We recently compiled a list of the 9 Stocks Warren Buffett Has Bought Since Beginning of AI Revolution. In this article we are going to take a look at where Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) stands against Buffet’s other stock picks since the beginning of AI revolution.
Artificial intelligence has been the buzzword on Wall Street for the past several months, with investors tripping over themselves to get a piece of the pie as the new technology sweeps the business world. AI-powered trading systems now account for over 60% of total equity trading volume in the United States. Investors have been turning to AI for enhanced efficiency and faster decision-making speeds. These AI-based investing algorithms can analyze vast datasets and predict stock price movements with up to 80% accuracy. The potential of AI-driven investment funds can be understood better by comparing their performance against traditional peers, with the former outperforming the latter by 1-3% annually.
However, if there is one person who seems least bothered by this hullabaloo, it is Warren Buffett, an American business tycoon, entrepreneur, and investor presently serving as the chief of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world. When Buffett speaks, the world listens. At the annual shareholder meeting of his organization in early May, Buffett tackled the subject of artificial intelligence, reinforcing cliches about his mistrust towards technology stocks but stopping short of denouncing it altogether. However, the Oracle of Omaha, as he is affectionately known, did compare the rise of AI to the invention of the nuclear weapons, describing both technologies as genies that could not be returned to the bottle.
Buffett, whose personal net worth is over $136 billion, manages a 13F portfolio at his hedge fund that was worth more than $331 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2024. In contrast to most other money managers on Wall Street, the strength of his portfolio is derived from value offerings that he has held onto for years and even decades, as opposed to the day trading habits of some of his more aggressive peers in the hedge fund universe. This investing acumen has earned Buffett a legendary status in the finance world and is partly the reason why tens of thousands of people lined up the streets of Omaha in May to listen to him speak about AI and whether he would be investing in the new technology.
In response to a question about AI, Buffett noted that even though he did not fully understand the new technology, he was wise enough to gather, from what he had seen already, that it held enormous potential. He clarified, however, that he did not yet know whether this potential would do more good than harm. Perhaps the most interesting statement from the investing guru at the annual shareholder meeting, and one that illustrates the difference between him and other money managers, was about the impact that AI would have on ordinary people and their ordinary workplaces. According to Buffett, AI could create more leisure time for people, but he was more interested in how they would spend that time than in how AI would bring that about.
“It can create an enormous amount of leisure time. Now what the world does with leisure time is another question. I know an awful lot of people think when they go to work at first what they want is leisure time – and what I like is actually having more problems to solve.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we scanned the stock portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway according to the 13F filings submitted at the end of the first quarter of 2024. We compared his Q1 2024 13F portfolio to his Q3 2022 13F portfolio, selecting the companies with the biggest percentage change in number of shares. The companies that feature in the Q1 2024 13F portfolio but did not feature in the Q3 2022 13F portfolio have also been included. 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A close-up of bottles of whisky and other alcoholic beverages from a winery.
Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
Berkshire Hathaway’s Shares in Q1 2024: 227,750
Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) produces, markets, and sells alcoholic beverages. It owns some of the most famous brands in the world, including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff, and Baileys. It has a presence in over 180 countries globally, with production sites in nearly 150 of them. In the past decade or so, the company has ramped up mergers and acquisitions to expand a portfolio of scotch whiskey, rye whiskey, gin, rum, vodka and tequila. There are plenty of reasons to be bullish on the shares, one of them being the firm’s presence in the developing world, which contributes to nearly half of the overall revenue of the company and has the potential to add hundreds of millions of new customers.
Diageo plc. (NYSE:DEO) has a stellar dividend record with nearly 25 years of payout history in a sector where the median for this is only 14 years. The company can grow profits in the coming months as it has high quality brands, a strong market presence, a diversified spirits portfolio, a healthy balance sheet, and is relatively undervalued.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Artisan Partners, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“One of the areas that hasn’t participated in the year’s rally has been consumer staples. We identified two staples stocks that meet our three margin of safety criteria (attractive business economics, sound financial condition and attractive valuation), purchasing Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO) and Kerry Group.
Diageo is a global leader in alcoholic beverages with an impressive collection of brands across spirits and beers. The company’s portfolio of over 200 brands provides diversification and allows it to meet consumer trends. A key focus for growth has been premiumization, and today, Diageo’s portfolio is now more heavily weighted toward premium segments. Shares are trading at multiyear trough multiples on fears of growth normalizing after a COVID-induced bounce and premiumization headwinds as some markets are showing consumers trading down to value alternatives. In the near term, margin expansion will likely be constrained, but the company generates meaningful free cash flow and returns it to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Over the past five years, Diageo generated £12 billion FCF and returned £16 billion to shareholders. Although spirits are more cyclical than other staples, the company’s growth prospects are better long term, and we believe the current situation has provide us an attractive investment opportunity.”
Overall DEO ranks 5th on our list of the best stocks Warren Buffett has bought since beginning of AI revolution. While we acknowledge the potential of DEO as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for AI stock that is more promising than DEO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, checkout our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.