2,913,2845.41%
$Bank of America Corp(BAC-N)$.BAC$44,939$364,11012.34%
American Express Co.AXP$24,804$126,71719.57%
Coca-Cola Co.KO$23,684$255,7879.26%
Kraft Heinz Co.KHC$11,690$43,94326.60%
Moody's Corp.MCO$9,636$72,60913.27%
Verizon Communications Inc.VZ$8,253$218,1283.78%
U.S. BancorpUSB$7,101$83,2898.53%
Chevron Corp.CVX$4,488$226,2141.98%
Bank of New York Mellon Corp.BK$4,203$47,9648.76%
DaVita Inc.DVA$4,106$11,59235.42%
General Motors Co.GM$3,518$85,1234.13%
VeriSign Inc.VRSN$3,253$28,19411.54%
Kroger Co.KR$2,780$33,2788.35%
Charter Communications Inc. Class ACHTR$2,496$112,6222.22%
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