We recently published a list of 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire Warren Buffett. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other best stocks to buy according to billionaire Warren Buffett.
Known and admired for his success, wealth and philanthropy, Warren Buffett is still at the helm of his diversified holding company. From a struggling New England textile company in the 1960s, Buffett has grown Berkshire to a firm boasting a range of businesses from Geico insurance to BNSF Railway, an equity portfolio exceeding $267 billion, and a cash reserve of $334.20 billion at the end of 2024.
Given his success on the investment horizon – a result of decades of strong returns – it doesn’t come as a surprise that Buffett is often touted as one of the greatest investors of all time. In an attempt to mirror his trading activity, many investors search for what stocks is Warren Buffett buying today.
READ ALSO: Warren Buffett’s Portfolio: 15 Longest Held Stocks and 10 Stocks Warren Buffett and Insiders Are Crazy About.
The Oracle of Omaha focuses on companies with strong economic moats and undervalued assets, applying his well-known investment strategy – long-term value investing. Buffett is not that fond of diversification, as he is investing in businesses instead of stocks, picking those he understands.
While diversification as a risk mitigation technique is popular among those who are at the start of their investing journey, Buffett believes diversification could limit knowledge. He also doesn’t consider money the greatest investment tool, given his statement that “the best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it’s not taxed at all.”
Despite the strong market performance throughout much of 2024, Buffett appears to have taken a more cautious approach. With overinflated valuations due to high interest rates and deteriorating economic conditions in mind, he opted to sell off substantial stakes in companies whose valuations have become too high.
Buffett is also not fond of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports that sent shockwaves through global stock markets, even though his company’s Class B shares dipped 1.4% only on April 3, outperforming the broader market.
In the fourth quarter, Buffett’s 13F portfolio was comprised of a total of 38 security holdings and was worth roughly $267 billion, slightly up from $266 billion in the third quarter. Given that Buffett doesn’t like to diversify much, his top ten holdings account for nearly 90% of his 13F portfolio.
Our Methodology
To make the list of Warren Buffett’s top portfolio holdings we reviewed Berkshire’s fourth-quarter 2024 portfolio and ranked the list according to the hedge fund’s stake value in each firm. If there was an overlap, we prioritized the holding that was worth more money. We have also assessed the number of shares acquired by Berkshire Hathaway and hedge fund sentiment toward each stock from Insider Monkey’s database of hedge investor letters.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
That said, please see if there are overlaps between our compilation of the 10 longest-held stocks by The Oracle of Omaha wrapped up in November, and a new list of Warren Buffett’s top portfolio holdings.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Portion of portfolio: 28.11%
Value of holdings: $75,126,000,000
Technology giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) specializes in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of a wide range of consumer electronics and related services.
Buffett maintained his existing position in the iPhone maker in the fourth quarter holding 300,000,000 of its shares, as per his hedge fund’s 13F filing on February 14, 2025. The stock has been Berkshire’s largest holding by market value for more than half a decade.
Barclays reiterated the stock as “Underweight,” on March 31 highlighting its “challenging growth backdrop, undefined AI strategy and a premium valuation.”
However, with President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs in place, notably a 54% tariff on Chinese goods, Apple, among large tech stocks “has the most exposure to” them, according to commentator Tom White. The company’s products are manufactured in countries such as India and Thailand among others, that are hit with significant tariffs. Being a Wall Street’s casualty of Trump-imposed tariffs, the company lost over $300 billion in market value on April 3, according to Financial Times.
Angelo Zino, a Technology Equity Analyst and Senior VP at CFRA Research said the company is one of the “safer” names in the tech sector, relatively well-positioned to withstand tariffs, as it has “enormous pricing power,” on top of the company’s high free cash flow and favorable capital allocation strategy.
Requisite Capital Management managing partner Bryn Talkington told CNBC recently that Apple is vulnerable as a hardware company with 75% of the revenues coming from hardware, having to rely on third parties for software solutions.
Columbia Seligman Global Technology Fund maintained a position in Apple in the fourth quarter, stating in its quarterly investor letter the company’s “leaders were excited about the release of the new model [iPhone 16 in September],” being the first model to feature enhanced AI capabilities through the Apple Intelligence features. The letter also highlighted Apple’s partnership with OpenAI as it allowed the integration of ChatGPT into the Apple ecosystem. “We expect the iPhone 17 to have even more expansive AI capabilities, increasing potential demand for the new model that is on track to be released in 2025,” the letter continued.
Apple’s first quarter report published in January revealed quarterly revenue of $124.3 billion, representing a 4% year-over-year increase, and quarterly diluted earnings per share of $2.40, up 10% over the same period.
Apple traded at $207.56 on April 24 at the time of writing, according to Yahoo Finance. Year-to-date, the stock lost 17.12% in value. Nevertheless, the stock has earned a top place on the list of Warren Buffett’s top portfolio holdings.
Overall, AAPL ranks 1st on our list of best stocks to buy according to billionaire Warren Buffett. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.