Warren Buffett Has Beaten the Market Over a 60-Year Stretch. Here Are 3 of the Billionaire's Favorite Stocks.

Warren Buffett officially handed the CEO keys to Greg Abel at the end of 2025, but the Oracle of Omaha remains Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKA 0.36%)(BRKB 0.43%) executive chairman and its largest shareholder. His fingerprints are still all over the $284 billion equity portfolio.

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NYSE: BRKB

Berkshire Hathaway

Today’s Change

(-0.43%) $-2.06

Current Price

$483.45

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$1.0T

Day’s Range

$481.51 - $487.10

52wk Range

$455.19 - $516.85

Volume

63K

Avg Vol

4.8M

Gross Margin

23.70%

Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest stock holdings right now

Here’s where Berkshire’s portfolio stood as of Dec. 31, 2025. It filed its most recently released 13F filing on Feb. 17.

Data source: Berkshire Hathaway’s Feb 17, 2026 13f filing.

But what about his favorite stocks? Three of these names sit at the heart of Buffett’s playbook, and each one shows what he actually means when he talks about a “wonderful business.”

Image source: Getty Images

Coca-Cola: The power of an unmatched global brand

An absolute must for Buffett is a large, durable competitive advantage – a wide moat. Coca-Cola is a perfect example of a company with an incredible moat.

Coca-Cola has one of the most recognizable brands on the planet. That’s something no competitor can easily disrupt. The company’s global reach, the muscle memory of consumers reaching for that red can – these are things that take decades and many billions of dollars to even attempt to replicate. And that is why Coca-Cola has been a core holding since 1988.

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NYSE: KO

Coca-Cola

Today’s Change

(0.51%) $0.41

Current Price

$80.67

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$345B

Day’s Range

$79.92 - $80.91

52wk Range

$65.35 - $82.00

Volume

320K

Avg Vol

15M

Gross Margin

61.82%

Dividend Yield

2.57%

American Express: A recession-resistant cash machine

American Express is the kind of business that will always have a place in the market, no matter what sort of trends come and go. No matter what they’re buying, when consumers swipe their Amex card to pay, the company also gets paid.

Unlike other payment networks, American Express is also a bank, which means it collects interest and card fees. And as it’s a premium brand, its customers reliably spend more, default less, and stick around for the perks. It also means the company is more recession-resistant. Buffett began investing in American Express all the way back in 1964.

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NYSE: AXP

American Express

Today’s Change

(1.13%) $3.49

Current Price

$313.10

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$211B

Day’s Range

$311.16 - $314.68

52wk Range

$281.46 - $387.49

Volume

66K

Avg Vol

3.7M

Gross Margin

60.19%

Dividend Yield

1.10%

Apple: A consumer products company in disguise

Buffett is famously resistant to investing in technology companies, maintaining that he invests only in what he understands and that doesn’t include tech. That’s why, in 2016, when he invested in Apple, he made it clear that he wasn’t abandoning his philosophy.

Apple is a consumer products company first and a tech company second. Apple has some of the most loyal customers in the world, not because the company’s technology is the most advanced or the most novel, but because of the user experience and the brand itself.

And loyal customers who buy an updated iPhone or MacBook year in, year out mean Apple has a steady stream of essentially recurring revenue, something else Buffett looks for.

So even though Buffett trimmed the position in the final years of his tenure, Apple is still by far Berkshire’s largest equity bet and one of Buffett’s favorite stocks.