Warren Buffett has spent decades explaining why Berkshire (NYSE:BRK-A, NYSE:BRK-B) retains capital rather than distributing it, and the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) exists to reverse that decision for investors who want monthly checks.

OMAH holds Berkshire itself, along with roughly 20 prominent Berkshire portfolio stocks tracked by VistaShares, and then layers an actively managed options overlay to chase a 15% annualized distribution target set by VistaShares.

Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett have no affiliation with OMAH and do not endorse or sponsor it; the 15% figure is a target the fund can meet or miss, not a guarantee, according to VistaShares.

The dividends generated by the underlying stocks do not come close to supporting a double-digit payout, so the yield gap must come from elsewhere.

How the Payout Machine Actually Works

The overlay sells short-dated call options against positions the fund already owns. Buyers pay a premium for the right to purchase those shares at a set price, and OMAH keeps the premium whether the option is exercised or expires worthless.

That cash funds the monthly distribution, most recently $0.22963 per share for the August 24, 2026 ex-date, with a trailing twelve-month total of $2.8089.

Option premium differs from dividend income. Dividends flow from corporate earnings, while option premiums come from selling away a slice of the portfolio’s own future upside. When Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) rallies past a written strike price, the fund forfeits any gains above that price.

Reading the August Return-of-Capital Estimate

VistaShares estimated the entire August distribution as a return of capital. That label is a tax classification that describes how the IRS treats the payment. A return of capital reduces an investor’s cost basis, defers the tax bill, and increases the eventual gain on sale.

OMAH’s April 2026 filing showed $748.6 million in net assets and a portfolio reflecting its Berkshire-adjacent basket, including sizable positions in Apple, Berkshire itself, American Express (NYSE:AXP), Occidental (NYSE:OXY), Alphabet, and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO).

The overlay is visibly active: the filing lists written calls on Alphabet, Amazon, Berkshire, Apple, and others, generating the premium that feeds the distribution engine.

If NAV were being steadily gutted to fund payouts, total return would show it. So far it has not, which suggests the ROC label reflects accounting more than decay.

Compared With Just Owning Berkshire

The uncomfortable comparison is with Berkshire Hathaway itself, which charges no expense ratio, pays no distribution, and has returned 80% over the past five years. Year to date, it is up about 1%, and over one year, roughly 1%.

An investor who wants monthly cash from a Berkshire-style portfolio can hold BRK.B and sell a fixed dollar amount of shares each month, paying long-term capital gains rates on the realized portion. That homemade dividend costs zero in fund fees.

OMAH charges a 0.98% net expense ratio to run the overlay, which must earn back that fee and outperform manual share selling to justify itself. Against a plain dividend ETF, the pitch is different: OMAH offers a higher headline yield and Berkshire-flavored exposure but caps upside and hands investors a tax-deferred slice of their own capital every month.

If you are weighing this against a broader income-first plan, we walked through the mix, the payment calendar, and the withdrawal order in a free guide to building a paycheck portfolio from ordinary savings.

Verdict on OMAH

OMAH is legitimate financial engineering. It suits a narrow investor: someone who wants a stable monthly check from a Berkshire-adjacent portfolio, values automation over manual share sales, and has accepted that the 15 in VistaShares’ Target 15 name will cost meaningful upside plus almost 1% a year in fees.

Anyone who wants Buffett’s actual compounding should own Berkshire directly and sell shares when cash is needed. That path is cheaper, more tax-efficient on gains, and does not require trusting an overlay to keep earning its keep.

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On the September 2, 2026 Ramsey Show, Dave Ramsey told a 64-year-old caller carrying $20,000 in credit card debt that he personally refuses to do business with three financial companies. “I don’t want anything to do with American Express…They’re absolute hogwash. I don’t want anything to do with SunTrust Financial. I don’t want anything to do with Fifth Third, ever, period.” He traced the grudge to his own bankruptcy: “I’m still, 40 years later, mad at bankers.”

The caller, Carlos, is a New York City security guard earning about $55,000 a year, with $12,000 owed to the IRS, $40,000 in a TIAA-CREF account, and a fresh prostate cancer diagnosis. For a reader in Carlos’s position, following Ramsey’s blanket boycott versus chasing points is not a philosophical debate. It is a math problem with a very clear answer.

Verdict: Ramsey Is Right for Revolvers, Wrong for Payers

Rewards financed by carried balances are hogwash. Rewards paid to transactors are free money. The break-even is not close, and it is not subtle. The average credit card APR was nearly 21%, sitting in what the Federal Reserve’s own historical range calls record territory. A typical rewards card pays 1% to 5% back. Interest at 21% eats a 2% rewards rate ten times over on every dollar that rolls to the next statement.

Apply that to Carlos. A $20,000 carried balance at roughly 21% costs over $4,000 a year in interest alone. Even a generous 3% cashback card would return roughly $600 on that same $20,000 in annual spending. The rewards do not offset the interest. They do not come close. Every month the balance sits, the issuer wins and the customer funds a stock chart. American Express (NYSE:AXP) shares are up roughly 471% over ten years and about 113% over five, recently trading near $324. That return was financed by balances exactly like Carlos’s.

The same pattern shows up at the other two names on the blacklist. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) has returned roughly 274% over ten years. Truist Financial (NYSE:TFC), the successor to SunTrust, is up about 93% over ten years. Consumer credit is a good business for the lender, which is precisely why Ramsey warns borrowers away from the other side of the ledger.

One Variable Flips the Math: Do You Carry a Balance?

The single factor that decides whether rewards are “hogwash” or free money is whether your statement balance hits zero every month. There is no middle ground.

Scenario A, the transactor: spend $30,000 on the card in a year, pay it in full each cycle, earn 2% back. That is $600, tax-free, with no interest paid. AmEx still makes money on interchange, but the customer is not funding it out of pocket.

Scenario B, the revolver: same $30,000 in spend, but a $5,000 average balance rides along at nearly 21%. Interest runs over $1,000 in a year. The 2% rewards return $600. Net: the cardholder is out several hundred dollars and the issuer books the spread. Do this for a decade and the compounding shows up on someone else’s brokerage statement. The credit card delinquency rate now running near 3% is a reminder that plenty of households are in Scenario B and drifting further in.

Ramsey’s absolutist rule ignores Scenario A. But it correctly identifies that most people who tell themselves they are transactors eventually are not. AmEx’s own results back the behavior he warns about: management reported billed business of $455.80 billion in Q2 2026 and card fee growth that CEO Stephen Squeri credits to “Millennials and Gen-Zs who represent greater lifetime value.” Lifetime value, for an issuer, is a polite way of describing decades of interchange and interest.

What to Actually Do Before Your Next Statement Closes

1. Run the real break-even. Pull your last 12 statements. Add total interest paid. Subtract total rewards earned. If the number is negative, the card is costing you money regardless of how good the points portal looks.
2. Attack the balance before the rate. Ramsey told Carlos that saving 15% of income for eight years, combined with his existing $40,000, could get him to roughly $150,000 to $200,000 by age 70. That path only works if the 21% drag is removed first.
3. Separate the tool from the trap. A rewards card cleared monthly works like a debit card with a rebate. A rewards card carried month to month works like a high-rate loan.

Ramsey’s language is blunt because his audience is people already losing the interest arbitrage. If that is you, he is right. If it is not, the math gives you permission to keep the points and skip the sermon.

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Among the three U.S. credit-card giants that investors often trade almost interchangeably, Visa (NYSE:V) has dominated 2026 so far. The spread between the leader and the laggard in this group is unusually wide, and that gap is the story worth unpacking.

Visa stock is up 9% year to date to $381.13, leading the group by a clear margin. Meanwhile, Mastercard (NYSE:MA) stock is up 5% year to date to $597.67, trailing its larger network rival even as its business model runs on nearly identical rails. American Express (NYSE:AXP) stock is down 9% year to date to $337.81, the clear outlier that gives this comparison its edge.

Meanwhile, Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLF) shares are up 6% year to date to $58.17, providing broader sector context. The broad financials basket beat two of these three household names, so the sector did its job while individual selection inside it mattered enormously.

A Spread Investors Can’t Ignore

The distance from Visa’s year-to-date gain to American Express’s decline is the widest fact in this comparison. When one card name is up in the high single digits and another is down in the high single digits in the same year, it forces a separation between two stocks the market often treats as a single trade.

Mastercard sits in between, closer to Visa in business model but delivering a more modest year-to-date return. The gap across Visa, Mastercard, and American Express has made 2026 a year of stark divergence for a group that usually moves in loose lockstep.

Two Networks and One Lender

Visa and Mastercard operate as payment networks. They collect fees on transaction volume and carry no credit risk on the cards themselves, since the issuing banks own the receivables. It’s a toll-taker model that scales with global card spending.

American Express operates its own network and also lends to its own cardholders. That means it carries credit exposure Visa and Mastercard do not. Viewed as a difference in business model rather than a verdict on any single year, the spread starts to make analytical sense.

Sector Backdrop and the XLF Benchmark

The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund landed between Visa and Mastercard on the year, and far ahead of American Express. The fund holds a wide range of financial companies beyond these three, spanning banks, insurers, and asset managers rather than narrowly tracking the card group. It’s a reminder that broad financials had a solid year while stock selection inside the sector mattered.

Owners of the XLF ETF broadly did fine. Investors who leaned into Visa or Mastercard did better, while shareholders concentrated in American Express paid a price.

Positioning Into the Rest of 2026

Traders can watch for continued leadership from the network stocks as the year plays out. The spread between Visa and American Express is the defining fact in the comparison, and any narrowing of it would signal a shift in how the market treats the closed-loop model versus the pure-network model.

Position sizing should reflect the different risk profiles here. Exposure to Visa or Mastercard is largely a bet on transaction volumes, while exposure to American Express is a bet on both spending and credit performance. Investors who want the credit-card theme without single-name concentration can pair a network holding with a broad financials fund and keep sizing moderate given the wide dispersion this group has already shown in 2026.

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Gross US federal debt crossed $40 trillion on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. That same day, Treasury announced it would “at least double” its buyback operations, from $2 billion to at least $4 billion, targeting the 10-to-20 year and 20-to-30 year portions of the curve, running September 9 through November 4. Long yields obliged: the 30-year closed down 9 basis points at 5.196% and the 10-year fell 5.7 basis points to 4.647%. By Thursday the relief was gone, with the Financial Times reporting “US long-term bonds slide as Bessent intervention fails to soothe investors.” The 30-year yield sat at 5.19% on August 19, and it has stayed above 5% every session this month.

US gross debt-to-GDP is 125.8% per the IMF, with only eight nations ranking higher, led by Japan at 204%. Interest payments already exceed what the US spends on either national defense or Medicare. BofA projects the debt reaches $50 trillion by 2029.

Why the Long End Will Not Cooperate

CNBC attributes the run-up in long yields to a higher term premium, a changing Treasury buyer base, and increased corporate debt supply tied to artificial intelligence buildouts competing for the same capital. Mohamed El-Erian called the planned purchases “small in both absolute terms and relative to net issuance” and part of “a broader deployment of yield curve control.” Peter Boockvar of One Point BFG Wealth Partners was blunter: “This is NOT a debt paydown, it is just a rearrangement of the maturity schedule of Treasuries.”

Retiree’s Actual Problem

A 5%-plus 30-year coupon looks generous until you remember what you are locking in: a fixed nominal payment from an issuer whose debt is compounding faster than forecasters expected. Short T-bills and bonds held to maturity are different. Duration is where the damage lives. That framing explains how Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) is positioned under CEO Greg Abel, who has begun deploying the cash pile in his first full year while Warren Buffett remains chairman. Berkshire’s 13F as of 06/30/2026, filed 08/14/2026 leans hard on operating businesses with pricing power.

American Express: The Premium Flywheel

American Express (NYSE:AXP) was the largest disclosed holding at $51.3 billion, 17.1% of the disclosed portfolio. Q2 revenue grew 10% with EPS of $4.53, and U.S. consumer spending rose 11%. Shares pay a $0.95 quarterly dividend. Risk: AXP is a credit business, and delinquencies rise if unemployment does.

Coca-Cola: The Coupon That Grows

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) sat at $32.5 billion, 10.9% of the disclosed portfolio, equal to 9.3% of Coca-Cola’s shares outstanding. Q2 organic revenue grew 6% and unit case volume rose 5%. The quarterly dividend is $0.53, up from $0.485 in 2024. Risk: at a P/E of 27, the multiple leaves little room for error.

Occidental Petroleum: The Real-Asset Hedge

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) was $12.9 billion, 4.3% of the disclosed portfolio. Q2 revenue was a double-digit year-over-year gain, with realized crude at realized crude prices well above prior-year levels. The dividend was raised to $0.28 quarterly. Risk: OXY’s earnings live and die by the oil strip.

What to Watch

The Treasury’s buyback runs through November 4. If the 30-year cannot hold below 5% while the government is actively bidding for its own paper, the signal is that the marginal buyer wants more compensation. For a pre-retiree, the real questions are how much duration to accept from an issuer whose fiscal path is worsening, and how much of a portfolio should sit in businesses that can raise a price when the coupon cannot (that second question is the whole premise of a dividend ladder built to throw off income without ever selling a share, which we walked through in a free guide here: Never Touch the Principal).

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Warren Buffett’s latest 13F filing, disclosing holdings as of March 31, and filed May 15, still concentrates Berkshire Hathaway’s public-equity firepower in just five names. Every one of them has moved this year, and the gap between what Buffett paid and where these tickers trade in July 2026 is the entire question. Skip this read and you are guessing at what the world’s most famous allocator is quietly compounding into. Here is the buy/hold/sell tape on all five, ranked for pacing, not size.

1. Chevron (The Surprise at the Top of the Line of Fire)

Start with the name most retail investors forget is even in the portfolio. Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is Buffett’s energy anchor, and it just delivered the kind of quarter that vindicates a contrarian oil bet: an adjusted EPS blowout against a headline revenue miss, masking the fact that production is ripping higher post-Hess.

In Q1 2026, Chevron posted adjusted EPS of $1.41 versus the expected 97 cents, a 45.56% beat, on worldwide production of 3,858 MBOED, up 15%, with U.S. output above 2 million barrels per day for the third straight quarter. Analysts have not chased the move: consensus target sits at $213.91 against a share price of $195.19 on Aug. 3, and the stock is already up more than 25% year to date.

Read: Buy. A 3.65% dividend yield, a 13 forward P/E and 18 Buy or Strong Buy ratings versus one Sell rating makes this the cheapest conviction pick on Buffett’s sheet. The obvious heavyweight is next.

2. Apple (The Position That Bankrolled the Berkshire Decade)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains the largest common-stock holding on the 13F, and the tape has finally caught up to the thesis Buffett locked in years ago. The iPhone 17 supercycle plus Services at record levels has re-rated the multiple hard.

Q2 2026 landed at revenue of $111.18 billion, up 16.6% year over year, with EPS of $2.01 beating the $1.94 estimate by 3.61%, powered by iPhone revenue of $56.99 billion and Services at a record $30.98 billion. The board reloaded with a fresh $100 billion buyback authorization and a 4% dividend hike to 27 cents per share. Shares have surged more than 50% over the past year to $305.24 on Aug. 3.

Read: Hold. The fundamentals are pristine, but with the analyst consensus target at $315.79, the stock is trading above the Street. Buffett has been trimming for a reason. Fresh money buyers should wait for a pullback toward the 50-day moving average of $301.66. Next up: the bank that just posted one of its cleanest quarters in years.

3. Bank of America (The Rate-Cycle Beneficiary Buffett Won’t Fully Let Go)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has been the subject of endless “is Buffett selling?” chatter, yet it remains a top-five 13F position, and Q2 2026 explained why he is holding the core.

The bank delivered Q2 2026 revenue of $31.56 billion beating by 2.55% and EPS of $1.21 versus $1.12 estimated, a 7.74% beat, with EPS up 34% year over year. Global Markets revenue jumped 34% to $8.02 billion, equities sales and trading rocketed 70% to $3.62 billion, and investment banking fees rose 50% to $2.14 billion. Credit stayed pristine: net charge-off ratio improved to 0.47% from 0.55%, and the bank returned $8 billion to shareholders in the quarter. CEO Brian Moynihan called it “one of our strongest quarters to date”.

Read: Buy. At a 14 trailing P/E and 1.565 price-to-book, with the Street target at $67.26 against an Aug. 3 share price around $62.07 and zero Sell ratings on 24 analysts, BAC is the cleanest risk/reward in the megabank complex. The next name is quieter, more defensive, and just went ex-CEO.

4. Coca-Cola (The Dividend Fortress in a Leadership Transition)

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is the position Buffett has famously never sold a share of, and Q1 2026 explained the loyalty: pricing power intact, volumes accelerating in emerging markets, and margins expanding under new CEO Henrique Braun.

Q1 2026 delivered revenue of $12.47 billion, up 12.1% year over year, beating by 1.97%, with EPS of 86 cents versus the expected 81 cents, a 5.87% beat. Underneath: organic revenue growth of 10%, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume up 13% across all segments and operating margin expanded to 35% from 32.9%. Full-year guidance calls for organic revenue growth of 4% to 5% and comparable EPS growth of 8% to 9% off the 2025 base of $3, with roughly $12.2 billion in free cash flow.

Read: Hold, buying dips. At a 27 trailing P/E with a 2.44% dividend yield, KO is not cheap after ripping nearly 26% year to date, but the analyst target of $87.10 leaves upside from the $86.84 share price on Aug. 3. But the stock has pulled back around 3% since July 29, providing the exact window income buyers wait for. Now comes the payoff.

5. American Express (The Longest Conviction Trade in the Book)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is the punchline. Buffett has owned it since the 1963 Salad Oil Scandal, and it is the only top-five holding sitting in the red year to date, which is precisely why it belongs at the top of the shopping list right now.

Q1 2026 delivered revenue of $18.91 billion beating by 1.61%, EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 expected, a 7.24% beat, and net income of $2.97 billion, up 15%. Billed business hit $428 billion, up 10% from $387.4 billion, with Card Member spending growing 9% FX-adjusted, the highest quarterly growth in three years. Management reaffirmed FY 2026 guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30–$17.90, and CEO Stephen Squeri called it a “very strong start to the year…10 percent FX-adjusted revenue growth and 18 percent EPS growth.”

