Say what you want about his boring buy-and-hold approach to picking stocks. Just don't deny Warren Buffett's market-beating results. Shares of his company -- conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway -- have reliably outperformed the S&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) since he took the helm back in 1970. Investors only needed to remain patient enough to let time do the bulk of the genius investor's work.
The thing is, he's as good at his job today as he's ever been. That's why you'd be wise to poach a few of his picks while you still can before Buffett steps down as Berkshire's CEO at the end of this year.
With that as the backdrop, here's a closer look at three of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings that would be great additions to almost anyone's portfolio right now.
Image source: Motley Fool.
Apple
Anyone keeping tabs on Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL) of late almost certainly knows it's been a challenging year for the company. What was supposed to be a solid 2025 fueled by demand for its AI-capable iPhones and its custom-built artificial intelligence (AI) solutions has been anything but solid. As it turns out, not only were Apple's suite of AI tools a disappointment, consumers aren't exactly clamoring for handheld access to such technology anyway. That's a big reason this stock's still down from its late-December peak even with its bounceback from April's low.
It's also worth noting that Berkshire has been paring back its stake in Apple since early last year, and by quite a bit, from more than 900 million shares then to only 280,000 now. Although it's not clear if Buffett and his lieutenants culled the bulk of their Apple position specifically because of Apple's AI headwinds, it is clear Berkshire's chiefs no longer felt comfortable holding such a big stake in the company.
Well, good news for faithful Apple shareholders is on the horizon. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives recently noted, "We believe that iPhone 17 [the newest iteration of the smartphone] preorders will be up 5%-10% vs. last year as we estimate that roughly 20% of the 1.5 billion users worldwide have not upgraded their phones over the past four years."
This jibes with similar optimism from JPMorgan(NYSE: JPM) analyst Samik Chatterjee as well as analysts with Morgan Stanley(NYSE: MS). This suggested demand also indirectly indicates faith in Apple's top-down overhaul of its AI-powered digital assistant -- which flopped last year -- will be ready when it's re-released early in the coming year.
It's also possible that consumers just weren't ready to embrace first-generation AI technology and were simply waiting to see what it was and how it worked. Even Apple's die-hard fans could have been looking to sidestep the bumps in the road that any new tech tends to run into.
Whatever the case, after a tough year, Apple appears to be getting back to its old impressive self.
For what it's worth, despite all the recent selling, Apple is still Berkshire Hathaway's biggest stock holding, occupying more than 20% of its portfolio of publicly traded companies.
Kroger
Kroger(NYSE: KR) will never be a high-growth name, for the record. The grocery industry is just too mature and too competitive.
Not every investment has to be a growth stock, though. You could still do well with a dividend-paying value name like this one.
Kroger is, of course, one of the nation's biggest grocery chains, operating 2,731 stores that serve more than 11 million customers every day. Last year, it turned in a net operating profit of more than $3.8 billion and net income of nearly $2.7 billion, which is huge by grocery store standards.
But still -- groceries? Don't dismiss the way this company is modernizing (and even digitizing) this old brick-and-mortar business. For instance, while its same-store sales grew 3.4% year over year during the second quarter of 2025, its online sales improved by 16%. That's business which could have easily been lost to rival Walmart or in some instances even lost to Amazon. Indeed, e-commerce now accounts for about one-tenth of Kroger's revenue.
In the meantime, Kroger is monetizing its online presence in an even more creative way -- through advertising. National brands can now pay the grocer for more prominent promotion at Kroger.com.
Perhaps the most meaningful way Kroger builds long-term value for shareholders, however, is with its dividend paired with stock buybacks. The forward-looking yield of 2% isn't exactly thrilling, but it's based on a dividend payment that's now been raised for 19 consecutive years at an average annualized growth rate of 13%. At the same time, persistent stock repurchases have whittled down the number of outstanding shares of Kroger from roughly 1.6 billion as of 2000 to less than 700 million now, with another $2.5 billion just waiting to be spent on buybacks before the end of this year.
This might help put things in perspective: Between the buybacks, reinvested dividends, and the stock's simple price appreciation, over the course of the past 20 years, an investment in Kroger stock would have outperformed the same-sized investment in an S&P 500 index fund.
BYD Company
Finally, add BYD Company(OTC: BYDDY) to your list of Buffett stock picks that just might belong in your portfolio as well.
You may think you've never heard of it, but you're probably more familiar with it than you realize. Remember the electric vehicle (EV) company that became bigger than Tesla (as measured by unit sales) early this year? That's BYD. You've just heard little about it because the Chinese company primarily serves the Chinese market.
That's changing, though. While you still can't purchase a BYD-made EV in the United States, registrations of BYD vehicles in Europe soared more than 200% to 13,503 in July of this year, extending a growth streak that's most definitely taking a toll on Tesla's share in the EV-receptive market.
In fact, the company's so confident of this continued growth that it's committed to manufacturing all of its EVs intended for European drivers within Europe by 2028. Indeed, BYD is aiming to sell half of its cars outside of China by 2030. With a fleet of seven massive cargo ships that can each carry thousands of vehicles, it could do it regardless of where these cars end up being manufactured.
Although U.S. consumer interest in EVs is only lukewarm (at best), the International Energy Agency predicts the worldwide number of EVs will quadruple between the end of last year and 2030.
It's admittedly not Buffett's usual kind of stock pick. He's frequently touted the value of America's capitalistic economy and the ingenuity it inspires, and tends to limit his holdings to U.S. stocks. For the record, it's not as if Berkshire owns a massive number of BYD shares. Its 162.6 million shares are only worth about $2.3 billion at this time or less than 1% of Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio.
The fact that Buffett made the unusual trade in the first place back in 2008 and has since stuck with most of the position this whole time, however, speaks volumes about its potential.
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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, Tesla, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends BYD Company and Kroger. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
