Berkshire Equity Portfolio Categorized By Industry

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This article presents Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in equity securities categorized by industry, consisting of banks, insurance and finance, consumer products, and commercial, industrial and other.

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For other key statistics of Berkshire Hathaway, you may find more information on this page: Berkshire key statistics.

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Investments in equity securities: Berkshire’s investments in equity securities represents the total fair market value of the public stock portfolio managed by Warren Buffett and his investment team. This massive asset account includes Berkshire’s famous multibillion-dollar stakes in publicly traded giants like Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America.

While Berkshire uses an unclassified balance sheet that does not categorize assets under formal “Current” or “Non-Current” headers, this line item is universally understood to be a long-term (non-current) asset.

Fair Value: In accounting, Fair Value on a balance sheet represents the estimated price at which an asset could be sold, or a liability transferred, in an orderly transaction between independent market participants at the measurement date.

Often referred to as an “exit price,” it is a market-based measurement, not a company-specific valuation. Rather than looking backward at what an asset originally cost (Historical Cost), fair value looks at what the asset is worth in the open market right now.

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Insight & Summary of Berkshire’s Investments in Equity Securities Categorized By Industry

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in equity securities categorized by industry for the 2015–2025 period.

• Commercial, Industrial and Other: The Emerging Dominant Category The commercial, industrial and other category — which encompasses Berkshire’s holdings in Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, the five Japanese trading companies (Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo), and various other industrial equities — has undergone the most significant structural expansion in the portfolio over the analysis period.

  At cost, this category grew from $35,417M (FY2015) to $65,209M (FY2022) and held at $58,036M (FY2025) despite the overall portfolio reduction, with its cost basis mix rising from 56.6% (FY2015) to 68.0% (FY2025). The FY2023–FY2025 average cost basis of $51,070M at 58.1% mix is now the decisive majority of Berkshire’s equity investment on a cost basis.

  The Japanese trading company investments — initiated beginning in August 2020 at approximately $6B total and expanded materially since — exemplify Buffett’s late-career thesis: capital-light conglomerates trading at deep value multiples with substantial commodity exposure, high dividend yields, and structural similarities to Berkshire’s own business model. These positions are reported under “commercial, industrial and other” and have contributed significantly to the category’s fair value appreciation.

  At fair value, the commercial category grew from $38,964M (FY2015) to $98,695M (FY2025) at a FV/cost ratio of approximately 1.70x — lower than the financial and consumer categories, indicating that the most recent additions (notably Occidental Petroleum, acquired from FY2022 onward) are still early in their appreciation cycle. The FV/cost ratio of 1.70x for commercial versus the portfolio average of 3.49x confirms that this is where Berkshire is actively deploying new capital at current market prices, while the legacy financial and consumer positions carry the bulk of the embedded gains.

• Consumer Products: The Apple Trajectory — Peak, Reduction, Residual Value Consumer products is almost entirely the Apple story. From a near-trivial $7,147M cost basis (FY2015), the category expanded to $40,508M at cost (FY2022) as Berkshire steadily accumulated Apple shares — ultimately building a position of approximately 905 million shares at an average cost of roughly $38–40 per share. At fair value, the Apple-driven consumer category peaked at $201,143M (FY2023) — the largest single-category fair value in the dataset — representing Apple shares trading at $180+.

  The FY2024–FY2025 collapse to $12,658M (cost) and $104,749M (fair value) reflects Berkshire’s decision to sell approximately 500+ million Apple shares in FY2024 for tax planning and portfolio diversification reasons, with approximately 300 million shares retained at a $94,954M fair value (FY2025). The FV/cost ratio of 7.98x on the remaining consumer position (FY2025) — meaning the retained Apple shares are worth nearly 8x what Berkshire paid — is the most vivid quantification of the Apple investment’s compounding value creation. Consumer mix at fair value declined from 56.8% (FY2023, Apple at peak) to 31.9% (FY2025) as the position was reduced, representing one of the largest single-company portfolio reductions in Berkshire’s history.