Read: Buy. AXP trades at a 22 trailing P/E and just 20 forward earnings, is down 8.09% year to date to $342.57 on Aug.3, and the stock carries an analyst target of $374.94. Every prior time Buffett’s oldest conviction pick has stalled while its fundamentals accelerated, the reversion has been sharp. This is the setup.

The Threads Pulled Together

Two clear buys (CVX and BAC), one high-conviction laggard payoff (AXP) and two holds where fundamentals are pristine but valuations are ahead of themselves (AAPL and KO). The pattern in Buffett’s own trading, trimming Apple, holding banks, adding energy, points to the same conclusion: The money in the 13F is rotating toward the names that have not run yet. The window on AXP and CVX narrows every session the rest of the market keeps grinding higher.

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If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For 60 years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting has drawn thousands of loyal investors. They were stunned at last year’s meeting when Buffett announced he would step down as CEO of the investment giant at year’s end. While he remains board chair and vows to come to the office every day, he will also continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations. His pre-announced successor and long-time lieutenant, Greg Abel, assumed the CEO position on January 1, 2026, and will likely direct or have a say in most, if not all, new investments, public or private. Some of these new investments have already been put into place.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote: “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So it’s not surprising to report that for all the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, just four top Dow Jones Industrial companies make up 50% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years and will likely continue to do so.

Why Do We Cover Berkshire Hathaway Stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 60 years. Though he has stepped away from the CEO chair, his impact and investment guidelines are likely to remain in place long after he is gone. While investing has evolved since Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach.

Here are the four Dow Jones Industrials that reside in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. All are Buy-rated at the top Wall Street firms we cover.

American Express

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. The stock performed strongly for most of this year but has backed off some and offers a solid entry point with a dividend yield of 0.98%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations. Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22.2% of American Express’s float, and 14.8% of the portfolio.

J.P. Morgan has an Overweight rating with a $400 target price.

Apple

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, offering a small dividend of 0.31%. It is remarkable that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent fourth-quarter sale of 10 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still holds a 227,917,808-share position that accounts for a stunning 21% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $364 target price.

Chevron

This American multinational energy company primarily focuses on oil and gas. Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector, and it pays a substantial 3.64% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. The company operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide. Berkshire Hathaway bought a very well-timed 8 million additional shares in the fourth quarter but sold a massive 46 million shares in Q1. Despite the sale, Berkshire still holds 84,375,856 shares, representing 4.2% of the float and 4.7% of the portfolio.

The company operates in two segments. The Upstream segment is involved in:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $216 target price.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. This company remains a top long-time holding of Buffett. Berkshire owns a massive 400 million shares, which is 9.3% of the float and 9.3% of the portfolio. The stock pays a dependable 2.51% dividend.

Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. And remember that the company owns 19.5% of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

UBS has a Buy rating and a target price of $98.

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Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) just posted Q2 2026 results that showcase two very different financial machines.

Bank of America rode a trading and investment banking surge to its strongest quarter in years. American Express leaned on premium cardholders spending at the fastest clip in three years. Both beat on earnings. Only one has been rewarded by the market.

Trading Desks Lift BAC. Platinum Cards Carry AXP.

Bank of America’s quarter was a Wall Street story. Global Markets revenue jumped 34% to $8.02 billion, with equities sales and trading exploding 70% to $3.622 billion and investment banking fees climbing 50% to $2.138 billion.

Net interest income rose 9% to $16 billion, and combined credit and debit card spend reached $266 billion. CEO Brian Moynihan called it “one of our strongest quarters to date” with every segment posting double-digit net income growth.

American Express told a narrower, cleaner story. Billed business hit $455.80 billion, up 9%, the fastest FX-adjusted rate in three years. The refreshed Platinum Card became the fastest-growing portfolio in U.S. Consumer.

Net write-offs held at 2%, best-in-class for the industry. Revenue of $19.637 billion narrowly missed the $19.703 billion consensus, a small blemish on an otherwise clean scorecard.

Diversified Universal Bank vs. Premium Closed Loop

Moynihan runs a scale game across 70 million clients, using digital tools like Erica and 114 live generative AI use cases to lift efficiency. The efficiency ratio improved 359 basis points to 59%.

Stephen Squeri, meanwhile, is layering on new spend catalysts, including the proposed TheFork acquisition covering 50,000 restaurants across 11 countries and an ALL Accor loyalty tie-up. His investment thesis leans on Millennial and Gen-Z acquisition, which he describes as “greater lifetime value.”

The Next Test Is Rates and Reinvestment

I will be watching whether BAC can protect NII if the Fed cuts. Trading revenue is cyclical, and a $70.3 billion commercial real estate book still deserves scrutiny.

For AXP, Squeri is reinvesting outperformance rather than dropping it to the bottom line. That kept full-year EPS guidance at $17.30 to $17.90 even after raising revenue growth to 10%. Investors clearly want more flow-through.

AXP fell 8.21% in the week around the earnings report and sits down 11.12% year to date, while BAC is up 14.88%.

Why I Lean Toward Bank of America Right Now

If you want the stock to confirm the thesis, BAC is winning that argument today. I like the breadth: consumer, wealth, banking, and markets all posted double-digit gains, and management is returning $8 billion quarterly to shareholders at a P/E of 14.

Amex is the higher-quality franchise in my view, with a P/E of 20 and durable premium economics, but rising expenses and a slight revenue miss give me pause. For investors focused on Squeri’s reinvestment cycle, AXP’s current discount is worth monitoring. For me, the diversified compounder trading at a mid-teens multiple is the cleaner setup this quarter.

The post Bank of America vs American Express: Only One Financial Stock Deserves Your Money appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

The VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) markets a headline distribution that few equity strategies can match: a 14.9% trailing yield delivered in monthly payments against a share price of $19. OMAH does this by holding the same public companies that anchor Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio, then layering a covered-call overlay on top. Whether that distribution reflects genuine cash flow from those holdings or something more fragile is the relevant question.

How OMAH Generates Its 15% Yield

The underlying dividend yields on those names average well below the fund’s headline number. Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) yields 2.5%, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) yields 3.8%, and American Express (NYSE:AXP) yields roughly 1%. The gap between those cash dividends and OMAH’s 15% target is bridged by selling short-dated call options against the portfolio. The April filing shows short call positions against Apple, Alphabet, Berkshire, Coca-Cola, and Amazon, with premiums collected up front and recycled into the monthly distribution.

Are the Underlying Dividends Actually Safe?

The equity floor under OMAH is genuinely durable. Coca-Cola posted Q1 2026 free cash flow of $1.76 billion, raised the quarterly payout to $0.53, and carries a Dividend King track record. American Express earns $15.87 in trailing EPS against a $3.80 annualized dividend, leaving payout coverage of roughly 4x. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) grew Q2 net income 27% and just lifted its quarterly dividend to $0.40. Chevron continued its streak of increases, moving the quarterly payout to $1.78, though Q1 free cash flow turned negative on Hess-related working-capital drag.

The one exception is Occidental Petroleum, which cut its dividend 87% in 2020 and pays $0.26 quarterly, still far below the $0.79 pre-COVID level. That risk is small at OMAH’s 6% weighting in the name.

The Options Overlay and the Payout Ratio

The uncomfortable number is the fund’s 305% payout ratio. That reflects a distribution funded largely by option premium and, at times, return of capital rather than accounting earnings. Premium generation depends on volatility. The VIX sits at roughly 19, in the normal 15 to 20 band, and has averaged about 18 over the past year. That environment supports the current call-writing income, but a sustained drop below 15 would compress premiums, and a sharp rally would cap upside on the underlying stocks that OMAH has written calls against.

Total Return and the Verdict

The share price is up 14% over one year and 9% year to date, and layered on top of the roughly 15% distribution, total return has run ahead of Berkshire’s own B shares, which are up 3% over one year. The forward annualized distribution estimate of $2.77 is slightly below the trailing $2.83, hinting that management is calibrating payouts to option income rather than forcing a fixed number.

This portfolio’s distribution is best understood as a synthetic yield, safe as long as volatility stays in a normal band and the Berkshire-style equity book holds its value. The 1% expense ratio is high for a passive-looking product, and investors focused on capital growth over income have historically been better served by owning Berkshire Hathaway directly, while JEPI and SPYI offer similar options-income mechanics on broader indexes with longer track records. OMAH’s performance relative to its underlying inspiration highlights the trade-off between income generation and pure equity appreciation.

The post Why a 15% Yield on Blue Chip Stocks Worries Even Income Investors appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Three dividend-paying blue chips reported Q2 2026 earnings on the same morning, all beating EPS estimates: Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) at $45.03 looks attractive, American Express (NYSE:AXP) at $321.72 appears fairly valued, and NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) at $89.24 screens favorably.

Each revealed a different story beneath the headline beat, with sharply divergent market reactions.

Verizon: The Cheap Yield Story Just Got Cheaper

Verizon posted adjusted EPS of $1.30 vs. $1.27 estimated, its sixth consecutive beat, and raised full-year guidance to $4.99 to $5.04 with free cash flow growth of 9% to 10%. Postpaid phone net adds swung from a loss of 9,000 to a gain of 184,000, and fiber connections jumped 43.3% to 10.9 million. Shares gained 2.76% on the report.

VZ trades at a forward P/E of 9 with a 6.24% dividend yield backed by 25+ years of uninterrupted payments and a hike to $0.7075 quarterly. The analyst target of $51.12, from 26 covering analysts with 11 Buys and 15 Holds, implies roughly 13% upside.

Bears cite $136.5 billion of unsecured debt and net debt/EBITDA of 2.5x, up from 2.2x. Free cash flow of $6.43B, up 27.12% YoY comfortably covers the payout.

At $45.03, Verizon looks attractive on valuation and yield. The stock has returned 13% YTD, ahead of the S&P 500’s 10% gain, and raised guidance plus expanded $4.5B buyback offer defensive yield and a credible growth path from emerging AI infrastructure revenue.

American Express: A Great Business at an Uncomfortable Moment

AmEx beat EPS at $4.53 vs. $4.40 estimated on 9% Card Member spending growth, the fastest in three years. Revenue of $19.64B missed the $19.70B estimate grew while expenses rose 12% against 10% revenue growth, and the effective tax rate jumped to 23.6% from 18.7%. Management held EPS guidance at $17.30 to $17.90 and reinvested outperformance. Shares fell 5.61% on the earnings report.

Bulls note Platinum refresh is driving the fastest-growing portfolio in U.S. Consumer, accelerating Millennial and Gen-Z acquisition, and provisions dropped to $1.10B from $1.40B.

The analyst target of $374.94, from 30 analysts with 14 Buys, 15 Holds, and 1 Sell, implies about 17% upside. AXP trades at a forward P/E of 20, a premium to its long-term average, and has lagged the S&P 500 with a 7.12% YTD decline.

At $321.72, American Express appears fairly valued. The franchise is intact and 11.61% one-year return shows the long-term compounder still works, but expenses outpacing revenue in a decelerating consumer environment is the wrong setup for fresh capital. Wait for a reset toward $285.29 52-week low or proof that reinvestment produces incremental revenue.

NextEra Energy: Power Demand and a Merger Catalyst

NEE delivered adjusted EPS of $1.15 vs. $1.10 estimated, its fifth straight beat, with net income up 55% to $3.14B. FPL added 90,000+ customers, and NEER added 3.6 GW to a 35.1 GW backlog. Revenue of $7.53B missed the $8.15B estimate grew 12.45% YoY.

Management reaffirmed $3.92 to $4.02 adjusted EPS, targeting the high end, plus 8%+ compound EPS growth through 2032. The proposed Dominion Energy combination, expected to close H2 2027, would support 11% annual regulatory capital growth through 2032.

Shares are up 13.41% YTD and 26.86% over one year, both ahead of the S&P 500. Coverage runs 22 analysts, with 14 Buys, 7 Holds, and 1 Sell.

At $89.24, NextEra Energy screens favorably on growth and yield. Utilities rarely offer a 2.64% yield compounding near 10% annually alongside an accelerating regulatory capital base and a rerating catalyst. The analyst target of $98.80 implies roughly 11% upside and does not yet fully price the Dominion deal. Watch state and FERC approvals into 2027.

The post Three Dividend Giants Beat Q2 Estimates: Which Deserves Your Money? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

American Express (NYSE:AXP) stock is sliding Friday morning, trading at $320.55 and down 6% after the card issuer reported a Q2 2026 beat that traders opted to fade. The reaction hit within an hour of the 8:30 a.m. ET 8-K Form, pulling American Express stock down from a prior close of $340.84.

The drop extends a rough stretch for shareholders. American Express stock entered the release already 7% lower year to date (YTD), and today’s move deepens that underperformance versus the broader market.

American Express’s payments-sector peers are barely budging. Visa (NYSE:V) stock and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) stock are both holding steady in early trading, signaling the reaction is company-specific rather than a payments-segment rotation.

Beat Headline, Cautious Follow-Through

American Express posted Q2 EPS of $4.53, topping the $4.40 consensus estimate, while revenue net of interest expense of $19.6 billion came in just below estimates. Net income landed at $3.11 billion.

Billed business climbed 9% to $455.8 billion, the strongest Card Member spending growth in three years on an FX-adjusted basis. American Express’s management raised its full-year revenue growth guidance to 10%, yet held FY 2026 EPS guidance unchanged at $17.30 to $17.90.

That combination is the friction point for American Express. Better top-line trajectory is being funneled back into growth spending rather than dropping to the bottom line. American Express CEO Stephen Squeri expressed his confidence:

Based on our better-than-expected performance in the first half of the year, we are raising our full-year revenue growth guidance to 10 percent and plan to reinvest this outperformance in growth initiatives given the significant opportunities we see ahead.

However, cost trends compound the concerns for American Express. The company’s consolidated expenses grew 12% to $14.5 billion, outpacing revenue growth, and the effective tax rate jumped to 24% from 19% a year ago.

Credit was a bright spot, though. Provisions of $1.1 billion came in well below the $1.4 billion booked a year ago, and the company’s net write-off rate held flat at 2%. American Express also disclosed a proposed acquisition of TheFork, a European restaurant booking platform with 50,000 restaurants across 11 countries, adding to the reinvestment narrative reshaping expectations.

Peers Hold Firm as the Move Stays Idiosyncratic

Visa stock is essentially flat at $352.40, and Mastercard stock is holding at $532.29. That divergence undercuts any read-through to broader payments weakness on the day.

Zooming out, Visa stock is up 1% YTD, while Mastercard stock sits down 7% YTD. Both networks have posted clean beats in their most recent quarters, keeping their sentiment backdrop intact heading into Visa’s upcoming report.

The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLF), which holds all three names, is trading flat at $55.78. The XLF ETF‘s stability reinforces the idiosyncratic framing, since American Express carries a meaningful weighting inside the fund but isn’t dragging the entire sector down with it today.

The historical pattern matters here too. Four of the last five American Express earnings beats produced negative same-day reactions, so the fade itself follows a familiar script. The magnitude of today’s drop is notably larger than the recent five-quarter average day-of change on beats.

What to Watch Now

The next signal is whether American Express stock stabilizes above $320. A hold there could suggest the reinvestment message has been absorbed, while a break lower may invite analyst target trims into next week.

Traders can watch for follow-through in Visa stock and Mastercard stock as Visa’s own report approaches, which could test whether the payments group stays resilient. Sell-side notes focused on American Express expense growth and Platinum Card refresh economics are the likely catalysts for the next leg.

The read for now is straightforward: American Express delivered strong spending and revenue trends, then chose to spend the upside rather than book it. That posture may prove defensible over the long term, but it explains why a clear beat isn’t translating into an AXP stock rally today.

The post American Express Sinks 6% After Q2 Earnings Beat as Visa, Mastercard Hold Steady appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Both American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) report Q2 2026 results before market open on Friday, July 24, 2026, with Verizon’s earnings call confirmed for 8:30 AM ET. For a retirement-focused investor deciding which name to hold into the earnings report, the question is simple: which one is Wall Street actually leaning into? The setup favors two very different profiles. American Express trades at $348.74 with a 22 P/E, while Verizon trades near $44.29 at an 11 P/E. Here is how they stack up across three dimensions that matter this week.

Dimension 1: Analyst Consensus and Buy-Side Tilt

American Express carries 14 Buy, 15 Hold, and one Sell ratings, a modest lean toward neutral with a single dissenter. Verizon’s coverage skews cleaner on the downside: 11 Buy, 15 Hold, and zero Sell ratings. No sell-side analyst is telling clients to exit Verizon, and that matters for a retirement holder who cares about tail risk in the coverage universe. American Express has more outright Buys, but the presence of a Sell and a heavier Hold cluster tempers conviction.

Winner: Verizon. Zero Sell ratings versus one, with a similar Hold count, gives Verizon the cleaner buy-side floor.

Dimension 2: Price Target and Implied Upside

American Express has an analyst consensus target of $374.94, almost 8% higher than the current price, alongside an AI model target of $391.47, implying 12.25% upside. Verizon’s consensus target is $51.12, with an AI model target of $49.99, implying 12.88% upside. On percentage upside to the model target, Verizon has a hair more room. On absolute dollar distance to consensus, American Express has further to travel. What tips the scale for a retirement investor: Verizon’s year-to-date price performance is already +8.7%, while American Express is −5.7% year to date. Verizon is compounding into its target; American Express needs a re-rating.

Winner: Verizon. Slightly better model upside plus positive year-to-date momentum into the print.

Dimension 3: Sentiment Momentum and Beat Odds

Polymarket puts 88% odds American Express beats quarterly earnings and gives it 74.5% odds of clearing $19.5 billion in Q2 revenue net of interest expense. Verizon’s beat probability is 85.5%, with a 94% probability of topping $34.5 billion in Q2 total operating revenue. American Express’s composite sentiment reads 61.72, bullish with low confidence; Verizon reads 57.55, neutral with medium confidence but with a +9.39 30-day move. Recent insider activity shows net selling for both American Express and Verizon, with zero discretionary open-market buying reported for either company. Add in the earnings track record: American Express has exceeded EPS projections in four of the past five quarters, while Verizon has a five-consecutive-quarter EPS beat streak.

Winner: American Express. Higher beat odds and a higher composite sentiment score edge out Verizon’s slightly better EPS track record.

