Buffett needs little introduction. He is the face of value investing and in recent decades is famed for investments that have stood the test of time, with well known top holdings such as Apple, Bank of America, American Express, Moody’s and Coca Cola.
Buffett is doing well so far in 2022
He is a happy man so far in 2022 with Berkshire Hathaway shares up 5% YTD in 2022 while the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down 9.2%, 13.3% and 23% respectively, even after rebounding this week, after eight straight weeks of decline.
However, even the Sage of Omaha is not almighty, here we have identified eight stocks that has fallen below his last purchase price. Although we do not know his exact purchase price for all stocks listed here, we roughly know when he bought it and will use this knowledge as an indicative guide.
8 stocks you can buy at a price that is cheaper than what Warren Buffett paid for
| Company | Ticker | Sector | Estimated discount to Buffett’s purchase price |
| Snowflake | NYSE:SNOW | Technology | 47% |
| StoneCo | NASDAQ:STNE | Technology | 56% |
| Nu Holdings | NYSE:NU | Financial services | 57% |
| Floor & Décor | NYSE:FND | Consumer cyclical | 25% to 40% |
| General Motors | NYSE:GM | Consumer cyclical | 4% to 41% |
| Restoration Hardware | NYSE:RH | Consumer cyclical | 10% to 45% |
| Citigroup (Citibank) | NYSE:C | Financial services | 0% to 22% |
| Apple | NASDAQ:AAPL | Technology | 0% to 18% |
1) Snowflake Inc
In September 2020, Buffett (through Berkshire Hathaway) bought 2.08 million Snowflake shares at the IPO price of $120, amounting to a $250 million position. He then added another 4.04 million shares at Snowflakes debut price of $245, spending a total of $1.2 billion. This puts both his average price and last purchase price way below the current share price of $130.
Snowflake is a data platform that enables enterprises to automate data storage and management, processing, and analytic solutions that are faster, easier to use, and far more flexible than traditional offerings.
2) StoneCo Ltd
In October 2018, Buffett invested in StoneCo at an IPO price range of $24.
While Buffett did take some profit when the share price went up, he is still holding on to a sizeable position in the stock at a current price of $10.28.
StoneCo is a leading fintech solutions provider to small medium businesses with consistently strong revenue and active client base growth. In 2021, It acquired Linx, a retail management system software producer with a significant market share in Brazil. Linx provides StoneCo with complementary business opportunities in adjacent sectors and vertical specific software solutions.
3) Nu Holdings Ltd
Buffett spent $1 billion to purchase 107.1 million shares of Nu Holdings at an estimated average price of $9.38 per share. With the stock price languishing at $4.03, this is one of Buffett’s biggest underperformer.
Nu Holdings is the largest digital banking platform in Latin America with 54 million clients and growing Nu Holdings, which owns Nubank is well positioned to penetrate the highly profitable banking system in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia where it currently has operations.
4) Floor & Decor Holdings Inc
This is a small position for Buffett with a $100 million investment in 3Q21. While we don’t know the exact price for this position, we know that Floor & Décor traded between $104 and $130 while the current market price is $78. This means Buffett is down between 25% to 40%.
Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc., branded as Floor & Decor, is a multi-channel American specialty retailer of hard surface flooring and related accessories and is a brick & mortar business that is right up Buffett’s alley
5) General Motors Company (GM)
This is not a new position for Buffett, but he was comfortable adding to his position in 1Q22. Buffett first took a stake in GM in early 2012 and raised his stake in multiple times across 2018, 2019 and 2020, but then went into reverse and cut exposure as recently as 2021. With GM trading between $40 and $66 in Q1 this year and GM currently trading at $38.50, Buffett is also currently down on this latest batch of investment.
One possible reason he invested in GM is because while traditional automakers globally are feeling the heat and losing ground in the tightly contested Electric Vehicle (EV) market, GM is one automaker that is focusing its efforts on the EV market. GM has even disclosed plans to enter the Europe market solely with its EV offerings.
6) Restoration Hardware (RH)
Similarly, RH is not a new position for Buffett, but he was comfortable adding to his position in 1Q22. With RH trading between $325 and $538 in Q1 this year and RH currently trading at $291, Buffett is also currently down on this latest batch of investment.
RH is one stock that has performed well in the last 5 years, from a share price of $42 in June 2017 and reaching an all time high of $744 in August 2021. Perhaps Buffett is seeing some value now in this upscale home furnishings company with a strong brick and mortar presence.
7) Citigroup Inc
Citigroup, commonly known as Citibank saw its stock jump nearly 8% after a filing revealed that Buffett added more than 55 million shares to build a stake worth $2.95 billion as of the end of March 2022. With Citigroup trading between $53 and $68 in Q1 this year and Citigroup currently trading at $53.60, Buffett is also likely to be down on this investment.
One of the biggest questions on many investors mind is why did Buffett sell Wells Fargo a couple of quarters ago and build a position in Citigroup this quarter. Citigroup is not like the other banks in Buffett’s bank portfolio such as Bank of America and US Bancorp as it is a bank with significant international exposure.
In recent news, Citibank has been selling its Asia consumer banking franchises to various banks as well. Market watchers think it could be either due to the low current valuation metrics of Citigroup or Buffett is attempting to diversify out of the US.
8) Apple Inc
Last but not least, Buffett also added to his Apple position. Apple is already the biggest position in Buffett’s portfolio by far, accounting for more than 40% of the Berkshire portfolio. Hence, it is safe to say that Berkshire’s returns in the past couple of years have been underpinned by Apple’s performance. With Apple trading between $150 and $182 in Q1 this year and the company currently trading at $149.60, Buffett is also likely to be down on this most recent batch of investment.
However, Apple is up significantly over the years and Buffett choosing to add more than $600 million to this position in a single quarter should attest to his conviction of this investment.
The Sage of Omaha shows his mettle!
Buffett has also outperformed all three major US indices this year, demonstrating once again his consistent performance over longer timeframes.
With Buffett having been in the investment game for more than seven decades, there is always a relevant investment quote that can be attributed to Warren Buffett. Apparently, he also once said, “The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down”. He has taken action by deploying more than $51 billion in capital this year.
However, not all of his positions are currently profitable. While we should always carry out our own due diligence before making any investment, with some of these stocks in his portfolio down significantly compared to his purchase price, one should definitely take the time to assess if these stocks that Buffett has are appropriate additions to your portfolio.
You can join Alvin at his upcoming webinar to learn how Dr Wealth picks stocks for their own portfolio.
Thanks, Alex.
Warren Buffett also bought HPQ, ~April 2022. I think.
I think current HPQ price maybe lower than his purchased price.
Best Regards
Dvaid