The sudden influx of volatility into the stock and cryptocurrency market with the release of DeepSeek in late January and President Donald Trump’s new tariffs in early February ensured that many investors are again praising the legendary Warren Buffett for reducing his exposure to risk assets already in 2024.
Despite ‘The Oracle of Omaha’ selling vast quantities of stocks – primarily of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) – and building a cash pile worth hundreds of billions, the famous investor has not fully divested from the equity markets.
Furthermore, those who elected to follow his strategy and invest in some of his biggest holdings would not have, at least by press time on February 3, lost money.
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Finbold, therefore, decided to examine just how much investing in a Warren Buffett portfolio at the start of 2025 could have returned by the start of the year’s second month.
Investing $1,000 in top five Warren Buffett holdings would have returned
Had an investor chosen to split a $1,000 investment into five equal parts to invest $200 each in Buffett’s five biggest holdings, they’d first have to contend with a substantial – and possibly unexpected loss.
Indeed, ‘The Oracle of Omaha’s’ biggest position, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), is down 8.17% year-to-date (YTD). This means that, out of the initial investment, $183.66 would have remained by press time.
The remaining holdings, however, would have somewhat made up for the AAPL stock loss as American Express (NYSE: AXP) is up 4.91% in the same time frame, and BAC – a significant holding despite the selling in the second half of 2024 – is up 2.89%.
These two portions of the hypothetical January 2 trade would now be worth $209.82 and $205.78, respectively.
Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) also performed relatively well as they are up 1.44% and 2.93% YTD, meaning that investing $200 in each would have led to a total stake worth $408.74 on February 3 – $202.88 in KO and $205.86 in CVX.
In total, therefore, investing $1,000 in Warren Buffett’s five biggest known stock holdings at the start of 2025 would have returned 0.8% and, at press time, it would be worth $1,008.
Investing $1,000 in Warren Buffett’s most recent purchases would have returned
Given the age of the latest known complete Buffett portfolio balance – the most recent 13-f filing covers the quarter that ended on September 30, 2024 – would have been to invest in the legendary billionaire’s most recent known purchases.
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Such an approach would have seen a $1,000 investment divided into three $333 purchases of Siri XM (NASDAQ: SIRI), VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY).
These stocks are 9.42% up, 3% in the green, and 6.72% down since 2025 started, meaning that the SIRI stake would, at press time, be worth $364.37, VRSN $342.99, and OXY $310.62.
In total, buying $1,000 of Buffett’s most recent investments would have generated $18 in profit, and, at press time, the stake would be worth a total of $1,017.98.
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