2013 is yet another year getting off to a great start for stocks, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) is actually outperforming the broad stock market so far in 2013. As of Tuesday, the S&P 500-tracking SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: SPY) is up about 6% and the DJIA-tracking SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEMKT: DIA) is up about 7%. With a 1% gain on Tuesday, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) A shares are up 9.3% and the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) B-shares are up by about 8.7%.
We have looked at the year-to-date performance of Warren Buffett's portfolio holdings of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) to see which stocks he has that are helping to drive gains so far in 2013. We looked through all of Warren Buffett's top stock holdings to identify the biggest winners. What is so interesting today is that the actual Berkshire Hathaway shares are outperforming about 90% of the actual stock holdings that make up the Buffett and Berkshire investment portfolio.
We have included the purchase or sale transaction history of each pick. We have also provided color and the implied upside to the Thomson Reuters consensus (mean) price target objective.
Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) remains a relatively new holding for team Buffett but was kept steady last quarter at 27.1 million shares worth more than $1.65 billion. It is also Buffett's top stock in 2013 so far with gains of more than 15%. We expect that the way Mr. Buffett talked so positively about this oil refinery that he may add to the position ahead. We expect upside to the 1.6% dividend yield and this trades with more implied upside as the $61.30 price is short of the consensus analyst price target of $66.38.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) has been on fire in 2013 and shares have been hitting new 52-week highs and this DJIA consumer products giant is up about 13.5% so far in 2013. What is interesting is that Mr. Buffett had been lowering his stake and it had fallen by nearly half of its share amount down to 52.8 million shares. That number may be even lower ahead as Buffett tends to keep selling stocks he starts selling out of. If the position is somehow static, that position would be worth more than $4 billion. This hit a 52-week high on Tuesday above $76.50 and the consensus analyst price target is $78.75 with a 3% dividend yield as of now.
We have two runner-ups which we are not formally counting as Buffett's best performing stocks even though they have been in the holdings before. United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is technically the third best position in the Team Buffett portfolio, but there is just one small problem. This had been almost entirely eliminated down to 59,400 shares from 261,900 shares last quarter and versus 1.429 million shares two quarters ago. That being said, this 9% gain year to date is almost immaterial for Berkshire's $242 billion market cap. Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) is yet another one which would have been great had Buffett remained on its side, but he has sold out of that position in late 2012 as well. That is too bad as this was up 8% year to date in 2013.
source: dailyfinance.com