Top 5 Stocks Warren Buffett Just Bought

Berkshire also took a new position in Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during Q3, buying 22.4 million shares valued at just under $1.86 billion at the end of the quarter. 80 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were MRK shareholders at the end of September.

Merck shares have sunk by 13% in 2020, but the stock looks like a promising bounce back candidate in 2021. The majority of the company’s drugs need to be administered in person, which has heavily impacted results this year given that treatment of all but the most serious conditions is being deferred during the pandemic. Sales of cancer drug Keytruda, one of its most important assets, surged by 21% year-over-year in Q3, putting Merck in a good position once some of its other drugs can be deployed more frequently again by doctors.