The Verdict

The dimension tally is 2 to 1 for Verizon, but the weight of evidence points to American Express as the name Wall Street is actively leaning into this week. Verizon wins on analyst risk profile and upside math, and it wins for retirement investors who need current income now, backed by six straight EPS beats and 14.2% year-to-date gains. But for American Express, the crowd and prediction markets are pricing 88% beat odds, alongside a 14.7% one-year return and a 442.5% 10-year return. For a retirement investor with a decade or more of runway who can absorb consumer-cycle exposure, American Express looks like the more attractive option. For retirees who depend on the dividend arriving next quarter, Verizon is the safer choice. Risks to watch: credit normalization and tariff drag at American Express, and $172.5 billion in total debt plus wireless churn at Verizon.

The post Will American Express or Verizon Come Out as an Earnings Winner? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

The pitch for the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) is almost too clever to ignore. You get a portfolio built around Warren Buffett’s publicly disclosed equity book, layered with a monthly cash distribution aiming for a 15% annualized yield. Berkshire Hathaway itself famously pays no dividend, so OMAH is essentially promising to bolt an income stream onto Buffett’s stock picks and hand you a check every month. For retirees who love the holdings but hate the zero yield, it sounds like a workaround Buffett himself refused to build.

Look under the hood, and OMAH does mirror the greatest hits. As of the April 2026 filing, the fund held Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at 9.97% of net assets, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) itself at 8.99%, and American Express (NYSE:AXP) at 8.35%, with meaningful slugs of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Moody’s (NYSE:MCO), and Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC). That is a recognizable Berkshire silhouette. Total net assets sat near $748.6 million, so this is a real fund with real scale.

Where the 15% Actually Comes From

Here is the part the marketing skims over. Those underlying holdings throw off maybe 1% to 2% in cash dividends. The rest of the 15% target has to come from somewhere, and the somewhere is a short-dated call-writing overlay plus, when the math is short, return of capital. The N-PORT snapshot shows 74 derivative positions, structured as call spreads and outright short calls against the biggest names in the book. Selling calls generates premium. It also caps how much you can participate when a stock rips higher.

The VistaShares prospectus is refreshingly blunt about the rest. Distributions “may include amounts classified as return of capital,” which the document defines as “a return of a shareholder’s invested capital rather than income or profits.” It goes further: “To the extent that distributions exceed the Fund’s total returns, such payments will reduce the Fund’s net asset value.” If the strategy does not earn the 15%, the fund fills the gap by handing you back your own money and calling it a distribution. Do that long enough and NAV grinds lower, which means each future 15% target is being calculated off a smaller base.

What OMAH’s Returns Actually Show

OMAH launched in March 2025. Since inception, the ETF has paid monthly, most recently $0.23138 per share on June 30, 2026, with trailing 12-month distributions totaling $2.83514. On a total-return basis (dividends reinvested), OMAH is up about 16% since its March 5, 2025 launch, and shares closed recently at roughly $19. Over that same stretch, Berkshire’s own B shares are down roughly 4%, so the income overlay has actually rescued a stretch where owning Buffett directly hurt.

Fine. But zoom out and the mechanics still bite. The 0.98% expense ratio is steep for what is, at its core, a Berkshire clone plus a call-writing program. And the capped upside is not theoretical. When AAPL or GOOGL (NASDAQ:GOOGL) runs past the short strike, OMAH surrenders the difference. Over a normal Buffett-holdings decade, that giveback compounds.

Who This Fits, and Who It Fools

OMAH earns a spot in a portfolio only if you truly want monthly cash from a Berkshire-flavored basket and you accept two things. The 15% is a target rather than a guarantee, and part of it is often your own principal being recycled with a nicer label. For a retiree carving out a 5% to 10% income sleeve, that trade can be worth it, particularly in flat years for Berkshire.

For anyone treating the 15% as safe yield or expecting the total return of holding BRK.B outright over a long horizon, look elsewhere. A cheaper large-cap dividend ETF, or simply owning BRK.B and selling shares as needed, will usually get you closer to Buffett’s actual compounding, minus the return-of-capital sleight of hand.

The post A 15% “Dividend” ETF With Berkshire Stocks? Read This Before You Buy a Single Share appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Warren Buffett rarely offers reservations about a $2 trillion tech giant. That’s why his commentary on CNBC on July 15, 2026 caught our attention. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman revealed he personally initiated Berkshire’s Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) position, a stake now worth more than $31 billion once you include a separate $10 billion private placement, then promptly explained why he still isn’t in love with it.

“I would say that I don’t like it as well as at least four or five other businesses that we own,” Buffett told CNBC. His concern was the sheer capital intensity of the AI arms race: “The real question with Google and all of its competitors now, because they’re all laying out hundreds of billions, and…that’s real money…That’s the game they’re playing now. They weren’t playing that game with computer software.”

Alphabet’s numbers back up his math. Management guided 2026 capital expenditures to $175 billion to $185 billion, and Q1 2026 capex alone hit $35.67 billion, more than double the prior year. The stock has responded well anyway, up 18.50% year to date and 102.05% over the past year. But which four or five businesses does Buffett prefer over Alphabet? Given Berkshire’s recent buying patterns and long-tenured positions, four candidates stand out.

American Express (AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is arguably Buffett’s most emotionally anchored position, dating to the 1960s Salad Oil Scandal. The premium spender franchise is executing: Q1 2026 delivered EPS of $4.28 on revenue of $18.91 billion, with billed business of $428.0 billion, up 10%. CEO Stephen Squeri highlighted “the highest quarterly [Card Member spending] growth in three years” in the earnings release. Trading at a 22 trailing P/E with a forward P/E of 20, Amex is a capital-light compounder, the opposite of the hyperscaler capex profile that worries Buffett about Alphabet.

Coca-Cola (KO)

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is the archetypal Buffett business, held since 1988. Q1 2026 revenue rose 12.1% to $12.5 billion, with Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume up 13% across every segment. Return on equity is a striking 43.4%, and 2025 marked the 63rd consecutive year of dividend increases. Shares have climbed 17.9% year to date. If readers want more Buffett-style compounders like this one, our 7 Warren Buffett Stocks report walks through the current Berkshire lineup worth studying.

Moody’s (MCO)

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) is a duopoly toll booth Berkshire has held since the 2000 Dun & Bradstreet spinoff. Q1 2026 revenue rose 8.1% to $2.08 billion, and management called out “record Q1 Investment Grade issuance driven by AI-related financing from hyperscalers”. In an amusing twist, Moody’s is monetizing the very AI capex cycle that gives Buffett pause on Alphabet. Full-year adjusted EPS guidance sits near consensus at $16.40 to $17.00, and Moody’s raised its full-year buyback guidance to roughly $2.5 billion.

Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) is Buffett’s most recent big conviction bet, dating to 2019. Berkshire owns roughly 28% of the common stock. Q1 2026 adjusted EPS came in at $1.06 versus $0.59 consensus, and Occidental repaid $7.1 billion in principal debt during the quarter. CEO Vicki Hollub described the portfolio as “the most resilient, competitive, and high-quality portfolio in our history” in the earnings release. Shares are up 32% year to date, easily outpacing Alphabet’s gain.

The Fifth Slot

Rounding out the list could easily be Apple, Bank of America, or Chevron, all of which remain among Berkshire’s largest disclosed positions. The common thread across Buffett’s preferred businesses is lasting pricing power and modest reinvestment needs, exactly what a hyperscaler shelling out $175 billion-plus a year cannot claim. Alphabet may still earn its keep in the Berkshire book, but the ranking above it is getting crowded.

The post Warren Buffett Says He Now Likes “Four or Five” Businesses Berkshire Owns More than Alphabet. What Are They? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Three of Warren Buffett’s most iconic holdings sit at very different crossroads right now. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at $314.86 is a Hold, American Express (NYSE:AXP) at $355.06 is a Buy, and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) at $83.08 is a Hold.

Berkshire Hathaway has been reshaping this trio. Apple was trimmed heavily, Coca-Cola was surpassed by Alphabet as the fourth-largest holding, and American Express is closing in on Apple for the top slot. Each stock now has to stand on its own numbers.

Apple: Priced for Flawless Execution

The bull case is executing. Q2 FY26 revenue hit $111.2 billion, up 17%, iPhone revenue climbed 22% to $57 billion, and Services set an all-time record at $31 billion. Greater China grew 28% in the March quarter. The board authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and raised the dividend 4%. Eight consecutive EPS beats back the momentum.

The bear case is valuation. Shares trade at a trailing PE of 38 and forward PE of 33, richer than the historical average. Tim Cook exits as CEO on September 1, 2026, and management flagged significantly higher memory costs ahead.

Apple is up 16.03% year to date and 51.53% over one year, versus roughly 10.2% for the S&P 500. The analyst target of $315.57 across 47 analysts implies just 0.2% upside. Targets are just one input, and the market is already pricing perfection. The setup argues for patience until a better entry emerges.

American Express: Momentum With Runway Left

AmEx delivered Q1 FY26 revenue of $18.91 billion and EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 expected, a 7.24% beat. Billed business rose 10% to $428 billion, the strongest Card Member spending in three years. Management reaffirmed FY26 guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90, and hiked the dividend 16%. The net write-off rate improved to 2%.

Risks include tariff spillover, potential credit card rate caps, and elevated spending on the Platinum refresh. Yet AXP trades at a forward PE of 20 against a $371.38 target from 30 analysts, implying roughly 4.6% upside before dividends.

Shares are down 3.25% year to date while the S&P 500 sits near 10.2%, creating relative-value entry. The 15 Hold ratings represent an upgrade cushion if guidance holds, tilting the setup constructive.

Coca-Cola: Defensive Quality, Capped Upside

The bull case rests on execution. Q1 FY26 organic revenue grew 10%, EPS came in at $0.86 versus $0.81 consensus, and operating margin expanded to 35% from 32.9%. Management raised comparable EPS growth guidance to 8% to 9%. It is the 63rd consecutive year of dividend increases, and free cash flow guidance sits near $12.2 billion.

The bear case is the price. KO trades at a PE of 26 with a PEG of 4, and carries a pending Africa bottling sale worth roughly 4% revenue headwind alongside a $960 million BODYARMOR impairment. Shares are up 20.44% year to date, doubling the S&P 500.

The $86.81 target across 25 analysts leaves only 4.5% implied upside. At $83.08, Coca-Cola is a Hold. Here is why: the defensive earnings quality is real, but the recent run has borrowed forward returns, and the next catalyst worth acting on is either a valuation reset or a clean close to the Africa transaction.

The post Warren Buffett’s 3 Favorite Stocks: Buy, Sell or Hold? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) stock is up 19% to $56.60 in early Wednesday trading following a reported joint takeover offer from Stripe and private-equity firm Advent International valued at more than $53 billion, or $60.50 per share. The bid, first reported by Reuters and the Financial Times, both citing unnamed sources, represents a 28% premium to Tuesday’s close.

The move puts PayPal stock at its highest level in months and unwinds much of a bruising stretch. Shares had fallen 35% over the past 12 months heading into the report and were still down 18% year to date (YTD) as of Tuesday’s close.

PayPal’s payment-sector peers are barely reacting. Visa (NYSE:V) stock is flat at $356, Mastercard (NYSE:MA) shares are flat at $537, and American Express (NYSE:AXP) stock is virtually unchanged at around $356.

Reported $53B Bid Sparks the Rally

The offer, if it advances, would rank among the largest payments-sector deals in recent memory. Under the reported structure, Stripe and Advent would own PayPal equally, with no plans to break up the business, and the bid is backed by $50 billion in committed financing. Stripe and Advent are private companies, so neither trades publicly.

This remains a reported approach rather than a signed deal. PayPal has not responded publicly, and Stripe, Advent, and PayPal all declined to comment. Reuters also indicated that an earlier approach in April went unanswered, with the buyers now pushing for an agreement by month-end.

Not everyone thinks $60.50 is enough. On his Substack, “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry called the bid “simply too low” and “only an opening bid,” stated he is not selling PayPal shares, and pegged fair value in a $75 to $115 range, with a best estimate near $100. Thomas Hayes of Great Hill Capital, quoted in reporting, asserted that even an offer above $80 would undervalue PayPal.

Read-Through to Visa, Mastercard, and American Express

The muted response in card-network stocks makes sense. Visa and Mastercard are the rails that digital wallets like PayPal and Stripe often run on, so a Stripe-PayPal tie-up is not an obvious fundamental threat to their processing volumes. American Express operates a differentiated closed-loop, premium-cardholder model that competes on a different axis entirely.

Year-to-date positioning tells the same story. Visa stock is up 2% YTD, Mastercard shares are down 5%, and American Express stock is down 3%. Traders appear to be treating today’s rally in PayPal as an idiosyncratic M&A event, with a thematic “who could be next” spotlight on payments consolidation rather than a re-rating catalyst for the networks. (For readers exploring the broader payments landscape, our Next NVIDIA Playbook report frames how to think about disruptive platform bets like this one.)

To achieve diversified fintech exposure without single-name deal risk, the Global X FinTech ETF (NASDAQ:FINX) offers a basket approach across payments, software, and digital-finance platforms. The ETF is a narrow, thematic fund with concentration risk, so investors should consider keeping their position sizes modest.

What to Watch Next

The bull case for PayPal is straightforward: a live takeover premium, a trailing P/E ratio of 9x that leaves room for a higher bid, and an improving free cash flow profile under new CEO Enrique Lores. Polymarket traders are currently pricing an 82% probability that PayPal is acquired before 2027, and a 75% probability that Stripe specifically closes a deal in 2026.

Reddit sentiment on r/stocks flipped from a bearish score of 22 before the news to bullish scores in the 67 to 72 range overnight, with competitive pressure from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay, Google Pay, and other wallets remaining a factor if a deal falls apart. Bear in mind that the offer is unconfirmed, and PayPal has not accepted.

Watch for whether PayPal’s board issues a formal response before month-end, whether Stripe and Advent raise the bid to counter Burry-style pushback, and how the stock behaves relative to the $60.50 offer price in the coming days. If PYPL shares trade meaningfully above the bid, the market is probably signaling that it expects a sweetened offer.

The post PayPal Soars 19% on a Reported $53B Stripe-Advent Takeover Offer: What It Means for Visa, Mastercard, and American Express appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Retirement-focused investors have a compelling setup in American Express (NYSE:AXP) before the July 24 earnings report, and the case is straightforward. A premium-customer franchise growing double digits, an aggressive capital return program, and a stock still trading below its December highs make this a rare setup where the fundamentals, the model, and the calendar all point the same direction.

Valuation Is the Easy Part

AXP traded around at $359.94 on July 14 against management’s reaffirmed FY2026 EPS guidance of $17.30 to $17.90. That is roughly 20x forward earnings for a business that just posted 18% EPS growth and 10% FX-adjusted revenue growth in Q1. The 24/7 Wall St. model targets $390.12 with 90% confidence, and the Street’s consensus sits at $372.22 across 14 Buy ratings versus just one Sell rating. Shares are down 3.43% year-to-date, offering a cheaper entry on a stronger business.

The Income Story Retirement Investors Want

Amex hiked its dividend 16% to 95 cents per share quarterly starting Q1 2026. In that single quarter the company returned $2.3 billion to shareholders, split between $0.7 billion in dividends and $1.7 billion in buybacks. Diluted share count fell to 686 million from 702 million, and Q1 ROE hit 35%. Insiders are voting with cash: 21 recent insider transactions with a net buying direction.

The July 24 Catalyst

Q1 delivered the strongest spend growth in three years: Card Member spending grew 9% FX-adjusted, and Net Card Fees rose 16% FX-adjusted, extending a 30-quarter streak of double-digit net card fee growth. Younger cohorts are compounding: Gen Z spending up 38%, Millennials up 13%. The U.S. Platinum refresh drove a 6-percentage-point acceleration in Platinum spend, most of it from tenured cardholders. Polymarket bettors assign a 74.5% probability that Q2 revenue clears $19.5B. CEO Stephen Squeri summed it up: “We had a very strong start to the year, reflecting continued momentum across our premium customer base.”

Why AXP Beats the Obvious Alternative

The reflex comparison is Visa (NYSE:V). Visa is a pure transaction toll-taker with no equivalent to AXP’s Net Card Fees line, the fastest-growing pillar at Amex at 16% FX-adjusted growth. AXP also owns the customer relationship through its closed-loop network, which is why over 70% of new accounts are on fee-paying products. Retirement investors get compounding fee income on top of swipe volume, and the credit book is behaving: net write-off rate improved to 2.0% from 2.1%.

The July 24 report is the near-term catalyst to watch.

The post The 1 Simple Reason to Buy American Express Before July 24 Earnings appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Warren Buffett spent decades assembling Berkshire Hathaway’s equity book around a simple principle: Own high-quality businesses that produce predictable cash flow and share it with owners. Three of the longest-tenured holdings in that portfolio, Coca-Cola, American Express, and Chevron, all pushed their dividends higher over the past six months, and each offers a distinct income and growth profile heading into the back half of 2026. Here’s why July is a reasonable window for investors to examine each one.

Coca-Cola (KO)

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) has been the archetypal Buffett income holding for decades, and the fundamentals still look sturdy. The company delivered $816 million in dividend income to Berkshire in 2025 alone, on a cost-basis yield that Berkshire’s disclosures pegged at 65%. That is what compounding at scale looks like.

Q1 2026 results reinforced the thesis. Coca-Cola posted EPS of 86 cents against the 81 cents expected, with revenue of $12.47 billion up 12.1% year over year and organic revenue growth of 10%. Operating margin expanded to 35.0% from 32.9%, and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume grew 13%. Management guided FY2026 organic revenue growth to 4-5% and comparable EPS growth to 8-9%.

The current quarterly dividend sits at 53 cents per share, up from 51 cents in 2025, extending a streak of annual increases that now stretches back more than six decades. Shares traded around $83.93 on July 8, up more than 21% year to date. The forward P/E of 26 is not cheap and a dividend yield of 2.53% reflects that.

The risk: FX headwinds, a $960 million BODYARMOR impairment, and roughly 4% headwind from divestitures including the pending Coca-Cola Beverages Africa sale can weigh on reported growth even as the underlying business hums.

American Express (AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is the growth engine of the Buffett dividend trio. The company recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.82 to $0.95 per share, roughly a 16% bump, and Berkshire collected $479 million in AXP dividend income during 2025 on a 44% cost-basis yield. The stock has gained nearly 125% since the start of 2023, elevating its weight in Berkshire’s equity portfolio.

Q1 2026 numbers were strong across the board. AXP reported EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 expected, revenue of $18.91 billion, and net income of $2.97 billion, up 15%. Billed business hit $428.0 billion, and card member spending climbed 10%, the highest quarterly growth in three years. Net card fee revenues grew double digits for a 30th consecutive quarter. The write-off rate improved to 2.0% from 2.1%. Management reaffirmed FY2026 guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90.

