Warren Buffett, the ‘Oracle of Omaha’, is one of the most famous investors of all time. The reputation is well-deserved — Buffet and his business, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) have managed to outperform the market on a consistent basis.
However, those results don’t come from risky, short-term bets — instead, Buffett adopts a value investing approach, buying equity in businesses that have proven management and long-term competitive advantages.
Throughout the course of 2024, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have been net sellers — in addition, the billionaire and philanthropist is sitting on a record-breaking cash position. At present, Buffett appears quite bearish — however, this only makes his newly opened long positions all the more notable.
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Since the start of the year, he has shaken up his portfolio quite a bit — most notably, Buffett has slashed his stake in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). In contrast, here are two stocks that he appears quite bullish on.
Buffett invested in two stocks with economic moats
One of the billionaire’s most notable investments in 2024 has been Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN). Between December 20 and December 24 of 2024, Buffett purchased $28 million worth of Versign stock — by the end of the month, he purchased an additional $15.5 million worth of VRSN shares.
On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Verisign stock has secured a relatively meager return of 5.87%. The business maintains and operates two of the Internet’s root nameservers, which serve as registries for top-level domains including .net and .com. Verisign maintains a significant competitive advantage — it is under contract to manage these domains until the end of the decade.
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) is one of Buffett’s long-term plays. The billionaire first invested in the company back in 2019. From December 17 to December 19, he invested $409,153,143 in the oil company — purchasing 8,896,890 OXY shares.
While Occidental Petroleum stock has experienced a 12.87% pullback over the course of 2024, it is trading near a 2.5-year low. In addition, at a forward price to earnings (PE) ratio of just 14.9, the stock is trading at a pretty significant discount.
The company’s last earnings call was an earnings beat — and with the scale of its operations and its vertical integration, it maintains a significant economic moat.
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