Warren Buffett shared Berkshire Hathaway’s largest stock positions in his 2017 annual letter to shareholders released on Saturday.
The Oracle of Omaha explained how he views equity investments and why he’s bullish on U.S. stocks over the long-term.
“Charlie and I view the marketable common stocks that Berkshire owns as interests in businesses, not as ticker symbols to be bought or sold based on their ‘chart’ patterns, the ‘target’ prices of analysts or the opinions of media pundits,” he wrote. “Instead, we simply believe that if the businesses of the investees are successful (as we believe most will be) our investments will be successful as well. Sometimes the payoffs to us will be modest; occasionally the cash register will ring loudly. And sometimes I will make expensive mistakes. Overall – and over time – we should get decent results. In America, equity investors have the wind at their back.”
Berkshire’s largest positions included Wells Fargo, Apple and Bank of America shares. The letter said the company had stock holdings totaling $170.5 billion in value at the end of 2017.
Buffett said the company’s interest in Kraft Heinz is not included on the list because Berkshire is part of a “control group” and must use a different method to account for its holding. He said the company’s position in Kraft Heinz had a year-end value of $25.3 billion with a cost basis of $9.8 billion.
The investor also noted some of Berkshire’s large stock holdings were managed by Todd Combs or Ted Weschler. He said each investment manger controlled more than $12 billion of capital each for the company.