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Billionaire Warren Buffett has a long history of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK)(NYSE:BRK) conglomerate outperforming the S&P 500, which is tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY).
While many stocks are down in 2025, one of Buffett’s top holdings is significantly outperforming the broader market and could help him outperform in 2025 once again.
What Happened: Buffett’s investment in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which remains his largest stock position in Berkshire Hathaway, has helped produce strong returns but is turning into a sore spot in 2025.
Don’t Miss:
Apple stock is down 15.9% year-to-date in 2025. In fact, of the five largest stock holdings in Berkshire Hathaway, only one is positive year-to-date as shown below:
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Apple Inc: -15.9%
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American Express (NYSE:AXP): -7.1%
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Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO): +15.3%
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Bank of America (NYSE:BAC): -7.3%
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Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX): -5.3%
The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio includes positions in many stocks and one of the top performers year-to-date and over the last several years is Chinese automaker BYD Company ADR (OTC:BYDDY).
The stock is up 49.1% year-to-date, up 69.3% over the last year and up 733.9% over the past five years. Along with beating Apple year-to-date, the five-year returns of the electric vehicle company also outpace Apple.
Buffett currently owns over 54 million shares of BYD valued at $2.7 billion. The stock represents around 1% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio with the conglomerate owning over 4% of the automaker.
While Buffett has trimmed the position in BYD in recent years, he remains a key shareholder and the stock’s gains are helping Berkshire Hathaway and the wealth of Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway stock is up 19.3% year-to-date, outpacing the -3.0% performance of the SPY. Berkshire Hathaway has also outperformed the SPY on a one-year and five-year basis.
Buffett is now the sixth richest person in the world with a wealth of $166 billion, according to Bloomberg. Buffett has gained $23.6 billion in wealth and is the top gainer year-to-date among the world’s billionaires.
Only three of the top 10 richest people in the world have added to their wealth in 2025, with six of the top 10 each losing $20 billion or more to their wealth totals.
