2 Warren Buffett Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist -- and 1 to Avoid
BYD is the dominant EV maker in China, with sales up more than 30% this year.
Amazon Web Services is a huge profit center for Amazon.
The shine on Apple stock is beginning to fade.
10 stocks we like better than Amazon ›
Legendary investor Warren Buffett's track record can stand up to anyone's. The Oracle of Omaha is one of the best value investors in the world, using a simple investing philosophy of choosing well-established companies that are leaders in their field and have strong management, earnings, and a sustainable dividend.
Buffett's portfolio at his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, often outperforms the S&P 500. In fact, Berkshire's portfolio advanced an incredible 5,502,284% from 1965 to the end of 2024, while the S&P 500 gained only 39,054%, including dividends.
It's no wonder why so many people follow Buffett's philosophy and Berkshire's moves each quarter. However, not every stock in Berkshire's portfolio is a slam-dunk winner right now. If I'm starting a portfolio right now, there are two Buffett stocks that are must-haves, and one that I would avoid.
Buffett stock to buy: BYD
Buffett usually shuns tech stocks, so Chinese electric vehicle (EV) company BYD (OTC: BYDDY) is an odd choice for Berkshire. And truth be told, Buffett didn't make this selection himself -- Berkshire got involved with BYD on the advice of Charlie Munger, the late Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman and Buffett's investing partner.
In China, BYD is the biggest EV maker, manufacturing vehicles like the Seal, Tang, Seagull, Dolphin, and Han. For the first six months of the year, sales of its battery and hybrid passenger EVs totaled 2.11 million, up 31.5% from a year ago. BYD also makes commercial vehicles, such as electric buses, trucks, and delivery vans. Those sales were 2.14 million in the first half of the year, up 33% on a year-over-year basis.
Those sales figures are pushing BYD's revenue through the roof. For the first quarter, BYD reported revenue of 170.3 billion renminbi ($23.7 billion), up 36% from a year ago. Profits of RMB$3.75 billion were up 117% from a year ago, and earnings per share of RMB$3.12 were up 99% from last year.
I would take a very educated guess that Buffett is pleased with Berkshire's BYD stake.
Buffett stock to buy: Amazon
A few years ago, I thought Alibaba Group was a far superior e-commerce stock than Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). I thought Alibaba had more potential to grow its e-commerce offerings than Amazon, which was already deeply entrenched with U.S. retailers.
Today, I like Amazon more. And it has nothing to do with its e-commerce division. Instead, I am a big fan of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the massive profit driver that is giving Amazon a dominant position in the fast-growing cloud computing sector.
AWS provided $11.5 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2025, with a solid profit margin of 39.4% -- much better than the 6.3% margin for Amazon's North America e-commerce sales, or its paltry 3% profit margin for international sales.
AWS is a big driver thanks in part to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which has changed how businesses and individuals function. Today, AI is used to compose text, photos, graphics, and videos and help people order food, process information, manage supply chains, and perform critical functions in the military and in healthcare. Creating massive data centers to run generative AI and machine learning platforms is cost-prohibitive for most companies, however, so Amazon's AWS allows companies to manage and improve their AI functions on Amazon's servers.
Amazon is investing heavily -- $83 billion last year and an estimated $100 billion this year -- in capital expenditures to expand its data centers to handle the increased workload, but that's also going to mean massive profits in the years to come. Amazon currently has the top position in the cloud computing space, owning roughly 30% of the market share (Microsoft Azure is in second place with 21%, and Alphabet's Google Cloud has 12%).
Buffett stock to avoid: Apple
For years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been Berkshire's biggest holding. At one point, the smartphone maker comprised more than 40% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio as its revolutionary phones, wearable tech, tablets, and computers revolutionized the tech industry. Apple even had a two-decade run as the most valuable company in the world.
But Apple's shine is starting to fade. Its iPhone is still popular, but the newest models aren't must-have purchases for smartphone owners because they lack the groundbreaking innovation that Apple became known for. And unless the newest iPhone has a knock-your-socks-off new feature, people aren't inclined pay $1,000 to upgrade when their current phone still works just fine.
