Investing

4 More Stocks Where Buffett/Berkshire Hathaway is the Largest Shareholder

Paul Ausick

Published: June 21, 2021 8:59 am

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) portfolio includes nearly four dozen stocks. In each of those stocks, Berkshire owns anywhere between a few tens of thousands to a billion shares, and in nine, the conglomerate is the top shareholder.

On Friday, we noted five stocks where Buffett was the largest shareholder. Here’s a look at how four more Buffett stocks have performed for the year-to-date and the second quarter-to-date periods. Share counts and percentages are based on Berkshire Hathaway’s SEC form 13-F for the quarter ending March 31, 2021.

At Friday’s closing price of $40.50, Berkshire’s stake in The Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) is valued at $13.2 billion. Buffett owns 325.6 million shares, comprising 26.6% of all shares outstanding. Kraft Heinz pays a dividend yield of 3.95% and the stock is up more than 19% year to date, but just 2.2% so far in the second quarter.

Buffett is the largest shareholder in Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO), the parent of Moody’s Investors Service. Berkshire owns 24.7 million shares (13.2%) valued at about $8.6 billion based on Friday’s closing price of $348.76. Moody’s pays a dividend yield of 0.71%, and the stock has risen by around 17% so far in the second quarter. Year to date, Moody’s stock is up by nearly 21%.

Another of Buffett’s top holdings is U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB). Berkshire owns 129.7 million shares (8.71% of all shares outstanding) and is the bank’s largest shareholder. The stock’s price has increased by more than 18% to date in 2021, but shares have dipped in the second quarter to a loss of around 1%. The bank pays a dividend yield of 2.87%. At Friday’s closing price, Buffett’s stake is valued at $7.1 billion.

VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) is the ninth of Berkshire’s holdings where the conglomerate is the largest shareholder. Buffett owns 12.8 million shares (11.4% of shares outstanding) valued at around $2.9 billion at Friday’s closing price of $223.17. For the year-to-date period, VeriSign stock is up by about 3.1%, and it has risen by more than 12% in the second quarter. VeriSign does not pay a dividend.

We noted earlier this morning in our daily look at Apple that a top-performing investment advisor had sold Apple stock and used the proceeds to acquire a larger share in Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B shares.