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 years old. By the time he was 29, he was already a millionaire stock investor. And 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 Candies, 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 like a product, to buy the stock.
Buffett has always been an avid researcher and would order the Annual Reports from companies, when they would send them to you in the mail, to check their financials. He used to have stacks of these reports piled in his garage.
So, what’s your favorite product or brand?
We often have our fingers on the pulse of everyday 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.
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 now, nearly 3 years later, with stocks down double digits in 2022, and the S&P 500 again in a bear market, Buffett has been buying again.
Buffett believes in buying cheap, well-known companies with stellar earnings growth and solid free cash flows.
In 2022, Buffett has 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 have single digit P/E ratios, earnings on the rise, and record free cash flows.
And he keeps diving in for more. He dollar-cost-averaged into his Occidental Petroleum investment all summer long after the shares sold off. He now owns 20.7% of the company and has permission from government regulators to buy up to 50%.
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.
It doesn’t get any easier than that.
Continued . . .
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Investor Alert: Quality Stocks Now On Sale
You have a rare opportunity to grab strong value stocks at deep "discounts." This could even be a better time to buy than the pandemic pullback. Warren Buffett just could not resist spending billions in this market. And with Zacks Rank timing to catch the best entry points, you could be riding these stocks to bigger profits for months and even years.
Recent value picks have climbed as much as +183.8%... +186.9%... +312.7%... even +348.7%.¹ For Monday morning, we’ve lined up a fresh stock that could rival those gains.
Special opportunity ends at midnight Sunday, December 11.
See the latest value recommendations from Zacks >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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 had what his mentor Benjamin Graham, famously called, a “margin of safety.”
This can be achieved 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.
But even if you missed that buying opportunity, another one is always coming.
And here we are in 2022 with another bear market. And now Buffett is diving in.
2022 has been a great year for value investors.
Are You Ready for All the Stock Deals?
Today’s market offers many strong stocks at irresistible entry points. But which companies are most likely to produce the biggest profits over the coming months and years?
The easiest way to find today’s top value buys is to see the recommendations in our portfolio, Zacks Value Investor.
We use the same investing criteria Buffett relied on to build his fortune – with one significant advantage. Zacks Rank helps us time our entries, targeting the stocks positioned to begin soaring sooner than others.
Then we ride them to their full gain potential.
Recent closed positions in the portfolio have surged as much as +183.8%... +186.9%... +312.7%... even +348.7%.¹
Now is an especially good time to look into Value Investor.
On Monday morning I’m adding a brand-new pick to the portfolio and you can be among the select few to see it first.
Get started today and you are also invited to download our just-released Special Report, Invest Like Warren Buffett. It spotlights 3 key Buffett value investing principles and reveals 5 stocks to consider buying now.
I encourage you to look into this unique opportunity right away. Your chance to take advantage ends at midnight Sunday, December 11.
Right Now - Look Inside Value Investor and Download Invest Like Warren Buffett >>
All the Best,
Tracey
Tracey Ryniec, as Zacks Value Stock Strategist, directs our Value Investor portfolio.
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 years old. By the time he was 29, he was already a millionaire stock investor. And 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 Candies, 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 like a product, to buy the stock.
Buffett has always been an avid researcher and would order the Annual Reports from companies, when they would send them to you in the mail, to check their financials. He used to have stacks of these reports piled in his garage.
So, what’s your favorite product or brand?
We often have our fingers on the pulse of everyday 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.
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 now, nearly 3 years later, with stocks down double digits in 2022, and the S&P 500 again in a bear market, Buffett has been buying again.
Buffett believes in buying cheap, well-known companies with stellar earnings growth and solid free cash flows.
In 2022, Buffett has 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 have single digit P/E ratios, earnings on the rise, and record free cash flows.
And he keeps diving in for more. He dollar-cost-averaged into his Occidental Petroleum investment all summer long after the shares sold off. He now owns 20.7% of the company and has permission from government regulators to buy up to 50%.
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.
It doesn’t get any easier than that.
Continued . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Investor Alert: Quality Stocks Now On Sale
You have a rare opportunity to grab strong value stocks at deep "discounts." This could even be a better time to buy than the pandemic pullback. Warren Buffett just could not resist spending billions in this market. And with Zacks Rank timing to catch the best entry points, you could be riding these stocks to bigger profits for months and even years.
Recent value picks have climbed as much as +183.8%... +186.9%... +312.7%... even +348.7%.¹ For Monday morning, we’ve lined up a fresh stock that could rival those gains.
Special opportunity ends at midnight Sunday, December 11.
See the latest value recommendations from Zacks >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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 had what his mentor Benjamin Graham, famously called, a “margin of safety.”
This can be achieved 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.
But even if you missed that buying opportunity, another one is always coming.
And here we are in 2022 with another bear market. And now Buffett is diving in.
2022 has been a great year for value investors.
Are You Ready for All the Stock Deals?
Today’s market offers many strong stocks at irresistible entry points. But which companies are most likely to produce the biggest profits over the coming months and years?
The easiest way to find today’s top value buys is to see the recommendations in our portfolio, Zacks Value Investor.
We use the same investing criteria Buffett relied on to build his fortune – with one significant advantage. Zacks Rank helps us time our entries, targeting the stocks positioned to begin soaring sooner than others.
Then we ride them to their full gain potential.
Recent closed positions in the portfolio have surged as much as +183.8%... +186.9%... +312.7%... even +348.7%.¹
Now is an especially good time to look into Value Investor.
On Monday morning I’m adding a brand-new pick to the portfolio and you can be among the select few to see it first.
Get started today and you are also invited to download our just-released Special Report, Invest Like Warren Buffett. It spotlights 3 key Buffett value investing principles and reveals 5 stocks to consider buying now.
I encourage you to look into this unique opportunity right away. Your chance to take advantage ends at midnight Sunday, December 11.
Right Now - Look Inside Value Investor and Download Invest Like Warren Buffett >>
All the Best,
Tracey
Tracey Ryniec, as Zacks Value Stock Strategist, directs our Value Investor portfolio.
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.