CEO Stephen J. Squeri said, “We had a very strong start to the year, reflecting continued momentum across our premium customer base.” Shares traded around $337.34 on July 8 after an 8.02% rally over the past month, with a forward P/E of 20 and analyst target of $366.58.

The risk: Macro and geopolitical uncertainty, potential credit card interest rate caps, and rising variable engagement costs could compress margins if premium spending slows.

Chevron (CVX)

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is the highest-yielding name in this group and the one most tied to the commodity cycle. The quarterly dividend was recently raised to $1.78 per share, up from $1.71, extending a 39-year streak of annual increases. Trailing yield sits near 4.08%.

Q1 2026 marked Chevron’s sixth consecutive EPS beat. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.41 versus 97 cents expected, a 45.56% beat. Worldwide net oil-equivalent production jumped 15% to 3,858 MBOED, powered by the Hess acquisition and record U.S. output above 2 million bpd for a third straight quarter. Chevron repurchased $2.5 billion in Q1, its 16th consecutive quarter returning more than $5 billion to shareholders. In 2025 alone, the company returned $27.1 billion to shareholders.

Wolfe Research upgraded CVX to Outperform with a $210 price target on July 6, citing Guyana as a near-term free cash flow catalyst. CEO Mike Wirth said, “Chevron delivered solid first quarter performance, underscoring the resilience of our portfolio and the value of disciplined execution.” Shares traded around $175.66 on July 8, still up nearly 13% year to date despite a roughly 17% pullback from their 2026 high.

The risk: Citigroup sees Brent falling to $60–$65/barrel by year-end, and Goldman Sachs forecasts a 3 million bpd global oil surplus by 2027. Political friction in California and Venezuela operational uncertainty add to the volatility.

What to Watch Next

Each of these Berkshire mainstays offers a different flavor of the same underlying thesis: durable brands, disciplined capital returns, and dividends that keep climbing. Coca-Cola gives defensive stability, American Express supplies dividend growth with premium-consumer torque, and Chevron delivers the highest current yield with commodity optionality. Upcoming Q2 earnings reports across all three will be the next major test.

The post 3 Warren Buffett Dividend Stocks to Buy in July appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

On the June 10, 2026 episode of The Ramsey Show, a caller named Michelle from New York explained that after her father died in July, she discovered her 85-year-old widowed mother had accumulated roughly $45,000 in credit card debt across an Amex, a Citi Mastercard, and a Citi Visa. Her mother owns nothing. The house was transferred to the children in 2006. Social Security is the only income, and about $300 a month is left after fixed expenses. Three collectors are sending letters, and American Express has already filed suit for $9,385.15.

Dave Ramsey’s response was blunt: “Citibank and Amex have screwed an 85-year-old widow. They issued her card at a high interest rate and she has no income but Social Security.” The stakes are real. Panic about a lawsuit can push families to drain their own savings to cover a parent’s card balance they have zero legal obligation to pay.

The verdict: Ramsey is right, and the mechanic is called judgment-proof

Two rules of federal and state law drive this case. First, debt is not inherited in the United States. When someone dies, creditors are paid from the estate. If the estate holds nothing, they get nothing, and adult children do not owe a parent’s credit card balance unless they cosigned or were joint account holders. Second, Social Security benefits cannot be garnished by commercial creditors. A credit card company can win a judgment and still collect zero dollars if the only income is Social Security and there are no assets to seize.

That combination is what Ramsey means by judgment-proof. As he put it: “You cannot garnish Social Security either. So sue away. She’s what we call judgment proof.” Amex can win the $9,385.15 case and still walk away empty-handed. Citi can send letters for years. Neither can force a fixed-income widow with no property to pay.

The lending economics matter here. According to Federal Reserve G.19 data, the average credit card APR across all accounts stood at roughly 21% in mid-2026, while accounts actively accruing interest averaged 22.15% in Q2 2026. A $45,000 balance at that rate compounds by more than $9,900 in interest in a single year, exceeding the entire Amex lawsuit amount. The political environment has taken notice: in January 2026, President Trump publicly called for a one-year 10% cap on credit card interest rates, and later asked Congress to legislate it, though no cap has been enacted. Issuing revolving credit at 21%-plus to a customer whose only income is Social Security is a business model, not an oversight.

Why settlement, not silence, is the smart move

Being judgment-proof means creditors cannot force payment. It does not mean the phone stops ringing or the lawsuit disappears from court records. That is why Ramsey pushed Michelle toward a negotiated settlement rather than simply waiting the situation out.

His specific math: offer roughly 10 cents on the dollar to make it go away. On the Amex suit, that works out to about $1,000 against the $9,385.15 claim. Amex understands that the collection value of a judgment against a Social Security recipient is close to zero, so a lump-sum offer often clears the account. The family, not the mother, would fund the payment purely to end the hassle.

Two guardrails are non-negotiable. Get every settlement offer in writing before sending a dollar, and confirm the letter states the account will be reported as settled in full with no residual balance. Ramsey warned that collectors will say almost anything on a phone call. Share no bank account numbers, no Social Security number, and no details about the mother’s income beyond what a court filing already discloses.

The variable that changes the answer

The one factor that flips this analysis is whether the debtor has non-exempt assets or income beyond Social Security. A widow with a paid-off house in her own name, a pension, an IRA distribution, or a part-time job is not judgment-proof. A creditor can place a lien on the house, levy a bank account holding pension deposits, or garnish wages up to state limits. In Michelle’s case the home moved to the children in 2006 and Social Security is the sole income, so the shield holds. Any change to that fact pattern, such as a small inheritance, a home in the mother’s name, or a survivor annuity, shifts settlement leverage back toward the creditor.

What to do this week

1. Confirm the account structure. Pull statements for all three cards. If the mother is the sole account holder and no child cosigned, no heir owes the balance.
2. Answer the Amex lawsuit on time. Ignoring a summons produces a default judgment. Filing a response or hiring a consumer-debt attorney for a flat fee preserves settlement leverage.
3. Send written settlement offers. Start near 10% of each balance. Require a signed letter confirming the account is settled in full before any payment moves.
4. Close and shred every card. New borrowing with no ability to repay is where the moral obligation actually lives.
5. Document Social Security as the sole income. A one-page letter from the SSA showing the 2.8% 2026 COLA benefit amount often ends collection calls faster than any legal argument.

Ramsey’s language was harsh because the underlying lending decision deserved it. A creditor that issues a 21%-plus card to a widow living on Social Security alone is not owed a rescue from her children.

Editor’s note: This pass updated the average credit card APR figure to reflect Q2 2026 Federal Reserve data (roughly 21% across all accounts, 22.15% for accounts accruing interest), and added context on President Trump’s January 2026 call for a 10% credit card interest rate cap, which remains unenacted.

The post Dave Ramsey: “Citibank and Amex Have Screwed an 85-Year-Old Widow” With $45,000 in Credit Card Debt appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) both closed the books on Q1 2026 with headline beats, but the businesses underneath tell very different stories. One collects a toll on global commerce. The other funds the plastic in wealthy wallets. With credit card delinquencies sitting at 2.92% and still normalizing, the contrast in risk exposure matters.

Network Fees Carry Mastercard. Premium Cards Carry Amex.

Mastercard delivered $8.40 billion in revenue, up 15.8% year over year, with EPS of $4.60. The real tell was value-added services and solutions growing 22%, well ahead of the 12% payment network revenue line. CEO Michael Miebach noted: “Mastercard is diversified, future-ready, and delivering.” Cross-border volume climbed 13%, and gross dollar volume touched $2.7 trillion. No lending. No credit provisions. Just fees.

American Express posted EPS of $4.28 on revenue of $18.907 billion, with billed business hitting $428.0 billion. Card Member spending accelerated to 9% FX-adjusted, the highest quarterly growth in three years. CEO Stephen Squeri credited the Graphite Business Cash Unlimited Card launch and the NFL global payments partnership. Every dollar of that spend rides on a loan book.

Pure Toll Booth vs. Premium Membership Machine

The strategic split shows in what each management team is building. Mastercard is bolting on Mastercard Agent Pay and the planned BVNK acquisition for stablecoin rails. These are software layers on top of a network that scales without adding capital. Amex is pouring investment into Centurion Lounges in Las Vegas and New Delhi, the Resy and Tock dining integration, and the upcoming Platinum refresh. Squeri flagged higher variable customer engagement costs as a real headwind.

Valuation reflects the gap. Mastercard trades at a forward P/E of 26. Amex sits at 19. You are paying up for margin insulation, defensible when consumer credit is still normalizing.

What Decides the Next Six Months

For Mastercard, value-added services need to stay above 20% growth and BVNK must close cleanly. For Amex, the Platinum refresh needs to convert, and net write-offs need to hold near 2.0%. Squeri reaffirmed 9 to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90 for 2026, though sensitive to any downshift in affluent spending.

Why I Lean Toward Mastercard Right Now

I favor Mastercard here. The capital-light network framework means margins compound without balance-sheet drag, and MA has trailed AXP down 8.19% YTD versus a 5.43% YTD decline, creating an entry point in the more insulated business. If you want cyclical upside and a fatter dividend, Amex still fits. I would change my view if delinquencies drop back under 2.5%, because that is when AXP’s lending engine shines. Until then, the tollbooth wins.

The post Mastercard Vs. American Express: Buy Mastercard to Secure Risk-Free Network Fees and Pure Margin Insulation appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting is in the rearview mirror, and investors are now parsing Greg Abel’s early portfolio moves as CEO. The Q1 2026 13F told a clear story: Abel is willing to do the things Warren Buffett openly regretted not doing sooner. That includes finally embracing big tech, leaning harder into AI-exposed names and continuing to compound the consumer franchises Buffett built the empire around.

Here are three U.S.-listed stocks that fit the “ones that got away, until they didn’t” theme this June.

Alphabet (GOOGL)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is the freshest example. Per the Q1 2026 13F, Abel aggressively added to GOOGL, with shares up about 204% in the quarter, and a separate GOOG position was initiated the same quarter. Buffett and Charlie Munger both publicly called missing Google a mistake. Abel is correcting it.

The setup is hard to argue with. Q1 2026 EPS came in at $5.11 versus the $2.63 estimate, with revenue of $109.90 billion, up 22% year over year. Google Cloud grew 63% to $20.03 billion with a backlog near $460 billion. Shares trade at $369.35 on a forward P/E of 26x, with a Street target of $432.83 and 14 strong-buy and 43 buy ratings against just 7 holds. The stock is up 18% YTD and 112% over one year.

Retail is along for the ride. A widely circulated r/stocks post titled “For those who keep asking for a ‘one buy and hold for the next 10 years’ the opportunity is here: it’s GOOGL” drew 2,134 upvotes.

Risk: AI CapEx is mammoth. Alphabet guided 2026 capex of $175 billion to $185 billion, and Q1 free cash flow already fell 47% year over year. If AI monetization slips, the depreciation wave will bite margins.

Apple (AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains Berkshire’s largest holding at roughly 22% of the portfolio. Buffett has said multiple times he wishes he had started buying sooner. He didn’t begin until 2016, and the stock is up 1,266% over the past 10 years. Even after trimming, Berkshire still leans on Apple as its anchor.

Recent results explain why. Q2 FY26 EPS of $2.01 beat the $1.94 estimate on revenue of $111.18 billion, up 17%. iPhone revenue jumped to $56.99 billion from $46.84 billion on iPhone 17 demand. Services hit an all-time record of $30.98 billion. Management authorized a new $100 billion buyback and lifted the dividend 4% to $0.27. CEO Tim Cook called it the “Best March quarter ever…double-digit growth across every geographic segment.”

Shares trade at a premium, with a forward P/E of 31x and an analyst target of $312.72. The installed base sits at 2.5 billion-plus active devices, a moat that compounds Services revenue every quarter.

Risk: Valuation is the friction. At a trailing P/E of 35x, any tariff escalation or China softness gets punished quickly. An r/stocks thread asking “is there underappreciated risk of AAPL re-rating significantly downward?” drew 146 comments, a fair counterpoint to the bull case.

American Express (AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is a long-time Berkshire core holding. Buffett has said he should have bought more sooner and never sold. The position dates back decades, and Abel has signaled comfort holding through cycles.

The Q1 2026 numbers reinforce why. EPS of $4.28 beat the $3.99 estimate, revenue came in at $18.91 billion, and billed business hit $428.0 billion, up 10% year over year, the highest quarterly growth in three years. The net write-off rate improved to 2% from 2%. Management reaffirmed full-year guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90. CEO Stephen Squeri summed it up: “We delivered 10 percent FX-adjusted revenue growth and 18 percent EPS growth in the quarter…Card Member spending grew 9 percent FX-adjusted, the highest quarterly growth in three years.”

Shares closed at $340.78, with the stock down 9% YTD but up 7% in the past week and 18% over one year. Forward P/E is 19x, the cheapest multiple of the three, and the Street target is $361.94. The dividend was hiked 16% in Q4 2025 to $0.95 quarterly, with net card fee revenue growing double digits for 30 consecutive quarters.

Risk: Amex is macro-sensitive. A consumer slowdown, tariff escalation, or new interest-rate cap regulation could compress engagement margins, especially after the recent Platinum refresh.

The Takeaway

The common thread across all three is that Berkshire eventually paid up for quality it could have owned cheaper. GOOGL is the freshest example of Abel acting decisively on a stock Buffett admittedly missed. AAPL is the franchise that proved the thesis. AXP is the multi-decade compounder that keeps validating the strategy. Investors studying Abel’s first moves should keep an eye on whether the GOOGL position grows again in the next 13F.

The post 3 Stocks Warren Buffett Wishes He Bought Sooner appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Pre-Market Stock Futures:

Futures are trading higher this morning after we finally heard what we expected from Kevin Warsh, the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve: they may have to raise rates later this year if inflation continues to flare up. That was all it took for all stocks to rollover and face-plant. By the close, all of the major indices finished the day lower, with the Nasdaq taking the biggest hit, closing down 1.35% at 26,021, while the S&P 500 finished the session down 1.21% at 7,420. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.98% at 51,487, while the small-cap Russell 2000 fared the best on the day, down 0.74% at 2,917.

Treasury Bonds:

Needless to say, the bond market didn’t respond well to the potential for higher rates, as yields were up across the entire curve. When the dust settled by the close, surprisingly, the 30-year bond essentially closed unchanged at 4.93%, while the benchmark 10-year note took a big drubbing, closing the day at 4.50%. Despite concerns about what may happen later this year, the Fed left the fed-fund rate unchanged at 3.5%-3.75%. 

Oil and Gas:

After some serious selling this week, on news of a potential peace agreement with Iran, some light buying entered the energy complex on Wednesday. Brent Crude closed the day modestly higher at $78.99, up 0.04%, while West Texas Intermediate closed the day at $76.10, up 0.07%.

Gold:

After a solid start to the week, Gold took a big step backward on Wednesday, rolling off the table as the Fed warned about the potential for a rate increase at about 1 P.M. EDT. When the smoke cleared, the final print was reported at $4,254, down 1.75%, while Silver was last seen at $67.60, down 3.34%. 

Crypto:

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports every day to identify fresh investment ideas for investors and traders alike. These daily analyst notes include recommendations on stocks to buy, sell, or avoid, as well as new coverage initiations. Important reminder: No single analyst report should ever be the sole basis for buying or selling a stock.

Here are some of the best Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen on Thursday, June 18, 2026.

Upgrades:

• Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) was graded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup, with an unchanged target price of $225.
• American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at DZ Bank, which has a $375 target price.
• CME Group (NYSE: CME) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, which has set a $305 target price.
• Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight, without a price target.
• Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ: VRSK) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Rothchild & Co Redburn, with a $185 target price.

Downgrades:

• FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS) was cut to Sell from Neutral at Rothschild & Co Redburn, which has a $215 target price for the shares.
• Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel, which slashed the target price for the shares to $275 from $375.
• Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE: JEF) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS, which raised the target price for the company to $67 from $59.
• Payoneer Global (NASDAQ: PAYO) was cut to Hold from Buy at Benchmark. Nuvei is buying the company for $7.40 per share.
• Prologis (NYSE: PLD) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Scotiabank, which trimmed the target price for the stock to $146 from $154.

Initiations:

• Constellation Energy Corporation(NYSE: CEG) was initiated with a Buy rating at Goldman Sachs, with a $499 target price.
• Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA) was started with a Buy rating at Jefferies, which has a $185 target price for the stock.
• Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) was initiated with a Buy rating at Arete, with a Wall Street high $401 target price.
• STAG Industrial (NYSE: STAG) was resumed with an Outperform rating at Raymond James with a $44 target price.
• Targa Resources (NYSE: TRGP) was initiated with a Buy rating at Jefferies, with a $314 target price objective.

The post Here Are Thursday’s Best Wall Street Analyst Research Calls: Albemarle, American Express, CME Group, Constellation Energy, Fact Set Research, Intuit, SpaceX, Targa Resources, and More appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Buffett famously refuses to pay a dividend on Berkshire Hathaway because he believes he can compound your cash better than you can. The VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) disagrees, politely. OMAH holds a Berkshire-style basket of value names and overlays an options strategy designed to push out a 15% annual distribution, paid monthly. The result: you get Warren’s shopping list, plus an income stream he would personally never authorize.

The fund and the trade it makes

The underlying portfolio leans on the cash-flow machines Berkshire actually owns. Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO | KO Price Prediction), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) anchor the lineup. Defensive consumer, premium credit, money-center banking, integrated energy. Boring on purpose. The options overlay sells calls against the basket and uses synthetic positions to manufacture the rest of the yield when option premium runs thin. The fund carries an expense ratio of 0.95%, which is typical for actively managed options-income ETFs but worth factoring into any yield comparison.

Whether the 15% target actually pays

Over the past year OMAH returned roughly 13% in price terms, before distributions. Berkshire shares, by contrast, were roughly flat over the same window. That gap matters because the standard knock on income-overlay funds is they bleed net asset value to fund the payout. OMAH’s price held up while Berkshire drifted, largely because the underlying basket delivered. The boring names, CVX, BAC, and KO, did the actual work.

