Warren Buffett's 10 Longest-Held Stocks in Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio

Warren Buffett's 10 Longest-Held Stocks in Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio

Warren Buffett praised the practice of long-term investing in his annual shareholder letter. These are the 10 longest-held stocks in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.

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• Warren Buffett has long praised the practice of long-term investing when it comes to stocks. 
• "The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor," Buffett said in Berkshire Hathaway's 2022 shareholder letter.
• These are the 10 longest-held stocks in Berkshire Hathaway's $299 billion stock portfolio.

It's no secret that Warren Buffett is a big believer in taking a long-term view when it comes to investing in stocks, and he hit on that point in Berkshire Hathaway's 2022 shareholder letter over the weekend.

"The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor," Buffett wrote. "Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage."

Buffett's long-time business partner, Charlie Munger, has a similar view, writing in the letter: "Warren and I don't focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time."

While the advice might seem easy for the average investor to follow, in practice it's actually really hard, especially when it's so easy to follow the minute-by-minute ticks in stocks prices and instantly sell or buy stocks with the push of a button on your smartphone.

In fact, Buffett recently went against his own advice when he sold roughly 86% of his stake in Taiwan Semiconductor just a few months after buying.

According to an analysis from eToro, the average holding period of a US stock has declined from about five years in the 1970s to just 10 months today.

And that's what makes Buffett and Munger so extraordinary, as simple as it may sound: their uncanny ability to hold onto stocks for decades at a time, even in the face of some really scary economic headlines. Berkshire has owned the top five stocks in its portfolio for an average of 17 years!

These are the 10 longest-held companies in Berkshire Hathaway's $299 billion individual stock portfolio.

10. BYD

Billionaire financier and Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett (2nd R), Microsoft founder Bill Gates (R), Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger (2nd L) and BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu (L) gesture at the national launch ceremony for the BYD M6 vehicle in Beijing September 29, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Lee

Ticker: BYD
Time Held: 14 years
Portfolio Value: $3.5 billion

9. Mondelez International

ARND WIEGMANN/Reuters

Ticker: MDLZ
Time Held: 15 years
Portfolio Value: $38.5 million

8. UPS

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Ticker: UPS
Time Held: 17 years
Portfolio Value: $10.3 million

7. US Bancorp

Nati Harnik/AP

Ticker: USB
Time Held: 17 years
Portfolio Value: $290.9 million

6. Johnson & Johnson

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Ticker: JNJ
Time Held: 17 years
Portfolio Value: $57.8 million

5. Procter & Gamble

Al Behrman/AP

Ticker: PG
Time Held: 18 years
Portfolio Value: $47.8 million

4. Globe Life

Globe Life Logo Website

Ticker: GL
Time Held: 22 years
Portfolio Value: $765.9 million

3. Moody's

Booklets are seen during a conference of Midroog, the Israeli affiliate of Moody's Investors Service, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Reuters/Amir Cohen

Ticker: MCO
Time Held: 22 years
Portfolio Value: $6.9 billion

2. American Express

Credit cards fill a display at American Express headquarters John Moore/Getty Images

Ticker: AXP
Time Held: 29 years
Portfolio Value: $22.4 billion

1. Coca-Cola

Bottles of Coca Cola sit on a shelf in a market in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Ticker: KO
Time Held: 34 years
Portfolio Value: $25.4 billion