Apple's revenue and profits have flatlined over the last three years and Apple is no longer seen as the massively impressive growth stock that it used to be. Even Buffett trimmed his stake in Apple last year, selling about 100 million shares to reduce Berkshire's stake to 300 million shares. Apple still makes up nearly 22% of the Berkshire portfolio, but it's clearly a stock on the wane.
Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?
Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!*
Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Patrick Sanders has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group and BYD Company and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
2 Warren Buffett Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist -- and 1 to Avoid was originally published by The Motley Fool
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Teamsters call UPS driver buyout offer ‘paltry'
UPS is offering delivery drivers voluntary severance packages worth $1,800 per year of service, with a minimum payout of $10,000, according to a recent statement from the company. Drivers have until Thursday to apply for the program, according to an employee memo visible in a TikTok video posted last week by the Teamsters union, which claims the buyout violates the collective bargaining agreement and is urging members not to accept the offer. The video is accompanied by the Elvis Presley song 'Return to Sender' and shows a man tearing up the offer sheet. FreightWaves was able to magnify the image with software tools to read the text, which is fuzzy to a normal viewer. 'UPS Teamsters want secure retirements with hard-earned pensions, not paltry buyouts,' the union said in an X message on Sunday. A driver who spoke on a YouTube video called $1,800 per year of service 'a slap in the face.' UPS (NYSE: UPS) announced the buyout program on July 3 as a follow-on to the largest network reconfiguration in company history, now underway. The strategy, called Network of the Future, calls for the closing of 200 domestic package sortation centers, investment in more automation and consolidation of volumes in more efficient facilities. The integrated parcel logistics giant earlier this year announced plans to eliminate 20,000 front-line positions to better align the workforce with the smaller footprint and a planned 50% downsizing in business from Amazon, its largest customer. A driver with 27 years of experience would receive a $48,600 buyout, according to the internal communication posted by the Teamsters. Applicants will be considered for separation dates between Aug. 31 and Oct. 31, depending on the local needs, UPS said. If the number of applications exceeds eliminated positions, approvals will be granted in order of seniority. Additional applications may be considered for separation dates between Feb. 1 and March 31. The financial package is in addition to earned retirement benefits, including pension and healthcare. Supply Chain Dive first reported on the specifics of the buyout offer. The Teamsters argue the Driver Voluntary Separation Program violates the union contract because it wasn't negotiated and any program that changes the terms of employment, such as compensation and separation, must be bargained with the union. Seniority order for buyouts also requires union approval. And, the union notes, that UPS offered job security guarantees in 2023, as well as promising to elevate more than 20,000 part-time drivers to full-time status. The Teamsters are urging UPS drivers not to accept the buyout terms, likely because they believe they can negotiate a better deal, and also to maintain control over how these types of scenarios are handled, experts said 'This situation with UPS and the Teamsters is a classic example of how even a company's apparent right to manage its resources is limited by the terms of existing agreements. The 'illegality,' according to the union, lies not in the act of downsizing itself, but in the procedure and conditions that violate the current collective bargaining agreement. This is a struggle over who dictates the rules of engagement in the relationship between the company and its union-represented employees,' wrote Dmitriy Karpov, co-founder and CFO of e-commerce technology provider Split Development LLC, on LinkedIn. Satish Jindel, CEO of ShipMatrix, a parcel shipping consultancy and analytics provider, said in an interview, 'UPS is allowed to offer buyouts. Workers can say no. Nothing says they can't make an offer' when market conditions change. He said the Teamsters is lucky UPS backed down from a looming strike in 2023 because it could have become union-free at half the cost by offering those jobs to FedEx and Amazon drivers, who would have eagerly jumped at a $25/hour rate and good benefits. UPS is scheduled to issue second quarter earnings results on Tuesday. Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch. RELATED READING: UPS to eliminate 20K jobs as Amazon decoupling accelerates UPS drivers to receive buyout offer as company shrinks parcel network The post Teamsters call UPS driver buyout offer 'paltry' appeared first on FreightWaves.