The 15% figure on the label is a stated target with no guarantee attached. VistaShares constructs the distribution from option premium, dividends out of the holdings (KO yields about 2.6%, AXP about 1.1%), and, when the math falls short, return of capital. Return of capital is the fund handing you back a slice of your own principal and calling it income. If markets drift sideways for a year and call premium dries up, the monthly check still arrives, and NAV pays the bill. OMAH’s year-to-date price gain suggests the construction has held together through 2026, though a sustained bear market remains the real stress test. The fund’s rapid growth to nearly $1 billion in assets under management since its March 2025 launch signals that income-focused investors have accepted the trade-off.

The tradeoffs you accept

Three constraints define the product. The first is capped upside: short calls cut off the right tail. Berkshire has compounded roughly 70% over five years and about 240% over ten, but an options-overlay version of that basket would have surrendered most of the late-stage gains. The fund is built for a flat-to-rising market and gives up the melt-ups. In a year where the S&P 500 rips 25% on a tech-led rally, OMAH structurally cannot keep pace because call writing caps participation above the strike. That is the deal: trade upside for cash flow today.

The second constraint is tax friction. Monthly distributions in a taxable account get complicated fast, especially when part of the payout is option premium taxed at ordinary income rates and another slice is return of capital that reduces your cost basis rather than counting as qualified dividend income. Hold OMAH in an IRA or accept the drag. The third is the Berkshire impersonation problem. The basket borrows Buffett’s holdings but cannot borrow his process. The real conglomerate runs on insurance float, has the ability to acquire a railroad or a chemicals business on its own terms, and currently sits on nearly $400 billion in cash and short-term Treasury bills waiting for the right pitch. Now led by CEO Greg Abel following Buffett’s transition, Berkshire has maintained that discipline even as it posted record operating earnings. OMAH owns the names, not the operator or the balance sheet behind them.

Who should own OMAH

OMAH fits a retiree or pure income investor who has already accepted the terms. You want a monthly check denominated in dollars from companies that sell soda, swipe credit cards, and pump oil. You plan to spend the income, so surrendering Berkshire’s long-run compounding upside is a fair trade. A 5% to 10% sleeve alongside a broad index fund and a core bond allocation is the sensible dose, and the monthly cadence pairs cleanly with monthly bills in retirement. The right mental model is to treat OMAH as a fixed-income substitute rather than an equity growth vehicle, because the distribution profile behaves more like a high-yield bond than a conventional stock fund.

Anyone still in accumulation mode owns the wrong fund here. Berkshire’s ten-year total return of roughly 240% with zero distribution-tax drag is the actual Buffett playbook, and reinvesting forced distributions from OMAH inside a taxable account creates friction that compounds against you over a multi-decade horizon. For income seekers who want value-style holdings without the options engineering, a low-cost dividend ETF yields less but compounds without the synthetic plumbing or the return-of-capital footnotes that appear every January on the 1099. The right answer depends entirely on whether you need the cash now or later.

OMAH is unambiguously a now-cash product.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect Berkshire Hathaway’s record Q1 2026 cash and Treasury bill position of $397.4 billion, Greg Abel’s tenure as CEO, OMAH’s expense ratio of 0.95%, the fund’s growth to nearly $1 billion in assets under management, and a refreshed Berkshire ten-year total return of approximately 240%.

The post The 15% Yield ETF That Steals Warren Buffett’s Playbook appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) on December 31, 2025, after six decades leading the conglomerate he transformed from a struggling textile mill into a $1 trillion empire. The “Oracle of Omaha” left his successor, Greg Abel, with a very concentrated portfolio: 70% of Berkshire’s $381 billion portfolio is invested in just seven stocks. Abel, who has served as vice chair overseeing non-insurance operations, officially took over as CEO on January 1, 2026. At 95 years old, Buffett isn’t fully retiring—he will remain chair of the board and plans to continue coming to the Omaha headquarters as much as before. However, he has stated he will be “going quiet” and leaving all decision-making to Abel.

One thing is for sure: the new CEO got to work in the first quarter, and 16 companies were eliminated, leaving just 26 stocks in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. In addition, Abel stunned the world as the company made its first major acquisition of a publicly traded company in years, buying homebuilder Taylor Morrison (NYSE: TMHC). The deal was priced at $72.50 per share in an all-cash transaction, implying an equity value of $6.8 billion and an enterprise value of $8.5 billion, including the homebuilder’s net debt. The agreement, one of the first major acquisitions under Abel, delivers a 24% premium to the target’s prior stock price. It is expected to close in the second half of the year, with Taylor Morrison continuing to operate under its existing management team. Before Taylor Morrison, the company’s last major buyout of an entire publicly traded company was Alleghany, which was acquired for $11.6 billion in 2022.

After the portfolio purge and the first acquisition since the purchase of OxyChem from Occidental Petroleum, just four stocks now make up 53.8% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Of the four stocks, only one saw any selling in the first quarter. However, the sale was quite minor, reducing their massive investment by less than 1%.

Why do we cover Berkshire Hathaway stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 60 years. Though he has stepped away from the CEO chair, his impact and investment guidelines are likely to remain in place long after he is gone. While investing has evolved since Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach.

Here are the four companies that now make up 53.8% of Berkshire Hathaway. All are rated Buy at top Wall Street firms we cover.

American Express

American Express (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. The stock pays a dividend yield of 1.07%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company operating card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations. Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22% of American Express’s float and 14.2% of the portfolio.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $400 target price.

Apple

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, offering a small dividend of 0.35%. It is almost incomprehensible that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent fourth-quarter sale of 10 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still holds a 227,917,808-share position that accounts for 21.8% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Wedbush has an Outperform rating with a $400 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett trimmed his position in a big way over the past two years, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2% dividend yield. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company that reported impressive Q4 results. Berkshire Hathaway owns 513,624,165 shares, which is 8.3% of the portfolio and 7.2% of the float. Berkshire did lower its Bank of America position in Q1 2026, but only modestly. According to the Q1 2026 13F filing, it was reduced by just 0.71%, a tiny cut compared to other positions.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

UBS has a Buy rating with a $63 target price.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. This company remains a top long-time holding of Buffett. Berkshire owns 400 million shares, representing 9.3% of the float and 9.7% of the portfolio. The stock pays a dependable 2.46% dividend.

Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. And remember that the company owns 19.5% of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $91 target price.

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Airline stocks are trading lower across the board this Wednesday afternoon, but the more revealing story for investors is how dramatically the group has diverged in 2026. Through mid-June, Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) stock leads the four major U.S. carrier stocks by a wide margin, while American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) stock sits at the bottom of the pack.

The 2026-so-far scorecard shows a sharp split among the legacy and budget carriers. DAL stock is the only name in the group with a double-digit gain. JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) stock holds a modest positive return, while United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) stock and AAL stock are both in the red.

Premium and loyalty revenue mix, balance sheet quality, fuel-cost exposure, capacity discipline, and broader demand trends all factor into the gap. Here’s how Delta, JetBlue, United, and American stack up so far in 2026, ranked from best to worst.

Delta Air Lines Leads the Pack

Delta Air Lines tops the four-carrier ranking, with DAL stock posting a year-to-date (YTD) return of +11%. DAL stock is the only one of the four with a double-digit advance in 2026 so far, and the gap to the next-best name in the group is substantial.

Delta’s diversified revenue base helps explain the investor preference. Premium ticket revenue, loyalty contributions, and the American Express (NYSE:AXP) partnership account for the majority of adjusted revenue, giving Delta a margin profile that competitors have struggled to match.

CEO Ed Bastian asserted that Delta is “best positioned to navigate this environment” with $1 billion of profit guided for the June quarter. That profitability stands out in a year when several carriers have widened their guidance ranges.

JetBlue Holds a Modest Gain

JetBlue Airways ranks second, with JBLU stock posting a YTD return of +3%. The gain is modest, but JBLU shares have stayed green in 2026 while two larger peers slipped into negative territory.

JetBlue’s JetForward turnaround plan, premium product additions, and the Blue Sky collaboration with United have given investors reasons to stay engaged with the smaller carrier. The combination has helped reset expectations even as JetBlue’s bottom line continues to absorb pressure.

CEO Joanna Geraghty stated, “[T]he macro environment, particularly fuel, has become more volatile,” underscoring that JetBlue’s positive results sit on a fragile foundation. JBLU stock still carries elevated leverage and a smaller margin cushion than the legacy carriers, leaving it more sensitive to jet fuel price swings.

United Airlines Slips Into the Red

United Airlines lands third, with UAL stock returning -8% YTD. The loss is notable given United’s strong Q1 2026 earnings beat and double-digit revenue growth.

Fuel cost escalation and a wider full-year guidance range appear to have weighed on UAL stock sentiment. CEO Scott Kirby pointed to the “resilience of our long-term strategy, even in the face of escalating fuel expense,” while United Airlines trimmed capacity plans for the rest of the year.

UAL stock’s underperformance largely reflects investor caution around fuel recapture timing. United Airlines’ premium revenue growth and international route strength give the carrier a credible path to recovery if fuel costs stabilize in the second half of 2026.

American Airlines Brings Up the Rear

American Airlines sits at the bottom of the four-carrier ranking, with AAL stock returning -13% YTD. AAL stock is the worst performer of the group through mid-June.

Notably, American Airlines narrowed its Q1 loss and beat estimates; CEO Robert Isom asserted that the company delivered “record revenue in the first quarter, and we’re on track for another record in the second quarter.” The quarter showed solid revenue momentum, even as the American Airlines’ bottom line remained under pressure.

However, the company still carries negative stockholders’ equity and a heavy debt load, which can amplify investor concern during volatile fuel environments. AAL stock’s lag aligns with the balance-sheet sensitivity that many investors apply to airline holdings when fuel costs spike.

What to Watch

In terms of share-price performance, Delta is the clear 2026 YTD winner among the four major U.S. airline stocks. JetBlue holds a small gain, while United and American both trail the broader market through mid-June, leaving the group sharply bifurcated.

Investors can watch for whether fuel prices stabilize through the summer travel season. Stronger demand trends and capacity discipline at carriers like Delta and American could narrow the gap between leaders and laggards in the second half of the year.

Certainly, past performance doesn’t predict future returns. Still, Delta’s lead is real, and the laggards still have room to rebound if industry conditions improve.

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Three of the Dow’s worst performers this year share more than just a red ticker. American Express (NYSE: AXP) trades at $310.66 versus a Wall Street target of $361.57. Nike (NYSE: NKE) trades at $42.98 against a consensus target of $60.49. Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) changes hands at $99.71 with analysts modeling $129.67. The implied upside gaps are roughly 16%, 40%, and 30%, respectively.

Each is a household name and Dow component that has lagged while the S&P 500 advanced. The puzzle is why analysts still see this underperformance as a buying setup rather than a warning sign.

Three Names, Three Identical Pressure Points

The first commonality is consumer discretionary exposure. Premium card swipes, sneakers, and theme park tickets soften when households tighten. Goldman Sachs flagged slowing consumer spending as a key 2026 risk, and JPMorgan described a K-shaped economy where middle-income and below consumers feel pressured. These three companies sit directly in that crosswind.

The second link is premium customer tilt. American Express is built on affluent card members and has executed a U.S. Platinum Card refresh. Nike’s North America pricing depends on full-price sell-through. Disney’s Experiences segment booked record fiscal Q2 revenues of $9.49 billion on per-capita spending up 5%. Premium has been the moat, but spending slowdowns show up first here.

The third link is leadership transition. Nike CEO Elliott Hill is mid-turnaround with his Win Now plan. Disney handed the baton from Robert Iger to Josh D’Amaro. American Express CEO Stephen Squeri is steering a multi-year premium product refresh cycle. Transitions create uncertainty, and the market has discounted all three accordingly.

What Actually Broke the Stocks

American Express is off 16.0% year to date on a Q4 EPS miss of $3.53 vs. $3.55 and Platinum refresh expenses pushing costs up 10%. Disney has slid 12.4% year to date after Q1 free cash flow swung to −$2.28 billion and Entertainment segment OI dropped 35% in fiscal Q4.

Nike’s pain is acute. The stock has dropped 32.5% year to date, weighed down by 130 basis points of gross margin compression from North American tariffs, a 35% net income drop in the latest quarter, and Converse revenues down 35%.

Why the Street Will Not Budge

Analysts argue operating data is already turning. American Express reaffirmed FY26 guidance for revenue growth of 9% to 10% and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90, with Card Member spend at a three-year high. Nike’s margin compression has narrowed from −440 basis points in Q4 FY25 to −130 basis points in Q3 FY26, wholesale grew 5%, and Hill called the company in the “middle innings of our comeback.” Disney guided to ~16% adjusted EPS growth in FY26, an $8 billion buyback, and its first double-digit SVOD operating margin.

Analyst sentiment reflects that, with Disney being the most loved by analysts.

How the Math Stacks Up

The performance spread tells the story. The S&P 500 is up 8.2% year to date, so American Express trails the index by close to 24 points, Nike by nearly 40, and Disney by roughly 20. Over one year, American Express has eked out a 5.0% gain, while Nike is down 31.4% and Disney down 11.4%.

Valuation lines up with the recovery story. American Express and Nike trade at forward P/E ratios of 18 and 22, respectively. Disney is the cheapest of the three at 13 forward, with a P/B of roughly 2.

The Takeaway

The bull case rests on the consumer holding, tariffs easing, and operating leverage from premium refresh cycles kicking in during the back half of FY26. Disney offers the clearest path to target, with streaming margins inflecting and buybacks accelerating. American Express has the cleanest fundamentals and is closest to its target. Nike offers the biggest gap and the biggest risk.

The bear case takes over if the K-shaped consumer cracks. Tariffs would grind Nike margins, credit normalization would test American Express, and parks and ad-supported streaming would feel any pullback at Disney.

The verdict is constructive on Disney and American Express, but watchful on Nike until Greater China stabilizes and Converse stops bleeding. For two of the three stocks, the gap represents an opportunity. Nike is still earning the benefit of the doubt.

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The Investing for Beginners Podcast recently revisited one of the most influential ideas in modern finance. That was Benjamin Graham’s concept of buying with a margin of safety. In fact, according to host Andrew Sather, Graham’s Columbia students went on to compound capital at extraordinary rates using the same principles applied to wildly different portfolios. Walter Schloss earned 21% a year. Tweedy Brown earned 20% a year. Warren Buffett earned close to 30% a year.  Sequoia Fund earned 18% a year. Charlie Munger earned 20% a year. Rick Guerin earned 33% a year over 18 years.

The takeaway for individual investors is that the philosophy travels even when the stocks do not overlap. Two living practitioners make that case clearly today: Warren Buffett at Berkshire and Tom Gayner at Markel.

Buffett’s Quality Compounders

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) trades at roughly 14 trailing earnings and a 1.4 price-to-book ratio, with a 10.5% return on equity and a 19.3% profit margin. The stock has compounded 236.81% over the past ten years, even after a 5.43% year-to-date pullback.

The equity portfolio reads like a Graham syllabus written in consumer brands and franchises. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) just posted Q1 2026 EPS of $0.86 against an $0.81 estimate with 12.1% revenue growth to $12.47 billion and a 43.4% return on equity. American Express (NYSE: AXP) delivered EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 expected, with billed business of $428.0 billion, up 10% year over year. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) raised its dividend 3.1% to $1.34 per quarter, extending a 64-year streak, and reported $24.06 billion in Q1 2026 revenue. JNJ shares have gained 48.18% over the past year.

Each name is mainstream, with durable cash flow, pricing power, and decades of compounded capital returns. American Express CEO Stephen Squeri summarized the Amex side of that thesis on the latest call: “We delivered 10 percent FX-adjusted revenue growth and 18 percent EPS growth in the quarter. Card Member spending grew 9 percent FX-adjusted, the highest quarterly growth in three years.”

Tom Gayner’s Parallel Path at Markel

Markel Group (NYSE: MKL) runs the same structural playbook on a smaller stage: insurance float funding equity investments and wholly owned operating businesses. Gayner’s 2025 commentary repeated the familiar compounding framework. “In 2025, the Markel Group delivered meaningful progress. Operating income was $3.2 billion and adjusted operating income exceeded $2.3 billion, with every reportable segment making meaningful contributions,” he wrote in the company’s annual filing.

Q4 2025 EPS of $48.75 beat the $25.73 estimate. The combined ratio improved to 94.6% from 95.5%, and Markel deployed $429.5 million in share repurchases. Shareholders’ equity reached $18.6 billion. The stock trades at roughly 13 times trailing earnings and a 1.23 price-to-book. It had a three-year return of 32.54% through early June.

Apply the Principles, Pick Your Own Names

Co-host Stephen Morris captured the key point on the podcast: “Munger didn’t have the same portfolio as Buffett. He still did pretty good for himself.” The Superinvestors of Graham and Dodd shared a method. Their portfolios looked very different.

For individual investors, the implication is practical. Studying Berkshire’s roughly $1 trillion market capitalization or Markel’s compounding record is useful as a model of how patient capital allocation works. Replicating every holding misses the lesson. As Sather framed it, these investors were “all from the same school of thought that Benjamin Graham started, which is this idea of value investing.” The philosophy is portable. The research has to be your own.

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At $315, American Express (NYSE:AXP) looks attractively positioned. The stock has lagged while the underlying business accelerated, creating a potential opportunity.

American Express runs a closed-loop payments network anchored by premium, fee-paying cardholders. That model produces fatter spreads than open-loop rivals because Amex earns swipe fees from merchants and annual fees from cardholders while underwriting its own credit.

The company finished FY 2025 with $72.23B in revenue and $15.38 in EPS, and just printed its highest quarterly Card Member spending growth in three years.

Shares fell sharply after the Q1 2026 print on April 23, when investors fixated on heavier marketing and technology reinvestment and tariff-linked macro fears. That repricing, not the operating results, is what makes the current entry interesting.

Why the Sell-Off Created a Setup

Q1 2026 was a beat across the board. EPS came in at $4.28 against a $3.99 estimate, revenue hit $18.907 billion, net income rose 14.98%, and billed business grew 10% to $428 billion. Management reaffirmed full-year guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90.

Credit is improving. The net write-off rate fell to 2% from 2.1%, and CFO Christophe Le Caillec noted “write-off dollars are up by only 4% year-over-year, while NII is growing at double-digit pace.” Younger cohorts are powering the franchise: Gen Z spending is up 38%, millennials up 13%, and over 70% of new accounts are on fee-paying products.

On valuation, forward P/E sits at 18 with ROE of 34.4%. That is a reasonable multiple for a compounder growing EPS in the high teens and returning capital aggressively.

