SEC filings continue pouring in from some of the biggest institutional investors out there. And in today's video, we're covering one of the greatest of all time, Warren Buffett, who is retiring at the end of this year after leading the company since the 1960s. But at almost 95 years old, he is still technically the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the absolute largest holding companies in the entire world. And this latest quarter, they went out and spent billions of dollars on stocks, uh, where they carry huge influence, of course, over the entire stock market. So, in today's video, we'll be running through the five largest of those purchases. I'm going to share my my own opinion on each one of those stocks, and I'll even rank them from best source, too, based on that opinion. So, I hope you guys enjoy this. Hey, my name of course is Ali. This is my world of stocks and if you enjoy my channel then please consider supporting me on Patreon where you can also get cool perks in return like access to our community Discord where you can hang out with me other like-minded members and you'll even get a daily stock purchase every single day from me too. It's a ton of fun and I'd love to see you all there. But thank you just to everyone for even watching this video. Really means a lot to me. I couldn't do this without you. So thank you for your support. Okay, with all that said though, let's go ahead and jump into this list here. We've got some very interesting pickups here by Buffett last quarter. Uh, this is really coming at the tail end of his career. And we actually have some very Buffett-like stocks that he's been picking up on some pretty big dips, too. So, let's run through each one of the each one of these uh sorted by increase to the position. And first up here, we actually have a brand new pickup from Bergkshire. So, a new stock added which I'm surprised they didn't already own. It seems like a very typical type of Buffett stock because of its massive insurance business, but that is of course United Health Group, ticker symbol UNH, which they purchased a whopping $2 billion of just in the second quarter alone. Imagine spending billions on just one stock in a single quarter. That's how big Bergkshire really is here. Anyway, for as strong as United's business is, it's also one of the most controversial out there right now. Be being literally the largest health insurance provider in the entire world, insuring over 50 million people, and serving over 150 million across all their businesses, spanning over 150 different countries. As such, though, they're typically one of the first to be called out for caring more about profits than maybe about their own customers and patients. In fact, they've even been accused by Forbes and other publications for denying more claims than almost any other private insurer in the market, which in turn is believed to be at least part of the reason why their subsidiary, United Healthc Care's CEO was tragically unalived at the end of last year, which I can't even really discuss much further here because of how shockingly terrible that incident was that I would likely get demonetized on YouTube, you know, even just for kind of talking about it. But as if all of that bad publicity wasn't enough to scare away investors, it was also revealed this year that the DOJ, Department of Justice, has even been investigating the company for Medicare fraud, too, which sent the stock crashing even further, leaving it down about 40% this year and more than 50% from its highs, too. Before these controversies though, United Health Group uh really used to be one of the most desired, reliable, and best performing stocks in the market, which most investors would have loved a chance to buy on any small dip, let alone a giant crash like this. As a valuation has always been very expensive for this world leader, but to but today after the fall, it's now trading about the same as the sector or even cheaper on a gap basis. While the dividend has also risen up to about 3% with some fantastic growth metrics to go along with it. All of which is extremely attractive for a company doing hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue every year with tens of billions in profit too. that will only grow larger in the future because of our giant baby boomer population that continues to grow older and will require more health care plans and services that of course UNH sells with one in every five US citizens reaching retirement age by 2030. So there's a big you know pool of growth to tap into there long term as well. Uh not to mention that the advancements and integrations of artificial intelligence into their services and operations uh will only help the company run even leaner too and maybe provide um some better services as well. Anyway, my point here being that the complete package for UNH stock of not just like a worldleading business, but now with also a cheap valuation and a bigger dividend, it's going to be very attractive for investors and especially for a Buffett type of investor that prioritizes those three things above everything else. So, I 100% understand why Buffett chose to buy now after the crash as it correlates perfectly with his motto of being greedy when others are fearful. However, for me, the business is still just, I would say, a little too, not just a little too boring for my taste, but also carries a lot of negativity and bad press surrounding the company controversies. That is something that I honestly wouldn't uh want to be having to manage and keep track of long term. I think I would dread having to do that all the time with a company like this. Not to mention the whole uh healthcare uh Medicare for all type of movement that has been going on would probably cause further disruption too depending