Gizmodo
3 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
This Mini PC (16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) Was One of the Best Budget Picks, Now It Just Got Even Cheaper
The good folks in Cupertino who make the Mac Mini must feel a little put-upon these days. There have been swarms of rival mini PCs swooping in and undercutting the Mac Mini on price, and undercutting it by a lot. Here's the latest — the Kamrui GK3 Plus Mini PC that's rocking a tiny $150 price tag at Amazon. The selling points attached to that little price tag, which is 29% lower than its already-cheap $210 regular price, are many. Start with the Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake N95 processor that can hit up to a very competitive 3.4GHz, gigabit Ethernet, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of built-in storage, and fast WiFi and Bluetooth. Many of those benchmarks will fall short of the Mac Mini and other big-name compact desktops, but at this price? Not a chance. See at Amazon With the Kamrui GK3 Plus and most if not all other mini PCs and desktops, you provide your own monitor. But before you assume the only compatible monitors for a bargain-priced mini PC is a bargain-priced low-res monitor, you should know the Kamrui GK3 has a 1.20GHz Intel Graphics card and it can support three monitors in 4K resolution at 60GHz. Two HDMI ports and one VGA port team up with that Intel graphics card to turn the tiny Kamrui GK3 Plus into a multimedia superstar for streaming, 4K web surfing, and even some gaming. Even with three big 4K screens, none of that would be possible if the Kamrui cheaped out on its internet connections, but there's a gigabit Ethernet port for hardwired fast internet, dual-band WiFi (2.4GHz and 5GHz), and Bluetooth 4.2, so despite being the size of an old-school modem, the Kamrui most definitely does not run at dialup speeds. The Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake N95 processor at the heart of the Kamrui GK3 Plus mini PC is a recent upgrade from the previous model, and moves along normally at a brisk 1.6GHz with the ability to max out at 3.4GHz, more than enough processing power for you to multitask and do anything you would do with a regular-sized and regular-priced PC. In addition to the HDMI and VGA ports there are also two USB 3.2 Gen2 ports capable of 10Gbps data transfer and two USB 2.0 ports that move at up to 480Mbps. The Kamrui GK3 Plus and it's palm-sized mini-PC brethren are not going to blow a Mac Mini out of the water. But they also won't get totally blown out of the water by a Mac Mini, and they'll save you hundreds of dollars. Amazon's 29% off deal on the Kamrui GK3 Plus mini PC is still live right now, and it may be the best $150 you spend all week. See at Amazon
Engadget
3 minutes ago
- Engadget
Apple's MacBook Air M4 is on sale for a record-low price
If you've put off getting a new MacBook then today is your lucky day. Right now, the 2025 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air M4 are available on Amazon for record-low prices. The 13-inch model is our pick for best MacBook to buy this year. You can pick up the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 for $799, down from $999 — a 20 percent discount. This model comes with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. You can upgrade to 512GB SSD for $999, down from $1,199, another all-time low price, or 24GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for $1,199, down from $1,399. Then there's the 15-inch MacBook Air M4, whose cheapest model is on sale for $999, dropping from $1,199. The 17 percent discount is the best deal we've seen since the pair debuted in March. As with the 13-inch model, the 16GB and 512GB SSD option is also a record-low price, dropping to $1,199 from $1,399. Then there's the 24GB upgrade, which is $1,399, down from $1,599. We're big fans of the MacBook Air M4, giving it a 92 in our review. Part of that comes from an already lower starting price for the MacBooks than their predecessors. The 2025 models also get a speed boost thanks to the M4 chip and are very thin with a 0.44-inch thickness. Neither the 13- or 15-inch will drag you down, weighing 2.7 pounds and 3.2 pounds, respectively. Plus, they both have excellent battery life, lasting over 18 hours while playing an HD video. The big differences in the 15-inch model mostly come down to size. The screen is obviously bigger, as is its trackpad. Other than that, it offers better speakers than its 13-inch sibling. Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
