Billionaire Warren Buffett Has Invested $91 Billion (at Cost) in These 2 Unstoppable Stocks


Few if any billionaire money managers are more revered on Wall Street than Berkshire Hathaway‘s (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett. Since ascending to the role of CEO in the mid-1960s, the Oracle of Omaha has overseen a cumulative return that surpasses 5,771,000%, as of the closing bell on Nov. 22.

One of the reasons investors appreciate Buffett so much is his willingness to be open and candid about stocks and the U.S. economy. He regularly lays out the characteristics he looks for in “wonderful companies” in his annual letter to shareholders, as well as during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meetings.

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A jovial Warren Buffett surrounded by people at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. Image source: The Motley Fool.

But what might come as a bit of a surprise is that Warren Buffett has been a decisive net seller of stocks for eight consecutive quarters, to the tune of $166.2 billion. This selling activity appears to be a clear warning that stocks are historically pricey and value is hard to come by.

However, this doesn’t mean all buying activity has ceased. Since 2018, Warren Buffett has put close to $91 billion of his company’s cash to work in the following two unstoppable stocks.

Since July 2018, there’s not on a stock on the planet Warren Buffett has bought with more frequency than shares of his own company. He repurchased shares of Berkshire Hathaway for 24 consecutive quarters — a streak that ended in the September-ended quarter — with these aggregate buys totaling almost $78 billion. Put another way, Berkshire’s chief spent more buying his own company’s stock than he did purchasing shares of Apple and Bank of America at cost, on a combined basis!

Prior to the midpoint of 2018, it was virtually impossible for Warren Buffett to repurchase shares of his company’s stock. The rules governing buybacks required Berkshire’s shares trade at or below 120% of book value for repurchases to be made. This is a threshold that Berkshire Hathaway’s stock simply never reached, which led to no buyback activity.

But on July 17, 2018, Berkshire’s board amended the buyback rules to give its chief and then right-hand man Charlie Munger, who passed away in November 2023, more liberty to take action. The new rules allowed for unlimited share buybacks with no end date as long as Berkshire has at least $30 billion in combined cash, cash equivalents, and U.S. Treasuries on its balance sheet, and Buffett views his company’s stock as intrinsically cheap.



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