Warren Buffett is one of the legends of stock investing.
We all know his story.
He started investing in stocks when he was just 11. By the time he was 29 years old, he was already a millionaire stock investor. In his 60s, he became a billionaire stock investor.
Often, the biggest question people ask about Buffett is: how does he do it?
And: could I do it too?
Buffett has become rich by buying cheap, or out of favor stocks, and holding them for years.
Sounds easy, right?
If it was, everyone would be able to do what Buffett has done.
However, Buffett does have some secrets that us mere mortal investors can deploy to help us pick great value stocks.
3 Secrets to Picking Great Value Stocks Like Buffett
1) Buy What You Know
Even investing legends have favorite products. Over the years, Berkshire Hathaway has collected a big roster of well-known companies including Dairy Queen, See’s Candy, and Burlington Northern railroad.
How many of these acquisitions were influenced by Buffett’s own preferences for the products?
In Berkshire’s stock portfolio, one of its longest owned stock positions is in Coca-Cola, which Buffett first began buying in 1988.
Is it a coincidence that Coke is one of Warren Buffett’s favorite drinks? Over the last decade, Buffett has disclosed in interviews to both Fortune and the Financial Times that he drinks 5 cans of coke a day, usually Diet Coke or Cherry Coke.
Clearly, he’s a fan.
But you have to do more than just liking a product, to buy the stock.
Buffett has always been an avid researcher and used to order company annual reports, when they would send them to you in the mail, to check the financials. He used to have stacks of the reports piled in his garage.
What’s your favorite product or brand?
We often have our fingers on the pulse of every day products and activities, or even of something that is used in our jobs, that might get overlooked by others.
It’s a great way to find value stocks.
Continued . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See ALL Zacks’ Long-Term Picks for Only $1
Confidently navigate today’s market with Zacks’ private investment recommendations. These picks are based on the system that has more than doubled the market since 1988 (including bear markets) and have pointed investors to 19 double- and triple-digit winners already this year.
Starting today, for one month, you can follow these exclusive portfolios in real time from the best stocks under $10 to Warren Buffett-style value plays to high-paying dividend stocks.
Total cost $1. No gimmicks.
Special opportunity ends at midnight Sunday, September 24.
See Stocks Now >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Buy Stocks on Sale
This sounds so simple, right?
For years, Buffett has been on the sidelines, waiting for a chance to buy stocks when they went on sale. But in March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and the S&P 500 plunged over 20% within just 3 weeks, Buffett did not buy.
Over the last 2 years, he was heavily criticized for not buying that dip.
But then, 2 years later, when stocks sold off big in 2022, and the S&P 500 again went in a bear market, Buffett bought again.
Buffett believes in buying cheap, well-known companies with stellar earnings growth and solid free cash flows.
In 2022, Buffett stepped in with his biggest stock purchases in a decade, adding over $50 billion worth of Chevron and Occidental Petroleum to the Berkshire portfolio.
The energy companies fit the bill perfectly as they had single digit P/E ratios, earnings were on the rise, and after crude and natural gas prices spiked at the start of the Ukraine War, they had record free cash flows.
And he kept diving in for more. He dollar-cost-averaged into Occidental Petroleum through 2022 and into 2023.
Buying stocks on sale is the easiest way to invest like Buffett. Any investor can search for value stocks by the classic fundamentals like P/E, PEG or Price-to-Sales ratios.
If you had done so to start 2022, you would have seen buying opportunities in Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, like Buffett did.
And those buying opportunities are still around in 2023 too.
3) Learn to Pivot and Change Course
Remember when Berkshire Hathaway owned IBM?
Neither do I, but for 7 years, until 2018, Berkshire had a large position in the technology giant.
Originally bought in 2011, Berkshire spent $10.7 billion, buying at the average price of $170 per share, to take a significant stake in the company.
This was going to be Buffett’s big play into technology, an area he had famously avoided for decades.
But it never really worked out. In 2016, shares fell as low as $125.
Buffett decided to sell, and exit the position, notwithstanding one of his most famous pieces of advice, “our favorite holding period is forever.”
Buffett shrugged off the defeat in interviews saying the company never lived up to expectations so he was changing course.
What did he buy instead?
Apple.
In 2016, Apple was cheap with a forward P/E of around 10 and the Street was mostly ignoring it.
That investment has more than made up for the mistake of buying IBM and is now one of the key pillars of Berkshire Hathaway’s business and the largest holding in its stock portfolio.
You will make investing mistakes, but the secret is to know when to pivot.
Buffet does it, and you can do it too.
Buffett’s Final Key Ingredient: Discipline
Buffett has one skill as an investor that’s hard to come by: discipline.