Why the Bears Have a Point

Amex is a consumer credit story heading into a soft macro. Tariff overhang, a potential consumer slowdown, and the threat of credit card interest rate caps all sit over the stock. Q4 2025 EPS of $3.53 missed the $3.55 estimate, the first crack in a clean run, and consolidated expenses rose 10% in that quarter.

Wall Street is not effusive. 15 analysts rate the stock Hold against 11 Buy or Strong Buy ratings and 1 Sell. Insider activity has tilted toward distribution: EVP Controller Quinn Lieberman disposed of 3,032 shares at $300.02 in early March. The stock trades below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, signaling that institutional money has yet to step back in.

The Patience Argument

A hold case is defensible. PEG of 1.54 is not screaming cheap, and the Platinum refresh will lap into 2027, removing a key tailwind. Le Caillec told investors “I wouldn’t expect a further acceleration; I expect that step-up to maintain into 2027.” Investors waiting for a clearer macro picture or a sub-$300 retest are not obviously wrong.

The cost of waiting is real. Card fees have grown double digits for 30 consecutive quarters, the dividend was raised 16%, and buybacks took diluted share count from 702M to 686M over a year.

The Numbers Behind the Call

AXP trades at $315.12, against an average analyst price target of $361.57, implying meaningful upside. The coverage universe spans 27 analysts:

• Strong Buy: 3
• Buy: 8
• Hold: 15
• Sell: 1

AXP is down 14.36% year to date, while the S&P 500 is up 10.66%. Shares trade at a trailing P/E of 20 and forward P/E of 18, with a 1.1% dividend yield.

At $315, the Setup Favors the Bulls

The market is pricing a credit cycle that the data is not delivering. Net write-offs improved, premium spend accelerated, and management raised marketing investment because “we’ve decided to increase our investments in marketing and technology to capitalize on key growth opportunities.” That is an offensive posture.

If Amex hits the midpoint of its $17.30 to $17.90 EPS guide, a 19x multiple gets the stock back near analyst targets within 12 months. Card fee growth runs into the high teens by year-end, the Graphite small-business card and a corporate cash-back launch arrive in the back half, and AI productivity is already delivering a 30% benefit in coding and testing.

The thesis breaks if write-offs spike above 2.5% or if billed business growth drops below 5%. Watch the next two quarters of credit metrics and Platinum retention.

An 18x forward compounder with 35% ROE trading after a 14% drawdown into a strengthening operating backdrop is the kind of setup that has historically rewarded patient holders.

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Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on December 31, 2025, after six decades leading the conglomerate he transformed from a struggling textile mill into a $1 trillion empire. The “Oracle of Omaha” left his successor, Greg Abel, with a very concentrated portfolio: 70% of Berkshire’s $381 billion portfolio is invested in just seven stocks. Abel, who has served as vice chair overseeing non-insurance operations, officially took over as CEO on January 1, 2026. At 95 years old, Buffett isn’t fully retiring—he will remain chair of the board and plans to continue coming to the Omaha headquarters as much as before. However, he has stated he will be “going quiet” and leaving all decision-making to Abel.

An astonishing 16 positions were entirely exited during the first quarter, in one of the most aggressive selling sprees the investment giant has done in years. Many of the top names were sold, and some large chunks of big names were also pared down but remain in the portfolio. A key factor behind the selling was the departure of portfolio manager Todd Combs. After he left Berkshire for an investment role at JPMorgan Chase, the firm sold the stocks in his portfolio, valued at roughly $15 billion. Still, total sales reached $24 billion, meaning Berkshire offloaded substantially more than just Combs’ holdings.

Despite the massive selling, which brought the portfolio’s total holdings from 40 positions down to just 26, making it one of Berkshire’s most aggressive single quarters in years, seven companies still account for just under 70% of the holdings.

Why do we cover Berkshire Hathaway stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 60 years. Though he has stepped away from the CEO chair, his impact and investment guidelines are likely to remain in place long after he is gone. While investing has evolved since Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach.

Here are the seven stocks that account for almost 70% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio.

Alphabet

The mega-cap tech giant was a major addition in the first quarter, strengthening Berkshire’s growth potential. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is a holding company and pays a small 0.22% dividend. Berkshire Hathaway came in big in the first quarter, adding a massive 36.4 million Class A shares and 3.5 million Class C shares, which tripled the existing stake. Berkshire now owns 57,835,013 shares, which is 0.9% of the float and 6.8% of the portfolio.

The company’s segments include:

• Google Services, which includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.
• Google Cloud provides infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers.
• Other Bets sells healthcare-related services and internet services.

Google Cloud provides enterprise-ready cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. Google Cloud Platform provides access to solutions such as:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, including its AI infrastructure
• Vertex AI platform
• Gemini for Google Cloud
• Xybersecurity, data, and analytics

Google Workspace includes cloud-based communication and collaboration tools for enterprises, such as Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Meet.

American Express

American Express (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. The stock performed strongly in 2025 and comes with a dividend yield of 1.09%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations. Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22% of American Express’s float and 14.2% of the portfolio.

Truist Financial has a Buy rating with a $400 target price.

Apple

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, offering a small dividend of 0.35%. It is almost incomprehensible that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent fourth-quarter sale of 10 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still holds a 227,917,808-share position that accounts for a stunning 20.7% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Wedbush has an Outperform rating with a $325 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the past two years and sold a whopping 50 million shares in the fourth quarter, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2.17% dividend yield. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding and financial holding company that reported impressive Q4 results. Berkshire Hathaway owns 513,624,165 shares, which is 7.9% of the portfolio and 7.2% of the float. Berkshire did lower its Bank of America position in Q1 2026, but only modestly. According to the Q1 2026 13F filing, it was reduced by just 0.71%, a very small cut compared to other positions.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $67 target price.

Chevron

This American multinational energy company primarily focuses on oil and gas. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector, and it pays a substantial 3.61% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. The company operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide. Berkshire Hathaway bought a very well-timed 8 million additional shares in the fourth quarter, but sold a massive 46 million shares in Q1. Despite the sale, Berkshire still holds 84,375,856 shares, representing 4.2% of the float and 5.1% of the portfolio.

The company operates in two segments. The Upstream segment is involved in:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Bank of America has a Buy rating with a $206 target price.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. This company remains a top long-time holding of Buffett. Berkshire owns a massive 400 million shares, which is 9.3% of the float and 9.9% of the portfolio. The stock pays a dependable 2.54% dividend.

Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. And remember that the company owns 19.5% of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a target price of $87.

Occidental Petroleum

After years of building this position, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are finally in the money on this company, which pays a 1.64% dividend. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) is an international energy company with assets primarily in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. The company is an oil and gas producer in the United States, including the Permian and D.J. basins and offshore Gulf of America.

Berkshire Hathaway has a large position in the company, owning 264,941,431 shares, representing 26.7% of the float and 4.9% of the portfolio.

Occidental’s oil and gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil (including condensate), natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The midstream and marketing segment purchases, markets, gathers, processes, transports, and stores oil (including condensate), NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), and power. This segment provides flow assurance, maximizes the value of its oil and gas, and optimizes the company’s transportation and storage capacity. It also invests in entities that conduct similar activities, including low-carbon venture businesses.

A notable recent development was Occidental’s decision to sell its OxyChem subsidiary to Berkshire Hathaway, with the bulk of the proceeds expected to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and further concentrate its business on oil and gas. The move was especially interesting because Buffett had reportedly long been interested in OxyChem, and Berkshire now owns the business outright. Berkshire Hathaway completed its purchase of OxyChem from Occidental on January 2, 2026, giving Buffett full ownership of the chemicals business while providing Occidental with $9.7 billion in cash to reduce debt and sharpen its focus on energy.

Mizuho has an Overweight rating and a $72 price objective.

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Although Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) has compiled the single best long-run track record in modern markets, the man who built it spent most of his shareholder letters telling you not to try this at home. On Wall Street, that contradiction has hardened into one of investing’s most durable patterns. From 1965 to 2025, Berkshire posted a 19.7% compound annual growth rate for a 39,000x return. Over that same span, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), the standard proxy for the benchmark index, compounded at 10.5% a year, translating to a 405x return with dividends reinvested. The man who beat the market by roughly 100 times still says most investors should buy the market.

The Acquired podcast’s Vanguard episode put it well: Berkshire is the extreme exception to a rule that has held for six decades. That rule is backed by hard data. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices’ SPIVA U.S. Year-End 2025 scorecard, 79% of active large-cap U.S. equity fund managers underperformed the S&P 500 in 2025 alone, marking the 16th consecutive year in which the majority of managers in that category lagged the index. Stretch the horizon to 20 years and the failure rate climbs to 93%. The pattern holds because fees compound the wrong way, because turnover taxes returns, and because the median portfolio manager is competing against a diversified, low-cost rival that never sleeps and never asks for a bonus.

Berkshire is the counterexample that proves the rule. The conglomerate wholly owns GEICO, Duracell, Dairy Queen, BNSF, Lubrizol, and Fruit of the Loom, alongside a concentrated equity portfolio whose top five positions as of the Q1 2026 13F filing are Apple (roughly 22% of the portfolio), American Express (roughly 17%), Coca-Cola (roughly 12%), Bank of America (roughly 10%), and Chevron (roughly 7%), per the company’s most recent 13F filings. The B-shares trade at roughly 15 times trailing earnings with a beta of 0.62, meaning the stock moves less than the index it has thrashed over six decades. Over the last ten years Berkshire returned 239% while SPY returned 257%. The recent decade is roughly a tie. The six-decade record is not.

Buffett wrote the line himself in his 1996 shareholder letter: “The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund that charges minimal fees. Those following this path are sure to beat the net results delivered by the great majority of investment professionals.” He repeated the point in 2007 with a $1 million bet against Protege Partners that a Vanguard S&P 500 fund would outpace a basket of hand-picked hedge funds over ten years. The index won. The proceeds went to Girls Inc. of Omaha. He repeated it again in his 2013 letter, instructing the trustee of his wife’s inheritance to put 90% into a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund, with the balance in short-term Treasuries.

Equity ownership in America crept from 4.2% in 1949 to 32% in 1989, to 54% by 2001, to roughly 60% today. The dot-com boom pulled millions of households into brokerage accounts. The 401(k) made participation a default rather than a decision. And the first wave of online brokerages did something subtler but more lasting: they made transparent exactly how much investors were losing to underperforming, high-fee active funds. Once fees were visible, the math did the rest. SPY now carries a net expense ratio of 0.09%, a fraction of what a typical active equity mutual fund charges every year, in good markets and bad.

The transition at Berkshire itself adds a new chapter to the story. Greg Abel became CEO on January 1, 2026, with Buffett remaining as chairman. Abel wasted little time: his first year has already included Berkshire’s $9.7 billion acquisition of OxyChem from Occidental Petroleum and a $6.8 billion purchase of homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home, the latter completed faster and with less involvement from Buffett than most observers expected. Meanwhile, Berkshire’s cash pile neared $400 billion in Q1 2026 as operating earnings rose 17.7% year over year. The patient capital is still working exactly as Buffett designed it to, even under new management.

For the long-term investor, the core verdict remains clear. Berkshire, trading near $488 per B-share, is the most fascinating special situation on Wall Street. The case for owning it rests on whether the operating businesses, the insurance float, and that record cash hoard will keep compounding faster than the index under Abel’s stewardship. The inverse case is equally honest: if you doubt anyone can repeat what Buffett did over 60 years, the index is precisely what Buffett himself recommends.

Honor the pattern, not the exception. The long-term direction of Wall Street still heads higher across the decades ahead, and the cheapest, simplest way to capture that drift is the one Buffett wrote down thirty years ago and never walked back. The man who beat the market by 100 times told you exactly where to put the money you cannot afford to lose chasing the next him.

Editor’s note: This update corrects Berkshire’s 1965-2025 compound annual growth rate from 19% to 19.7%, updates the S&P 500’s matching long-run CAGR to 10.5%, refreshes Berkshire’s top equity portfolio weights to reflect the Q1 2026 13F filing, replaces the “85% of active managers underperform” figure with SPIVA’s 2025 Year-End data (79% in 2025, 93% over 20 years), updates the BRK-B share price, and adds context on Greg Abel’s CEO tenure beginning January 1, 2026, including his first major acquisitions and Berkshire’s record Q1 2026 cash position.

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A listener named Suzanne from Austin wrote into the How to Money podcast with a question I think a lot of points-and-miles people quietly wrestle with: she earns “several thousand dollars every year” from cashback cards, signup bonuses, drugstore and grocery store points, and loyalty programs. She views the haul as “windfalls earned through organic spending” but admits the “combined monetary influx seems significant from a budgetary standpoint.” So should she pencil it into her monthly budget as income?

The hosts gave a clean answer, and I agree with it: track your rewards obsessively, but do not budget them as income. Those are two different jobs. Conflating them is how people end up spending more than they earn while feeling like savvy optimizers.

The verdict: rewards are a rebate on spending you already did

A credit card reward is a discount on money you already spent. It works differently from a side hustle or a dividend payment, which generate new income. A paycheck arrives whether or not you go shopping. Rewards only show up because you went shopping. Treating them as income flips the causality and quietly nudges you to spend more to “earn” more, which is exactly backward.

Here is the trap in plain numbers. One of the hosts mentioned earning a $1,000 bonus on Capital One (NYSE:COF)’s Business Spark Cash Card by spending $10,000 on his coffee bar project, including an expensive Italian espresso machine. That is a real reward on real spending he was going to do anyway. The bonus functioned as a 10% rebate on a planned purchase. Perfect use of a card.

Now imagine the inverse. You see a 2% cashback promo and tell yourself you will “earn” $2 back on a $100 purchase. If you did not need the $100 item, you just wasted $98 to earn $2. The math does not become friendlier as the numbers scale. 2% back on a $1,000 impulse buy is $980 you set on fire. Once rewards become a line item you are trying to hit, manufactured spending is the inevitable next step.

The macro backdrop makes this more urgent. The U.S. personal savings rate sits at 4% in the first quarter of 2026, down from 6% in early 2024. Households are already spending a higher share of their disposable income than they were two years ago. Wiring rewards into the budget as income gives you psychological permission to spend even more.

The variable that decides whether a card earns its keep

The variable is the annual fee, and the tracking habit is what tells you whether you are winning or losing on it. One host walked through a clean example: he dropped his American Express (NYSE:AXP) Blue Cash Preferred card after realizing he could not overcome the $95 annual fee since he was shopping more at Costco (NASDAQ:COST). Without tracking, that fee would have just kept renewing in the background.

Run the math on any fee card. If a card charges $95 a year and offers 6% back on groceries up to $6,000, you need to run enough qualifying grocery spend through it to clear the fee before the rewards start working for you. Below that threshold, the rewards-as-income illusion is masking a net loss. Above it, the card is genuinely paying you. Many card backends automatically track your earnings (Fidelity and Costco cards both do this), so the tracking work is often already done for you.

I have been optimizing cards for years now, and the cards I keep are the ones I can defend on a spreadsheet. The ones I cancel are the ones where I caught myself rationalizing the fee.

What to do this week

Three concrete actions:

1. Tally last year’s rewards per card. Most issuers show a year-end summary. Subtract any annual fee. If the net number is negative or barely positive, the card is a candidate for cancellation or a product change to a no-fee version.
2. Keep rewards out of your income column. Park them in a separate sinking fund labeled travel, holiday gifts, or a brokerage deposit. The hosts call rewards “semi-volatile” and note that many come as hotel and flight points rather than literal cash, which makes them unreliable as monthly income anyway.
3. Apply the $98 test before any purchase. Ask whether you would buy this item if the card offered zero rewards. If the answer is no, the rebate is just making you poorer more slowly than paying cash would.

Rewards are icing. Budgets are the cake. Confuse the two and you end up with a lot of icing and no cake.

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Two unconventional ETFs promise to monetize information edges that traditional fund managers ignore. The Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF (NASDAQ:NANC) mirrors stocks disclosed by Democratic members of Congress under the STOCK Act, while the VanEck Social Sentiment ETF (NYSEARCA:BUZZ) uses natural language processing to score social media chatter around large-cap US stocks. Both test alternative data signals. Only one has held up.

What each fund bets on

NANC bets that political insiders with proximity to regulation, defense contracts, and committee hearings own quality compounders. The portfolio looks like a tech-heavy S&P 500. The top five positions are NVIDIA at 10.44%, Microsoft at 7.88%, Alphabet at 4.88%, Amazon at 4.84%, and Apple at 3.98%, with names like American Express, Salesforce, Philip Morris, and Netflix filling the top ten. The fund holds roughly $255 million and charges 0.74%.

BUZZ bets that retail attention front-runs price. Its index ranks the 75 most-discussed US large caps by positive sentiment, rebalanced monthly. That mechanic systematically pulls in high-beta tech, momentum names, and whatever Reddit, X, and stock forums favor. When sentiment leads earnings, BUZZ wins. When the crowd is wrong, rebalancing keeps buying losers.

The performance gap

NANC, launched February 7, 2023, has returned 93.23% through May 13, 2026, beating the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) return of 78.79% over the same window. BUZZ, launched March 4, 2021, has returned 60.15% since inception, while SPY returned 78.19% over the trailing five years. BUZZ was buying peak meme stocks in 2021, then rebalancing into the wreckage through the 2022 drawdown. The signal amplified exactly the wrong exposures.

Over the past year, BUZZ returned 37.56% against NANC’s 24.45%, with SPY at 26.49%. Sentiment works in trending tape. It breaks in regime shifts.

The comparison

The verdict

NANC is the structurally better product for buy-and-hold investors. Its signal pool, lawmakers with long holding periods and advisor-managed accounts, naturally selects for durable franchises. The portfolio overlaps heavily with the S&P 500, a feature for anyone treating it as a tilted core holding. BUZZ functions as a tactical trade vehicle. It works when momentum is rewarded and rebalancing flows are tailwinds, and it punishes patient money during sentiment reversals. The congressional ledger has been the more honest signal.

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Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) is a stock built to own for decades because its structural design, a diversified industrial conglomerate sitting atop the largest discretionary cash pile in corporate America, is purpose-built to compound through every cycle without your supervision.

That sentence is the whole thesis. The rest is mechanics.