on who's in power at what time. So for me, I just think there's tons of other amazing stocks in the market with all the same qualities as this one, but without all the drama, maybe the controversy surrounding it. But again, I absolutely understand why other investors are buying the stock. I think it's probably going to be a big winner long-term, even though it's not a stock that I personally want to own myself. Uh either way, I'm going to rank it around the middle for those reasons at number three until we see what else is on this list. Okay, moving on to purchase number two though. We actually have the smallest increase of the bunch in the oil and gas giant Chevron, ticker symbol CVX, which they purchased over half a billion more dollars of in the quarter, bringing the stake up to a whopping 17.5 billion in total. So, it's pretty massive position here for Brookshire Hathway. And look, I've told you guys before that I'm not the biggest fan of oil stocks, mostly because I just see more future growth opportunities in renewables. But if I was to purchase one of them, I would actually go with Chevron as probably my number one pick. Not only because they're a gigantic leader in the space with the second most production in America, helping them generate about 200 billion in sales per year despite the extreme volatility that oil has seen in recent years with even a return to growth expected on the bottom line too over the next few years likely getting boosted by pro- oil policies from the current Trump administration. But more importantly, Chevron has used that giant size and dominance to now invest very heavily into new growth opportunities in renewables as well, having already spent billions of dollars on it, including their giant acquisition of renewable energy group, the majority stake they took in the world's largest hydrogen storage plant, their investments into Biobend, which is one of the uh largest carbon storage projects in the country, and many more examples just like that, too, helping them tap into future growth markets that should be worth trillions of dollars over the long term. And although the stock technically does trade near an all-time high today, it's only up less than 100% in the past 10 years, being fairly suppressed during that time. Evaluation wise though, it is a bit more expensive than the sector, but I just think that's a reflection of the superior business and future potential in renewables. The dividend is also attractive, having been grown for nearly four decades in a row on more than a 4% yield. I still think United though is the overall better package here as a stock investment, especially valuation wise. So, even though I'd rather own Chevron myself for other reasons, I think most of you would probably call me crazy if I ranked Chevron higher than United. So, uh I'm actually just going to bump United up one spot to put Chevron in its place at number three. All right, up next though we have what is in my opinion an even more interesting business. It's actually one that I've always considered buying even though I never really got around to pulling the trigger on it. But that stock is the ALK giant known as Constellation Brands, ticker symbol STZ, which was actually a new pickup by Buffett in the past year. But so far, he's been buying pretty aggressively, increasing that stake by another double-digit percentage this latest quarter too, adding over 240 million more dollars of it. Now, just a quick disclaimer. I do have to use some abbreviations here for uh this video because of the risk of being demonetized, but Constellation is really best known for owning the US rights to several of the most iconic alk brands in the market, including Corona, Modell, Pacificico, and more, as well as a diverse portfolio of wine and spirits, too. On top of which they also own a large stake in the can producer Canopy Growth. Although that one does get a little tricky because after the horrendous performance of the company, Constellation began distancing themselves by converting shares and even giving up board seats too. And while they do remain a major state uh shareholder, uh the company ultimately took some pretty heavy losses from the partnership which also helped sink the stock further where it lost about a quarter of its value this year and closer to 40% from the top, leaving it also trading for close to the same price it did an entire decade ago. Which I must say this does make the stock look much more attractive to me now after the crash. After all, the brands that they own rights to are not likely going away with analysts expecting a large recovery to their EPS numbers in future years too, given that most of the canopy write offs and write downs uh should now really be in the rear view mirror. So, they should be seeing better performance now going forward. And with the valuation now trading about 30% cheaper than the sector with also a small but very much growthoriented dividend to go along with it, I'm sure Buffett sees this as the perfect time to strike, which I'm also guessing he'll ultimately be proven right on long-term. So, I'm actually going to move the other two stocks down one spot to put Constellation in at the highest ranking that we have so far at number two. And I might even consider buying this one myself, especially if it keeps falling like this cuz I do think that they have a strong business that they can rely on long term. I just wish that they were a little more diversified though and really not relying so heavily on just ALK alone, which is a market that um I don't really think has a huge barrier to entry on. Now, don't get me wrong, I do think they have some very strong brands to rely on long term, but I also think that people these days, I just think they get a little more excited for things like local