He will wait, sometimes years, in order to buy a stock, or a company, at a low price.
His discipline paid off in the 2008-2009 financial crisis when he was able to step in and offer financial assistance to struggling banks, offering a $5 billion bailout to Goldman Sachs, for instance, when others were on sinking ships.
He has built Berkshire by being prepared for pullbacks, corrections or even bear markets.
Many investors, including Buffett, missed out on a buying opportunity in the 2020 coronavirus sell-off.
Yet even if you missed that buying opportunity, another one is always coming. 2022 was one of those opportunities. Buffett dove in. But he continues to sit on billions in cash, still waiting for more deals.
Are you ready to find them?
How to Take Advantage
We take advantage of this period of turmoil by slowly building positions in great stocks that are currently available at significant discounts to their true values.
But which are the best stocks to buy right now?
Today, I'm offering you a chance to see which stocks we believe have the most promising upside for the months and years ahead. With Zacks Investor Collection, you’ll get unrestricted access to all the real-time buys and sells from our long-term portfolios for just $1, including:
• Value Investor, focus on Buffett-style selections and strategy
• Income Investor, with solid stocks paying healthy dividends
• Stocks Under $10, which is scooping up low-priced stocks poised to surge higher
• Plus, ETF Investor, Home Run Investor, Zacks Confidential, and Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2023.
Last year alone, these private long-term investing services closed 42 double- and triple-digit wins, climbing as much as +348.7%.¹ This year may be even more lucrative for long-term investors.
You'll also get access to Zacks Premium with powerful research, tools and analysis, including the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research Reports, Zacks Earnings ESP Filter, Premium Screener and more.
When you look into Zacks Investor Collection, you're also invited to download our Special Report, 5 Stocks to Double. Each stock was handpicked by a Zacks expert as their personal favorite to have the best chance of gaining +100% and more in the months ahead.
Zacks Investor Collection enables you to find quality stocks at prices we believe Warren Buffett would love, plus other long-term picks to fit with any investing style.
Don't miss out. This opportunity will end on Sunday, September 24.
Start Zacks Investor Collection today and download 5 Stocks to Double >>
All the best,
Tracey Ryniec
Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec is editor in charge of Insider Trader and Value Investor portfolios.
¹ The results listed above are not (or may not be) representative of the performance of all selections made by Zacks Investment Research's newsletter editors and may represent the partial close of a position.
Image: Bigstock
How to Pick Great Value Stocks Like Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is one of the legends of stock investing.
We all know his story.
He started investing in stocks when he was just 11. By the time he was 29 years old, he was already a millionaire stock investor. In his 60s, he became a billionaire stock investor.
Often, the biggest question people ask about Buffett is: how does he do it?
And: could I do it too?
Buffett has become rich by buying cheap, or out of favor stocks, and holding them for years.
Sounds easy, right?
If it was, everyone would be able to do what Buffett has done.
However, Buffett does have some secrets that us mere mortal investors can deploy to help us pick great value stocks.
3 Secrets to Picking Great Value Stocks Like Buffett
1) Buy What You Know
Even investing legends have favorite products. Over the years, Berkshire Hathaway has collected a big roster of well-known companies including Dairy Queen, See’s Candy, and Burlington Northern railroad.
How many of these acquisitions were influenced by Buffett’s own preferences for the products?
In Berkshire’s stock portfolio, one of its longest owned stock positions is in Coca-Cola, which Buffett first began buying in 1988.
Is it a coincidence that Coke is one of Warren Buffett’s favorite drinks? Over the last decade, Buffett has disclosed in interviews to both Fortune and the Financial Times that he drinks 5 cans of coke a day, usually Diet Coke or Cherry Coke.
Clearly, he’s a fan.
But you have to do more than just liking a product, to buy the stock.
Buffett has always been an avid researcher and used to order company annual reports, when they would send them to you in the mail, to check the financials. He used to have stacks of the reports piled in his garage.
What’s your favorite product or brand?
We often have our fingers on the pulse of every day products and activities, or even of something that is used in our jobs, that might get overlooked by others.
It’s a great way to find value stocks.
Continued . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See ALL Zacks’ Long-Term Picks for Only $1
Confidently navigate today’s market with Zacks’ private investment recommendations. These picks are based on the system that has more than doubled the market since 1988 (including bear markets) and have pointed investors to 19 double- and triple-digit winners already this year.
Starting today, for one month, you can follow these exclusive portfolios in real time from the best stocks under $10 to Warren Buffett-style value plays to high-paying dividend stocks.
Total cost $1. No gimmicks.
Special opportunity ends at midnight Sunday, September 24.
See Stocks Now >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Buy Stocks on Sale
This sounds so simple, right?