Pillar 1: Durability of the Business

Berkshire is a federation of cash-generative operating businesses, GEICO, BNSF railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, plus manufacturing, service and retail subsidiaries, stacked beneath an insurance float and a public-equity portfolio that includes stakes in Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola and Bank of America. The balance sheet reflects this fortress posture. Total assets stood at $1.22 trillion at year-end 2025, with shareholder equity of $717.4 billion and retained earnings of $763.2 billion. Leverage is conservative: a debt-to-equity ratio near 19%, with interest coverage above 11x. Q1 2026 operating earnings rose 18% year over year to $11.35 billion, driven by insurance underwriting and BNSF. This is durable earnings power across macro regimes, not a thematic bet.

Pillar 2: Compounding Through Capital Allocation

Berkshire pays no dividend. Compounding happens internally, through retained earnings reinvested into wholly owned subsidiaries, opportunistic equity purchases, and buybacks when shares trade below intrinsic value. Operating cash flow reached $45.97 billion in FY 2025, with free cash flow of $25.04 billion. Trailing earnings yield runs near 10%, and the stock trades at roughly 14 times trailing earnings. Insider behavior reinforces the value signal: CEO Greg Abel purchased $15 million in Class A stock in March 2026 and pledged his entire 2026 salary to further stock purchases, while General Counsel Michael O’Sullivan added 536 Class B shares in May 2026.

Pillar 3: Cycle Survival and Optionality

This is the part retirement investors should sit with. Berkshire ended Q1 2026 with a record $397.4 billion in cash and Treasuries. That is firepower, not idle money. It is what allowed Buffett to write the Goldman Sachs preferred in 2008, the Bank of America warrants in 2011, and the Occidental Petroleum position from 2022 onward. In any genuine drawdown, Berkshire is the buyer of last resort with a balance sheet that can actually pull the trigger. Succession is already operational, with Greg Abel running operations and Ajit Jain running insurance, and the culture of underwriting discipline is institutionalized.

The Scenario Where It Lags

Berkshire underperforms in raging momentum and AI-CapEx bull markets. The data is current: BRK-B is down more than 4% over the past year, while SPY is up more than 27% over the same time. Conservative posture and cash drag are the price of admission for the optionality. That doesn’t change the forever thesis. The same discipline that lags chasing markets is exactly what shows up on the other side of a dislocation. Over 10 years, the stock is still up more than 240%.

For long-horizon investors, the structural design is what makes Berkshire a multi-decade compounder worth keeping an eye on.

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Bernstein raised its price target on Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) to $88 from $81, reiterating an Outperform rating on the carrier. The firm’s thesis centers on Delta’s superior “fuel insulation,” a structural edge that matters more as oil prices remain elevated. For prudent investors, the price target raise signals that Wall Street views Delta stock as the relative-best-positioned name in a sector under fuel-driven margin pressure.

The call lands just days after UBS lifted its Delta price target to $95 from $86, creating back-to-back bullish signals from major institutions.

The Analyst’s Case

Bernstein is actually trimming FY26 EPS estimates for the airline sector, yet hiking Delta’s target anyway. That divergence is the signal: Delta’s fuel insulation is widening its relative advantage even as absolute earnings power softens industry-wide.

Fuel typically accounts for roughly 20% to 30% of airline operating costs. Delta’s buffers include its Trainer, Pennsylvania refinery, a premium-heavy customer mix, and diversified revenue. In Q1 2026, the refinery contributed a $0.06 per gallon benefit, with management projecting a $300 million refinery benefit in Q2 2026.

Company Snapshot

Delta is a legacy U.S. major carrier with a market cap of roughly $48.18 billion and a trailing P/E ratio of 11x. The CEO is Ed Bastian, and the company operates Delta TechOps, the SkyMiles loyalty program, and the Monroe Energy refinery subsidiary.

In Q1 2026, Delta reported adjusted EPS of $0.64, up 44% year over year (YoY), on revenue of $14.2 billion. High-margin diversified streams reached 62% of total revenue, with American Express (NYSE:AXP) remuneration crossing $2 billion in the quarter.

Why the Move Matters Now

WTI crude oil sits at $109.76 per barrel, in the 98th percentile of its trailing 12-month range. Delta expects to recapture 40% to 50% of more than $2 billion in Q2 fuel headwinds, and still guide to Q2 2026 EPS of $1 to $1.50 and roughly $1 billion in pre-tax profit.

DAL stock has climbed 49% over the past year, supporting the institutional momentum. Bastian asserted that “Delta is best positioned to navigate this environment, with a leading brand, strong financial foundation, and the benefit of our refinery.”

What It Means for Your Portfolio

The price target raise reflects relative confidence in Delta within a pressured airline sector. Delta’s full-year 2026 EPS guidance of $6.50 to $7.50 and free cash flow target of $3 to $4 billion anchor the bull case, alongside the AmEx annuity and premium cabin mix.

The bear case is real, however. Airlines remain economically cyclical, fuel could spike further on Middle East tensions, and industry capacity discipline could falter. Delta also posted a 52-week high of $76.18, so entry points warrant patience.

For prudent Delta stock investors, two price target hikes inside a week from Bernstein and UBS warrant a closer look at Delta Air Lines stock. Position sizing should respect the sector’s inherent volatility and cyclical sensitivity to fuel and demand shocks.

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Warren Buffett does not hand out personal endorsements of his money manager every day. That makes the line he delivered about Greg Abel, who formally became President and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1, 2026, worth pausing on. For shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B), it is the strongest possible vote of confidence after the first leadership transition at the top of the company since 1965.

Skin in the Game

Buffett describes the relationship as a “perfect 10.” Abel has put real money behind that trust. In June 2022, he sold his 1% BHE stake for roughly $870 million and reinvested heavily in Berkshire Class A shares. Then in early 2026 he went a step further, plowing his entire $15.3 million after-tax salary back into Berkshire stock, a commitment he says he will repeat every year as CEO. SEC filings from March 4, 2026 confirm Abel personally acquired 21 Class A shares in a tight $725,210 to $733,300 price range. His net worth and shareholder outcomes are now firmly aligned.

The Great Portfolio Consolidation

The strategy under Abel is shifting sharply. His first full quarter at the helm produced one of the most sweeping portfolio overhauls in recent Berkshire history. Q1 2026 13F filings show the equity portfolio contracting from roughly $274 billion to approximately $263 billion, with the number of holdings dropping from around 40 to 29. Abel sold stakes in 16 companies outright, including positions in Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, UnitedHealth Group, and Domino’s Pizza, many of them holdings associated with former investment manager Todd Combs, who departed for JPMorgan at the end of 2025. Berkshire was a net seller by roughly $8.1 billion on the equity side. The portfolio’s top five names, Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and Chevron, still represent about 68% of the book, underscoring that Abel is pruning the edges without dismantling the core.

Abel also completed Berkshire’s first major acquisition under his watch: a $9.7 billion deal to acquire OxyChem from Occidental Petroleum, signaling he is not content to simply hold cash indefinitely.

The $397 Billion “Cash Mountain”

Q1 2026 results filed May 7 confirmed operating earnings of $11.35 billion, up nearly 18% from $9.64 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Insurance underwriting led the way, with profits rising about 28% to $1.72 billion. The real story, though, is the balance sheet. Berkshire’s cash position reached a record $397 billion by quarter’s end, up from $373 billion when 2025 closed. That war chest now equals more than a third of Berkshire’s $1.1 trillion market value.

In March 2026, Abel authorized $234 million in buybacks, the first repurchase activity in 21 months, triggered when the price-to-book ratio dipped to approximately 1.4. Abel confirmed the move publicly on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 5, noting that repurchases would continue as long as the stock trades below conservatively determined intrinsic value. By setting a high bar before pulling the trigger, Abel is signaling that Berkshire’s dry powder will not be rushed into an overextended market.

The AI Energy Pivot

Perhaps the most significant departure from the Buffett era is Abel’s deliberate move toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. During the May 2026 Annual Meeting, Abel identified Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) as the primary beneficiary of the AI buildout. Data centers in the Midwest already account for nearly 10% of peak load, a figure expected to grow 50% by 2030. Abel’s stance is tougher than his predecessor’s on cost allocation: he is demanding that tech giants bear the full infrastructure costs for grid upgrades, protecting utility customers while positioning Berkshire as the backbone of the AI economy.

That posture took concrete form on June 1, 2026, when Alphabet announced an $80 billion equity capital raise and disclosed a concurrent $10 billion private placement with Berkshire. The investment comprised $5 billion in Alphabet Class A shares at $351.81 each and $5 billion in Class C shares at $348.20, adding to a position Berkshire has been building since Q3 2025. The deal pushed Berkshire’s total Alphabet stake to roughly $41 billion, making it the fourth-largest equity holding in the portfolio. For a conglomerate that long avoided pure technology bets, that commitment is a clear signal of where Abel sees durable long-term value.

Time Will Tell

Berkshire entered 2026 with BRK-B down sharply from its May 2025 highs, as the market repriced the firm for the post-Buffett reality. That early-year weakness has largely reversed: BRK-B finished the first week of July 2026 at approximately $508, recovering to roughly flat-to-slightly-positive on the year. The underlying businesses continue to deliver. Abel’s style is more granular, more willing to confront underperformers, and considerably more tech-forward than what investors experienced over the prior six decades. The fortress balance sheet is intact, the OxyChem deal is done, and the Alphabet investment is in place. Buffett’s quote is the endorsement; Abel’s first six months in charge are the evidence that the transition is underway in earnest.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the reporting period from “Q2 2026” to “Q1 2026” (the quarter ended March 31, 2026), to revise the equity portfolio size from $327 billion to approximately $263 billion based on Q1 2026 13F filings, and to add Berkshire’s $10 billion private placement in Alphabet (June 2026), the $9.7 billion OxyChem acquisition, and current BRK-B share price context as of early July 2026.

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UBS just turned more bullish on one of the airline industry’s premium-strategy poster children. The firm raised its price target on Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) stock to $95 from $86 and reiterated a Buy rating, pointing to a margin and earnings trajectory that looks structurally different from past airline cycles. For prudent investors, the call reframes Delta stock as less of a cyclical trade and more of a premium-mix story.

The bullish thesis hinges on management’s roadmap to at least $13 in EPS in coming years versus about $6 in 2025, anchored by mid-teens EBIT margins, premium cabin segmentation, brand partnerships, and a stronger loyalty program. Delta Air Lines shares closed at $73.34 on May 6, putting the stock up roughly 66% over the past year.

The Analyst’s Case

UBS frames Delta as moving away from volume-and-economy competition toward a segmented premium cabin strategy spanning Delta One, Delta Premium Select, First Class, Comfort+, Main Cabin, and Basic Economy. That mix shift, paired with the American Express partnership, is increasingly producing high-margin, recurring revenue.

The Q1 FY2026 numbers reinforce the thesis. Delta Air Lines’ premium ticket revenue rose 14% year over year (YoY) to $5.363 billion, while American Express (NYSE:AXP) remuneration crossed $2 billion, up 10% YoY, and diversified high-margin streams reached 62% of total adjusted revenue.

Company Snapshot

Delta Air Lines is an Atlanta-based legacy carrier operating up to 5,500 daily flights to more than 300 destinations. Market cap sits at roughly $48.18 billion, and the company carries investment-grade ratings from all three major agencies.

Furthermore, Q1 FY2026 delivered adjusted EPS of $0.64, up 44% YoY, on revenue of $14.2 billion. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian asserted, “In the June quarter, we expect to lead the industry with $1 billion of profit.”

Why the Move Matters Now

Delta stock trades at a P/E ratio of 11x trailing earnings and 12x forward earnings, valuations historically reserved for cyclical airline peaks. The UBS price target raised to $95 implies the market may be underpricing the durability of premium and loyalty revenue versus traditional ticket pricing.

Fuel remains the swing factor. WTI crude oil at $109.76 per barrel is driving a projected $2 billion-plus YoY fuel headwind in Q2 FY2026, with Delta Air Lines’ EPS guided to $1 to $1.50.

What It Means for Your Portfolio

The bull case rests on whether Delta can sustain mid-teens premium revenue growth and convert loyalty monetization into the durable, lower-volatility earnings stream UBS is underwriting. The Wall Street consensus target sits at $79.45, so the UBS call is meaningfully above the pack.

The bear case is real. Airlines remain economically sensitive, fuel shocks can compress margins quickly, and recent operational issues, including nearly 350 weekend flight cancellations tied to pilot scheduling, highlight execution risk. For context on how cycle-sensitive names are being repriced, see this 2026 airline sector outlook from 24/7 Wall St.

For long-term investors, Delta Air Lines stock warrants a closer look as a premium-mix industrial rather than a pure cyclical. Position sizing should respect the sector’s inherent volatility.

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American Express (NYSE: AXP) is set to pay out $0.95 per share on May 8, 2026, the first installment at the new dividend rate after a 16% increase from $0.82. With the stock at $319.21, the question for income investors is whether this premium card network can keep funding a faster-growing payout.

Dividend Snapshot

Payout Ratios Leave Enormous Room

American Express paid $2.271 billion in dividends in 2025 against $15.0 billion in free cash flow and $10.83 billion in net income. On a per-share basis, the $3.80 annual payout against FY2025 EPS of $15.38 consumes about a quarter of profits.

Against management’s FY2026 EPS guidance of $17.30 to $17.90, the payout ratio drops to roughly 21.6%. There is a wide margin of safety here.

Balance Sheet: Levered Card Lender With Ample Cushion

As a card issuer, American Express runs structurally levered. Q3 2025 showed $32.42 billion in equity against $265.13 billion in liabilities, but cash of $54.7 billion dwarfs the dividend bill. Credit quality is improving, with the net write-off rate at 2.0%, down from 2.1%. Specific net debt-to-EBITDA and interest coverage figures are not broken out cleanly for a card network, a gap worth noting.

The Track Record: No Cuts Since 1999

Amex held the dividend at $0.18 through 2008 and 2009 without cutting, then resumed growth. The recent two-year cadence of 17% and 16% increases is the fastest stretch in years.

Management Is Confident

CEO Stephen Squeri said on the Q1 2026 call: “We delivered 10 percent FX-adjusted revenue growth and 18 percent EPS growth in the quarter. Our credit performance remained excellent.” He also linked the 2026 dividend hike directly to guidance for 9% to 10% revenue growth, signaling the increase is supported by operating momentum.

Verdict: This Dividend Is Very Safe

Dividend Safety Rating: Very Safe. An FCF payout ratio of 16%, OCF coverage above 7x, premium-customer billed business of $428 billion in Q1 2026, and zero cuts since 1999 form a strong case. The income case strengthens if premium card spending continues compounding at high-single-digit rates, and it weakens if a sharp consumer recession or credit card interest rate caps materialize — though even then the dividend retains substantial cushion. The May 8 check is as secure as they come.

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The Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF (NASDAQ:NANC) exists to solve a peculiar information asymmetry: members of Congress and their families file STOCK Act trade disclosures within 45 days, and historically, those filings have been a footnote read by no one. NANC turns those disclosures into a portfolio, tracking equities bought by Democratic lawmakers and their households. The pitch to investors is simple. If political insiders see something the rest of the market does not, owning what they own should capture some of that edge.

The fund is up 28% over the past year and 14% over the past month, with shares around $47. Year-to-date it is up 2%, lagging its largest holdings as the rebalance cadence trails the rally. Net assets sit at $208.9 million with a 0.74% expense ratio, putting NANC in the actively-managed thematic tier on cost.

The Macro Signal: AI Capex and Mega-Cap Tech Earnings

NANC’s top three positions are NVIDIA at 9%, Microsoft at 8%, and Amazon at 5%, totaling about 22% of net assets. Add Alphabet at 4% and you have roughly a quarter of the fund riding the same macro lever: hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending.

The numbers behind that lever are now staggering. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported Q4 FY26 revenue of $68 billion, up 73% year over year, with Data Center Networking growing 263% year over year. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) just posted Q3 FY26 capex of roughly $31 billion against an AI run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year over year. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is guiding to roughly $200 billion of capex in 2026. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) raised its 2026 plan to $175 to $185 billion with Cloud backlog over $460 billion.

What to watch: any hyperscaler trimming forward capex guidance on a quarterly call. The cleanest tripwire is NVIDIA’s data center revenue growth rate. If it decelerates below 40% year over year, NANC’s largest holding loses its multiple support and the discount-rate sensitivity matters more. The 10-year Treasury near 4.4%, with a 12-month range of roughly 4% to 4.6%, is the secondary lens. Bookmark each company’s quarterly 8-K and the FRED DGS10 series. Cadence: quarterly for capex, weekly for the 10-year.

The Micro Mechanic: A Concentrated Portfolio Built From a Lagged Filing Stream

NANC rebalances actively on the basis of disclosures that arrive up to 45 days after the actual trade. By the time NANC buys, the news is stale, and the fund’s tilt is whatever lawmakers were buying weeks earlier. That has produced a portfolio dominated by mega-cap tech because that is what disclosed Democratic trades have favored.

Look at the rest of the top ten: Salesforce (4%), Apple (4%), Philip Morris (4%), Costco (3%), Netflix (3%), and American Express (3%). The book is wide enough to look diversified but narrow enough that an NVDA drawdown moves the fund noticeably. Retail sentiment on r/stocks has been circling this exact concern, with traders openly questioning whether everyone is now overexposed to AI and mega-cap tech.

What to monitor: the monthly fact sheet at subversiveetfs.com and the holdings file. Two things tell you the strategy is working as advertised. First, whether the top-ten weight to mega-cap tech compresses as lawmakers rotate. Second, whether NANC begins picking up names ahead of consensus rather than after. The mechanics matter more than the headline tickers because the lag is the product.

Bottom Line

If hyperscaler capex guidance holds through the next two earnings cycles, NANC’s mega-cap tech weight will continue carrying performance; watch the next monthly holdings update for any rotation out of NVDA, MSFT, AMZN, and GOOG, because that is the first signal the disclosed trades are pointing somewhere new.

The post The One Number That Could Break NANC’s AI Rally in 2026 appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

OMAH paid out $0.23225 per share yesterday, the latest in a string of monthly distributions designed to hit a 15% annualized yield. With shares at $18, that headline number is roughly four times what an investor can earn on a 4% 10-year Treasury. Yields that wide demand scrutiny.

How OMAH Manufactures a 15% Yield

The VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) is a blended-income product. The equity sleeve mirrors a Berkshire Hathaway-style book of large-cap quality holdings, while an options overlay, primarily selling call options against the portfolio or related index exposures, generates the premium income that lifts distributions toward the 15% target.