breweries, custom brews like that. Maybe even more like, I don't know, hipster types of drinks, even though I'm not a big fan of hipsters myself, but uh I just think that's kind of maybe where the market is shifting towards. And I think that could add some pressure to a company like Constellation, maybe a little disruption. So, it's still going to be a pass for me, but um it is a stock that I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on myself. I think there's safer options in the market, but like I said, if it keeps crashing like this, I might want to pick up some. We'll see. Anyway, moving on, we've got the last two stocks of the list here. And coming in at purchase number four, well, Buffett decided to increase his position on Pool Corp, ticker symbol P, which was a giant increase of more than 136%. Spuffet continues to aggressively add to the stock, which by the way, like Constellation, I think this was also a brand new pickup about a year ago, too. But I gotta say, all of the stocks that we've covered so far, out of all of them, uh, this one for me is easily the I would say the least interesting of the bunch as the business is, as the name implies, pretty much entirely based on just like wholesale swimming pools and the related supplies and services for them. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that that's a big enough market to perform well in, benefiting from not just selling pools, but also, you know, installing them, maintaining, and repairing them, as well as selling all the supplies that any pool owner might need, which I'm sure makes for a fairly sticky business with pool themselves being the market share leader. However, I just don't see a lot of exciting growth or future potential from such a niche market like that, which case in point, their sales actually declined in each of the past 2 years. And yet, analysts still project only a small singledigit growth rate in each of the next 3 years, too. And although the stock has at least come down a bit from the highs it hit during the pandemic where demand was rising from people staying home and buying and using more pools, the valuation is still over 200% more expensive than the sector on a PG basis, which the small dividend of only around 1 and a.5% is way too low to make up for. I can see someone like Buffett wanting to own a stock like this, but it's definitely not the type of stock that I'd ever invest in myself. So, it is unfortunately going to take the last place ranking for me. But finally coming in at purchase number five. This was the largest increase of all and it was in Lenard Group uh Lenard Corporation, I'm sorry, ticker symbol LEN, which Buffett increased his position on by over 265% last quarter. Giant increase there after having added it just the quarter before that, too. Now, if you've never heard of this company, they're mostly a home builder that goes around building and selling homes across the country, as well as some related finance and investment services, too. Overall, though, the real estate market has been pretty volatile in recent years, given the high rates of inflation, interest rates, and just the overall housing market soaring to new record highs, even during periods of actual sale declines, as high interest rates have also caused mortgage rates to spike to some of the highest levels that we've seen in decades. As a result though, the fear going around is that when a recession does eventually hit, it could easily crash the housing market severely really uh from its current highs. But because so many homeowners are currently locked in at lower mortgage rates, they're not really incentivized to sell right now, which may actually benefit a home builder like Lenar, as more new homes will be needed. They'll need to be built to offset the shortage of available homes and train the market. Either way though, if I was to invest in any type of real estate stock right now, I would personally I'd much rather just buy a high quality REIT like Vichy Properties or Extra Space Storage instead, who in my opinion are already performing extremely well business-wise and will likely outperform even further long-term when interest rates eventually do come down. Plus, they have super attractive dividends to go along with them, too. Whereas Lenar on the other hand uh even after a recent correction the stock is only yielding around a one and a half percent dividend that just in my you know for me doesn't get me anywhere near excited enough to buy the stock. And while the valuation is pretty cheap right now too making sense why Buffett would buy on the dip. I just think the business is a little boring little too low growth for what I want in my portfolio right now. So they're taking the number four ranking and I'll bump the others up one spot to fit it in there. But hey, there you have it, guys. Overall, some pretty interesting pickups here by Buffett. Definitely seems like he was out there hunting for some cheap bargain stocks on sale on a dip before his looming retirement. And for the most part, I think I agree with most of these, even though they're not the typical type of stocks that I would personally invest in myself or that I would want in my own portfolio, which does usually focus a little more heavily on tech and future growth potential and things like that. But hey, I get that that's not Buffett's MO, so I understand all these pickups here. Either way though, I hope you enjoyed this video and let me know what you think about these stocks. Let me know if you own any of them. Would you adjust my rankings at all? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. But thanks again for stopping by, my friends. I hope you're all doing well out there, and I will catch you in the next video. All right, take care, everybody. Bye-bye. [Music]