• Banks, Insurance and Finance: Managed Reduction, Concentrated Gains The financial category — which historically held Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Moody’s, and American Express — peaked at $44,332M cost basis (FY2018) as Berkshire was most heavily concentrated in financial stocks. From FY2018 onward, Berkshire progressively reduced Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan while retaining Bank of America and American Express. The FY2025 cost basis of $15,454M represents approximately the retained BofA, American Express, and small financial positions — a 65.2% reduction from the FY2018 peak cost basis.

  Despite this dramatic cost basis reduction, the fair value of $104,129M (FY2025) — a 6.74x FV/cost ratio — reveals that the retained positions carry massive embedded gains: Bank of America shares were purchased at an effective cost of approximately $7 per share through the FY2011 warrant conversion, and American Express has compounded for decades. The FV/cost ratio of 6.74x for financial holdings is second only to consumer (Apple, 7.98x) and confirms that Berkshire’s early and concentrated financial sector investments — particularly BofA and AmEx — represent some of the most successful long-duration compounders in equity investment history.

• Cost Basis vs. Fair Value: The Unrealised Gain Structure The aggregate FV/cost ratio across the total portfolio has expanded from 1.79x (FY2015) to 3.49x (FY2025), meaning Berkshire’s equity portfolio at FY2025 is worth approximately 3.5x what was paid — a massive tax-deferred unrealised gain. This embedded gain structure has several important implications. First, the deferred tax liability on approximately $212B in unrealised gains ($297,778M fair value minus $85,389M cost) represents a substantial contingent obligation — at a 21% corporate tax rate, the potential tax liability approximates $44.5B, which Buffett has acknowledged as a factor in the Apple selldown (harvesting gains at current rates before potential future rate increases).

  Second, the portfolio’s declining total cost basis (from $131,610M in FY2022 to $85,389M in FY2025) does not indicate portfolio contraction — it reflects the deliberate conversion of paper gains into realised profits, primarily at Apple, while the fair value portfolio remains near-record at $297,778M. Third, the growing dominance of commercial/industrial at cost but its relatively modest FV/cost ratio versus the financial and consumer categories confirms that Berkshire is effectively rotating from legacy high-gain positions into new positions with more upside ahead.

• Structural Takeaway: Berkshire’s equity securities portfolio from FY2015 to FY2025 tells a story of three overlapping investment cycles. The first — financial sector concentration through FY2018 — reflected Buffett’s post-GFC conviction that recapitalised US banks represented exceptional value. The second — the Apple investment through FY2022 — became one of the most lucrative equity investments in corporate history, generating over $100B in unrealised gains before partial realisation. The third — the emerging commercial/industrial cycle built around Japanese trading companies and Occidental Petroleum — represents the current capital allocation thesis: commodity-linked, undervalued industrial conglomerates offering a margin of safety in an otherwise expensive equity market.

  The portfolio’s current fair value of $297,778M at a 3.49x FV/cost multiple reflects the cumulative compounding of these three cycles, with the financial and consumer (Apple) positions carrying the overwhelming majority of embedded gains. The analytical priority for investors tracking Berkshire’s forward equity portfolio is the commercial/industrial category — this is where new capital is being deployed, the FV/cost ratio is most modest (1.70x), and the potential for long-duration compounding from current cost basis is greatest. The cessation of the consumer position expansion (Apple now being a harvest rather than accumulation position) and the continued reduction of legacy financial holdings confirm that the portfolio’s strategic centre of gravity is shifting to industrial and commodity-exposed equities for the decade ahead.

The table below combines all key Berkshire’s equity portfolio metrics into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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Equity Securities at Cost Basis

You may find the definitions of Berkshire’s investments here: Investments in equity securities.

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Equity Securities at Cost Basis Mix

You may find the definitions of Berkshire’s investments here: Investments in equity securities.

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Equity Securities at Fair Value

You may find the definitions of Berkshire’s investments and fair market value here: Investments in equity securities and fair market value.

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Equity Securities at Fair Value Mix

You may find the definitions of Berkshire’s investments and fair market value here: Investments in equity securities and fair market value.

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Equity Securities Fair Value Over Cost Multiple

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Credits And References

1. All financial data presented in this article was obtained and referenced from Berkshire Hathaway’s annual reports published in the company’s investor relation page: Berkshire’s Reports.

2. Pexels Images.

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Disclosure

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist us in writing some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources (usually the quarterly and annual reports) and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

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