For years, Buffett has been on the sidelines, waiting for a chance to buy stocks when they went on sale. But in March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and the S&P 500 plunged over 20% within just 3 weeks, Buffett did not buy.
Over the last 2 years, he was heavily criticized for not buying that dip.
But then, 2 years later, when stocks sold off big in 2022, and the S&P 500 again went in a bear market, Buffett bought again.
Buffett believes in buying cheap, well-known companies with stellar earnings growth and solid free cash flows.
In 2022, Buffett stepped in with his biggest stock purchases in a decade, adding over $50 billion worth of Chevron and Occidental Petroleum to the Berkshire portfolio.
The energy companies fit the bill perfectly as they had single digit P/E ratios, earnings were on the rise, and after crude and natural gas prices spiked at the start of the Ukraine War, they had record free cash flows.
And he kept diving in for more. He dollar-cost-averaged into Occidental Petroleum through 2022 and into 2023.
Buying stocks on sale is the easiest way to invest like Buffett. Any investor can search for value stocks by the classic fundamentals like P/E, PEG or Price-to-Sales ratios.
If you had done so to start 2022, you would have seen buying opportunities in Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, like Buffett did.
And those buying opportunities are still around in 2023 too.
3) Learn to Pivot and Change Course
Remember when Berkshire Hathaway owned IBM?
Neither do I, but for 7 years, until 2018, Berkshire had a large position in the technology giant.
Originally bought in 2011, Berkshire spent $10.7 billion, buying at the average price of $170 per share, to take a significant stake in the company.
This was going to be Buffett’s big play into technology, an area he had famously avoided for decades.
But it never really worked out. In 2016, shares fell as low as $125.
Buffett decided to sell, and exit the position, notwithstanding one of his most famous pieces of advice, “our favorite holding period is forever.”
Buffett shrugged off the defeat in interviews saying the company never lived up to expectations so he was changing course.
What did he buy instead?
Apple.
In 2016, Apple was cheap with a forward P/E of around 10 and the Street was mostly ignoring it.
That investment has more than made up for the mistake of buying IBM and is now one of the key pillars of Berkshire Hathaway’s business and the largest holding in its stock portfolio.
You will make investing mistakes, but the secret is to know when to pivot.
Buffet does it, and you can do it too.
Buffett’s Final Key Ingredient: Discipline
Buffett has one skill as an investor that’s hard to come by: discipline.
He will wait, sometimes years, in order to buy a stock, or a company, at a low price.
His discipline paid off in the 2008-2009 financial crisis when he was able to step in and offer financial assistance to struggling banks, offering a $5 billion bailout to Goldman Sachs, for instance, when others were on sinking ships.
He has built Berkshire by being prepared for pullbacks, corrections or even bear markets.
Many investors, including Buffett, missed out on a buying opportunity in the 2020 coronavirus sell-off.
Yet even if you missed that buying opportunity, another one is always coming. 2022 was one of those opportunities. Buffett dove in. But he continues to sit on billions in cash, still waiting for more deals.
Are you ready to find them?
How to Take Advantage
We take advantage of this period of turmoil by slowly building positions in great stocks that are currently available at significant discounts to their true values.
But which are the best stocks to buy right now?
Today, I'm offering you a chance to see which stocks we believe have the most promising upside for the months and years ahead. With Zacks Investor Collection, you’ll get unrestricted access to all the real-time buys and sells from our long-term portfolios for just $1, including:
• Value Investor, focus on Buffett-style selections and strategy
• Income Investor, with solid stocks paying healthy dividends
• Stocks Under $10, which is scooping up low-priced stocks poised to surge higher
• Plus, ETF Investor, Home Run Investor, Zacks Confidential, and Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2023.
Last year alone, these private long-term investing services closed 42 double- and triple-digit wins, climbing as much as +348.7%.¹ This year may be even more lucrative for long-term investors.
You'll also get access to Zacks Premium with powerful research, tools and analysis, including the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research Reports, Zacks Earnings ESP Filter, Premium Screener and more.
When you look into Zacks Investor Collection, you're also invited to download our Special Report, 5 Stocks to Double. Each stock was handpicked by a Zacks expert as their personal favorite to have the best chance of gaining +100% and more in the months ahead.
Zacks Investor Collection enables you to find quality stocks at prices we believe Warren Buffett would love, plus other long-term picks to fit with any investing style.
Don't miss out. This opportunity will end on Sunday, September 24.
Start Zacks Investor Collection today and download 5 Stocks to Double >>
All the best,
Tracey Ryniec
Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec is editor in charge of Insider Trader and Value Investor portfolios.
¹ The results listed above are not (or may not be) representative of the performance of all selections made by Zacks Investment Research's newsletter editors and may represent the partial close of a position.