Billionaire Warren Buffett is the second richest American and fourth richest person in the world, according to the May 11 issue of Forbes. He is the head of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK.A), the highest priced stock and one of the most successful companies during the last half-century. Buffett’s wealth is due to his expertise in investing.
So if you want to invest in Warren Buffett, or like Warren Buffett, or side-by-side with Warren Buffett, you have several options available to you.
#1 Berkshire Hathaway A Shares
Do you have a spare $256,000 in your portfolio? If so, you can pick up one share of Berkshire Hathaway.
#2 Berkshire Hathaway B Shares
If a quarter of a million dollars is out of your price range, the company also has Class B shares (BRK-B), currently trading for around $170 a share. The Class B common share is equal to one-fifteen-hundredth (1/1,500) of the Class A shares.
#3 Markel
Markel Corp. (MKL) is an insurance company that many consider to be a mini-Berkshire, especially since it has over $250,000,000 of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock and another quarter of a billion dollars of the Class B stock.
#4 Oppenheimer Financials Sector Revenue ETF
The Oppenheimer Financials Sector Revenue ETF (RWW) has over 15% of its portfolio invested in Berkshire, its largest holding.
#5 Financial Select Sector SPDR® Fund
Berkshire is the second largest holding of the Financial Select Sector SPDR® Fund (XLF) , amounting to more then 10% of the portfolio.
#6 iShares U.S. Financials ETF
iShares U.S. Financials ETF (IYF) also has Berkshire as its second largest holding, making up almost 7% of the portfolio.
#7 Stocks that Warren Buffett Owns
One other option is to create a portfolio that emulates Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings of publicly traded stocks. (Keep in mind that this wouldn’t cover Berkshire’s holdings of non-public stocks.) In addition, it would involve purchasing many different stocks, so you would be better off just buying the Class B shares. But if you think that you can outperform Buffett using his ideas by picking and choosing his best picks, then you should check out a list of Berkshire’s major stockholdings.
For a free downloadable list of all of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway stockholdings, which can be changed, added to, and sorted by yield and forward PE, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.
Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.