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• Berkshire Hathaway recently passed $1 trillion in valuation.
• Warren Buffett sold half of his vast Apple position this year.
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If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal fans who are investors.

Known for his long buy-and-hold strategies and massive portfolio of public and private holdings, he remains one of the world’s preeminent investors. With interest rates poised to move lower, adding Buffett dividend-paying stocks that will rally as bond yields drop makes sense.

Recently, it was announced that Berkshire Hathaway had surpassed the $1 trillion mark in valuation. This is a stunning feat, considering that all other companies with similar valuations are mega-cap technology giants that dominate their specific spheres. Also, remember that the $1 trillion valuation is strictly for the publicly traded stocks in the portfolio and doesn’t include any private holdings like Geico, battery maker Duracell, or family favorite Dairy Queen.

The Berkshire Hathaway move to $1 trillion was matched by the venerable Dow Jones industrials hitting all-time highs. We decided to screen Buffet’s public holdings and found that five of the stocks, which are among his largest holdings, are also members of the legacy index. All pay dividends and all are rated Buy by top Wall Street firms.

Why are we covering this?

With a 15-year track record of covering Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway at 24/7 Wall St., we like to keep our readers updated on the top news from the financial powerhouse. It should be noted that Berkshire Hathaway’s overall performance has surpassed the S&P 500 this year.

American Express

This stock has been strong and blew out second-quarter results. It pays a 1.16% dividend. American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) provides charge and credit payment card products and travel-related services worldwide.

The company operates through three segments:

• Global Consumer Services Group
• Global Commercial Services
• Global Merchant and Network Services

Its products and services include:

• Payment and financing products
• Network services
• Accounts payable expense management products and services
• Travel and lifestyle services

The company’s products and services also comprise:

• Merchant acquisition and processing
• Servicing and settlement
• Point-of-sale marketing
• Information products and services for merchants
• Fraud prevention services and the design and operation of customer loyalty programs

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 21.3 % of American Express’s float

Apple

It’s almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant still makes up 29% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio despite selling over 500 million shares this year. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also provides AppleCare support and cloud services and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which allows customers to discover and download applications and digital content such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Apple Investors are paid a modest 0.44% dividend.

Chevron

This integrated giant is a safer way for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector. It pays a rich 4.42% dividend. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) engages in integrated energy and chemicals operations worldwide through its subsidiaries.

The company operates in two segments:

• Upstream
• Downstream

The Upstream segment is involved in the following:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines
• Transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum product
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and advanced products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

Chevron announced last fall that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hess in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, or $171 per share based on Chevron’s closing price on October 20, 2023. Under the terms of the agreement, Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. The transaction’s total enterprise value, including debt, is $60 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 6.5% of Chevron’s outstanding stock with 118,610,534 shares, and the energy giant makes up 5.5% of the portfolio.

Coca-Cola

This company remains a top Buffet holding as he owns a massive 400 million shares, 9.3% of the float and 9% of the portfolio. Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the Company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Fanta
• Sprite
• Coca-Cola Zero
• Vitaminwater
• Powerade
• Minute Maid
• Simply
• Georgia
• Del Valle

Globally, they are the number one provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juice drinks.

Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of more than 1.9 billion servings a day.

It’s also important to remember that the company owns almost 17% of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver big numbers.

Investors are paid a very dependable 2.70% dividend.

Visa

The credit card giant continues delivering solid results and is ready to break to new 52-week highs. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a payment technology company in the United States and internationally.

The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions.

It also offers:

• Credit, debit, and prepaid card products
• Tap-to-pay, tokenization, and click-to-pay services
• Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets
• Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business-cross-border-payments-network
• Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution
• Visa DPS provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services

The company also provides acceptance solutions, including Cybersource, which provides modular and value-added services for connecting merchants to payment processing; risk and identity solutions, such as:

• Visa Advanced Authorization
• Visa Secure
• Visa Risk and Decision Manager
• Visa Consumer Authentication Service and decision solutions for fraud prevention
• Visa Consulting and Analytics, a payment consulting advisory services company

It provides its services under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink, V PAY, and PLUS brand names.

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