This matters because the dividends thrown off by Berkshire-adjacent equities (think Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America) collectively yield closer to 1% to 2%. The remainder of OMAH’s payout has to come from option premiums. So when you ask whether OMAH’s yield is safe, you are really asking whether the options-writing engine can keep producing cash month after month.

The Distribution Pattern Tells a Story

OMAH’s monthly payouts have been steady. Over the last 14 months, distributions have ranged from $0.22688 to $0.25 per share, with the most recent four payments clustered between $0.22688 and $0.23225. The trend, if there is one, is a gentle drift lower from the $0.25 peak in March 2025 toward the low-$0.23 range now.

That softening is not alarming on its own, but it lines up with the volatility backdrop. Call-writing strategies live and die by implied volatility. Higher VIX means richer premiums; lower VIX means thinner premiums. The VIX is currently close to 19, down from a March peak of around 31 and squarely in the normal range. If volatility stays subdued, premium income compresses, and the 15% target gets harder to defend without dipping into return of capital.

The Sustainability Question

Three structural factors drive OMAH’s distribution durability:

1. Volatility regime. The 12-month VIX average of about 18.5 reflects a market where call premiums are adequate but not generous. A sustained drop below 15 would squeeze income; a spike above 25 would refill the tank.
2. Capped upside. Selling calls forfeits a portion of equity gains in strong rallies. OMAH’s 12% one-year price return shows the strategy participated in the upside, but in any breakout rally, the fund will lag a pure Berkshire-style portfolio.
3. Rate environment. The Fed funds rate sits at 3.75% after 75 basis points of cuts since September. Lower risk-free rates modestly reduce options premiums, a small but real headwind.

Total Return Reality Check

This is where OMAH looks better than the typical high-yield options ETF. Shares are up 12% over the past year and 3% year-to-date, on top of monthly distributions running near $0.23 per share. The fund is not eroding NAV to manufacture yield, which is the most common failure mode for 15%-target products. The Berkshire-style equity book is doing real work alongside the options overlay.

Verdict: Reasonably Safe, With Caveats

OMAH’s distribution looks sustainable at current levels but is unlikely to grow. Monthly payouts have drifted modestly lower as volatility has cooled, and that pattern will probably continue if the VIX stays in the high teens. The fund fits an income-focused mandate where investors are trading equity upside for cash flow and accept that the headline 15% target is a goal, not a guarantee. Investors expecting a fixed dividend or relying on this as a sole income source should think twice; the payout will float with market volatility, not march upward like a dividend grower.

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Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on December 31, 2025, after six decades leading the conglomerate he transformed from a struggling textile mill into a $1 trillion empire. The “Oracle of Omaha” left his successor, Greg Abel, with a very concentrated portfolio: almost 65% of Berkshire’s $381 billion portfolio is invested in just six stocks. Abel, who has served as vice chair overseeing non-insurance operations, officially took over as CEO on January 1, 2026. At 95 years old, Buffett isn’t fully retiring—he will remain chair of the board and plans to continue coming to the Omaha headquarters as much as before. However, he has stated he will be “going quiet” and leaving all decision-making to Abel. While that is likely the case, it’s a solid bet that four dividend stocks Buffett loves will never be sold.

In his shareholder letters and statements over the years, Buffett has pointed to a handful of holdings as permanent or near-permanent parts of the portfolio. Abel often reiterates these. These are positions that will likely be in the Berkshire Hathaway lineup long after Buffett has gone to the great stock market in the sky. All four are perfect ideas for those seeking to emulate the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio and investment strategy. Here are the qualities that these forever stocks share, and all are rated Buy at the top Wall Street firms we cover:

• Durable competitive advantages (moats)
• Simple, understandable businesses
• Shareholder-friendly management
• Ability to thrive across economic cycles

 Why do we cover Berkshire Hathaway stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 60 years. Though he has stepped away from the CEO chair, his impact and investment guidelines are likely to remain in place long after he is gone. While investing has evolved since Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach and never go out of style.

American Express

American Express (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed well over the past year, offering a dividend yield of 1.07%, and has been part of the Berkshire portfolio since 1993. The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, or 22.1% of American Express’s float, and 14.7% of the portfolio.

Truist Financial has a Buy rating with a $360 target price.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands, and it pays a dependable 2.66% dividend. Berkshire Hathaway owns 400 million shares, which is 9.3% of the float and 9.9% of the portfolio, and has held them since 1988.

With a 63-year streak of dividend increases and a business model built on recurring consumption, Coca-Cola combines defensive characteristics with exposure to emerging market growth. Organic revenue rose 5% in 2025, and the company anticipates 4% to 5% growth in 2026, with analysts projecting adjusted EPS growth of 7% to 8%.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. The company also owns 16% of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Jefferies has a Buy rating and a $90 target price.

Moody’s

Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) is a leading global provider of credit ratings, research, and risk analysis. While it isn’t one of Buffett’s more well-known stocks, he first bought shares in 2000, and the stock pays a slight 0.84% dividend. This integrated risk assessment firm operates in two segments.

The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets. It also offers:

• Credit Research
• Credit models and analytics
• Economics data and models
• Structured finance solutions
• Data sets on companies and securities
• SaaS solutions supporting banking and insurance

The Moody’s Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings. It provides assessment services for various debt obligations, programs, and facilities, and for entities that issue such obligations, including corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as structured finance securities.

Evercore ISI has an Outperform rating with a $610 price objective.

Occidental Petroleum

After years of building this position, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are finally in the money on this company, which pays a 1.68% dividend. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) is an international energy company with assets primarily in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. The company is an oil and gas producer in the United States, including the Permian and DJ basins and the offshore Gulf of America.

Berkshire Hathaway has a large position of 264,941,431 shares, representing 26.7% of the float and 5.6% of the portfolio.

Occidental’s oil and gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil (including condensate), natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The midstream and marketing segment purchases, markets, gathers, processes, transports, and stores oil (including condensate), NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), and power. This segment provides flow assurance, maximizes the value of its oil and gas, and optimizes the company’s transportation and storage capacity. It also invests in entities that conduct similar activities, including low-carbon venture businesses.

A notable recent development was Occidental’s decision to sell its OxyChem subsidiary to Berkshire Hathaway, with the bulk of the proceeds expected to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and further concentrate its business on oil and gas. The move was especially interesting because Buffett had reportedly long been interested in OxyChem, and Berkshire now owns the business outright. Berkshire Hathaway completed its purchase of OxyChem on January 2, 2026, providing Occidental with $9.7 billion in cash to reduce debt and sharpen its focus on energy.

Mizuho has an Overweight rating and a $72 price objective.

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Three of the best-known names in financial services are stuck in the mud. Visa (NYSE:V), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are all down double digits year to date, even as their latest earnings reports keep clearing Wall Street estimates.

As of midday Tuesday, Visa shares are trading near $309, Mastercard around $508, and Amex close to $317. The year-to-date scoreboard isn’t pretty: V down 12%, MA down 11%, and AXP off 14%.

Here’s the wrinkle that matters most for American Express. It’s the worst 2026 performer of the trio, yet it has the best one-year return at +20%. The recent reset sharpens the central question: is this a buying opportunity or trap?

Earnings Beats Aren’t Saving Credit Card Stocks

The fundamentals don’t support panic selling of credit card stocks. Mastercard’s Q4 2025 print delivered adjusted EPS of $4.76 against $4.24 expected, with cross-border volume up 14%. Visa’s Q1 FY2026 results showed revenue up 15% and cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe up 11%.

American Express posted Q1 2026 numbers on April 23: EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 estimates, with billed business of $428 billion. CEO Stephen Squeri reaffirmed full-year revenue growth of 9% to 10% and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90. Yet, AXP shares have slid since.

The Bull Case: Moats Don’t Vanish in Four Months

The bullish argument starts with structure. Visa and Mastercard run a global duopoly in open-loop card networks, while American Express operates a closed-loop system that captures both network and lender economics. All three are capital-light, recurring-revenue franchises with international expansion still ahead and aggressive buyback programs running in the background.

Bank of America recently raised its price target on AXP stock to $387 with a Buy rating, citing premium consumer strength. With the VIX volatility index back at 18.02, well off the 31.05 peak on March 27, the macro panic that arguably drove the selloff has already cooled. That’s consistent with our broader take on payment network stocks this spring.

The Bear Case: Real Threats Worth Watching

The bears have legitimate ammunition. Stablecoins and alternative payment rails are a credible long-term threat to interchange economics, and global regulators continue to lean on card fees. Visa booked a $707 million Merchant Discount Antitrust (MDA) litigation provision in its latest quarter, a reminder that legal overhang on the networks is real.

Consumer balance sheets are another worry, even if Bureau of Economic Analysis data still shows total Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) at $21,615.1 billion in February 2026. Premium spending could roll over if labor markets soften, and that risk hits American Express hardest. Barclays has kept AXP stock at Equal Weight with a $322 target, only up slightly from current levels.

How the Three Differ

Visa is the largest and most international of the group, with the biggest cross-border travel exposure of any payment network. Mastercard looks similar but skews slightly more toward B2B and value-added services, where Mastercard’s net revenue grew 26% last quarter.

American Express is the odd one out. It’s a closed-loop, premium-focused franchise with the strongest one-year momentum despite the year-to-date pain. Retail debate has been heating up on r/stocks around a thread titled “Is American Express (AXP) a buy?”, with sentiment scores running 68 to 74 (bullish) in the past 24 hours.

What to Watch

The framework is straightforward. If you believe the network moats outlast stablecoin disruption and regulatory pressure, the current drawdown looks like a discount on three quality compounders. The opposite view is that interchange economics are about to be repriced lower, in which case shares of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express are exactly what a slow-motion trap looks like.

Visa is set to report its fiscal Q2 2026 results in the next session, which could reset the conversation across the entire group. Prudent investors may want to scale in rather than chase, watching for whether Visa’s guidance and cross-border commentary confirm the bull thesis or hand the bears fresh ammunition into the close.

The post Visa, Mastercard, American Express Are Down by Double Digits in 2026: Buying Opportunity or Trap? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

The Gabelli Equity Trust launched in August 1986 with an initial NAV of $9.34. Today, shares trade near $5.57. On a chart, that looks like a 40% loss over nearly four decades. Pull up any stock screener, and GAB appears to have destroyed capital since the Reagan administration. That first impression is completely wrong.

What GAB Is Actually Built to Do

Gabelli Equity Trust (NYSE:GAB) is a diversified, closed-end management investment company whose primary investment objective is long-term growth of capital, with income as a secondary objective. It runs a concentrated, value-oriented portfolio with $2.1 billion in total net assets and uses leverage to amplify returns. The top holdings read like a Buffett-adjacent watchlist: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B), AMETEK (NYSE:AME), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), and Deere (NYSE:DE).

The return engine has two parts. First, the underlying equity portfolio aims to compound through quality businesses in sectors like financial services (14%), equipment and supplies (9%), and food and beverage (7%). Second, GAB runs a managed distribution policy targeting 10% of average net asset value annually. The fund pays out aggressively from a mix of income, realized capital gains, and return of capital. The current quarterly distribution is $0.15 per share, translating to roughly $0.60 annualized, which puts the yield near 11% at today’s price.

The Adjusted Returns Tell the Real Story

Every dollar of distributions, if reinvested, bought more shares at the depressed nominal price. Over decades, that compounding effect is enormous. GAB’s dividend-adjusted price performance over the past ten years comes in at 209%. Over the same period, Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD) returned 218% on an adjusted basis. A closed-end fund with a 1.6% expense ratio and leverage essentially kept pace with one of the most popular dividend ETFs in the world, which charges just 6 basis points.

Over five years, GAB delivered 38% adjusted returns versus SCHD’s 48%. SCHD pulled ahead in that window, but the gap is far narrower than anyone glancing at GAB’s nominal price chart would guess. Since late 1999, GAB’s dividend-adjusted return has reached 664%, capturing the full power of reinvested distributions through two recessions, a financial crisis, and a pandemic.

The Tradeoffs You Accept

1. Return of capital erodes NAV over time. A large portion of GAB’s distributions is classified as a return of capital. The most recent quarterly payout was approximately 91% return of capital. That means the fund is giving you back your own money and calling it a distribution. Over long periods, this suppresses the share price. Reinvesting distributions offsets this, but investors who spend the cash are slowly liquidating their position.
2. Leverage amplifies both directions. GAB is a leveraged fund, which means it borrows to invest. In rising markets, that leverage juices returns. In falling markets, it magnifies losses. During the 2008 crisis, GAB’s nominal share price fell from roughly $9.27 to $3.70 in about 12 months.
3. The expense ratio is steep. At 1.6%, GAB’s expense ratio dwarfs SCHD’s 0.06%. That drag compounds over decades and is one reason GAB trails in shorter windows despite holding quality names.

Where GAB Fits

GAB works as an income sleeve for investors who understand managed distributions and commit to reinvesting. It pairs well alongside a core dividend growth position like SCHD, where the passive ETF handles steady compounding at minimal cost while GAB provides higher current income. The fund is year-to-date down 6% on price while SCHD is up 12%, a reminder that short-term divergence is the norm.

GAB makes sense as a 5% to 10% income allocation for investors who will reinvest every distribution and hold for a decade or more. Anyone spending those payouts without understanding the return-of-capital component is slowly selling their position at a discount.

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Gabelli Equity Trust (NYSE:GAB) has quietly become one of the most beloved income vehicles among retail investors, and the math behind that loyalty is straightforward: a 9.5% annualized yield paid quarterly, a founder who keeps buying shares with his own money, and a recent rights offering oversubscribed by more than $117 million. The question income investors actually need answered is whether that yield is real money or a slow return of their own capital dressed up as income.

Gabelli Equity Trust is a closed-end management investment company launched in August 1986 with $2.1 billion in net assets. Shares trade around $6, down 7% year to date but up 17% over the past year.

How the Distribution Actually Gets Funded

GAB runs a managed minimum distribution policy targeting 10% of average net asset value annually, paid out as $0.15 per share each quarter. That rate has held for 16 consecutive quarters going back to Q1 2022. The fund held quarterly payments steady through the 2008 crisis and the 2020 pandemic, which matters because most CEFs with similar yields have cut at least once in that window.

The funding source is where readers need to pay attention. Unlike an equity ETF that passes through underlying dividends, GAB’s distribution is funded by a combination of portfolio dividend income, realized capital gains, and, when needed, return of capital. The fund uses preferred shares for leverage and holds at least 80% of assets in equities, so the distribution ultimately depends on the total return of a concentrated portfolio of quality compounders.

The Holdings Doing the Heavy Lifting

The top of the book reads like a value investor’s wish list: Berkshire Hathaway, AMETEK, American Express, Mastercard, Deere, Curtiss-Wright, Rolls-Royce, O’Reilly Automotive, Republic Services, and Rollins. Sector weights lean into Financial Services at 14%, Equipment and Supplies at 9%, and Food and Beverage at 7%.

The underlying book skews toward low-yielders: Berkshire pays nothing, Mastercard yields under 1%, and O’Reilly returns cash through buybacks rather than dividends. That tells you everything about how GAB generates its 9.5% payout: the fund sells appreciated positions and distributes the gains. When markets cooperate, this works beautifully. When they do not, distributions can come partially from return of capital, which is effectively your own money handed back to you with a tax-efficient wrapper.

Signals Pointing Toward Durability

Insider and institutional behavior has been unusually loud. Founder Mario Gabelli purchased 500,000 shares in December 2025 for roughly $5 million, with additional buying in early 2026. Envestnet Asset Management increased its stake by 762%, and J.W. Cole Advisors added 75% to its position. Founders buying $5 million of their own fund is a meaningful signal.

The Counterargument Worth Hearing

Critics have grounds. The expense ratio runs 1.6%, steep compared with passive equity funds. A February 2025 Seeking Alpha analysis flagged underperformance versus the S&P 500 over five years and reliance on unrealized gains. With the 10-year Treasury near 4%, the spread GAB offers over risk-free income has narrowed.

The Verdict

The $0.15 quarterly payout looks safe based on policy commitment, distribution history through two crises, and the quality of the underlying book. The riskier assumption is that the full 9.5% represents pure income. A portion will be return of capital in flat or down years, which erodes NAV over time. GAB makes sense for retail income investors who understand CEF mechanics and want predictable cash flow from a leveraged value portfolio. It makes less sense for anyone expecting the yield and the principal to both grow untouched.

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The Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (NYSE:GDV) has pushed to an all-time high of roughly $29, with shares changing hands at about $29 and annual distributions stepped up to $1.80 per share. This article examines whether the monthly payout is backed by durable cash flow from the underlying portfolio, or whether the rally has pulled the fund into valuation-trap territory as its historic discount to net asset value narrows.

How the Payout Is Manufactured

GDV is a closed-end fund with structural features that differ from a passive ETF. According to the Gabelli Q1 2025 Fact Sheet, it holds roughly 613 securities across dividend-paying equities and uses leverage through preferred share issuance to amplify income. The monthly $0.15 distribution is funded from three sources: dividends received from portfolio holdings, realized capital gains, and, when those fall short, return of capital. Gabelli declares roughly three to four months of payments in advance, which constrains management’s ability to react to sudden drawdowns in underlying income.

The expense ratio of about 1% is elevated relative to passive dividend ETFs, reflecting active management and leverage costs. The fund also pays 4.8% on its Series M preferred shares, a fixed financing cost that must be cleared before common shareholders see a dime.

What Actually Pays the Dividend

The top holdings skew toward high-quality compounders with conservative payout ratios rather than classic high-yield names.

Sector weighting is concentrated in Financial Services at 18%, followed by Health Care at 9% and Food and Beverage at 7%. Most of these names have payout ratios below 60% and multi-decade dividend histories, meaning the underlying income stream is insulated against any single company cutting its dividend. The weakness is that GDV’s trailing dividend yield requires more cash than the portfolio’s raw dividend income can provide, so the fund has to harvest gains or tap the return of capital to meet the $1.80 target.

The Leverage and NAV-Discount Problem

GDV’s 2026 payout increase didn’t come out of nowhere. It was powered by the fund’s strong 16 percent NAV total return in 2025, which gave management room to lift the monthly rate by roughly 36 percent from the 2024 level. The flip side is the same force that helped on the way up: leverage cuts both ways. If NAV rolls over, the decline gets amplified, and a 10‑year Treasury yield of around 4.3 percent raises the cost of carrying the preferred‑share financing stack. A prolonged equity pullback, combined with higher financing costs, would tighten the margin supporting today’s distribution.

Insider activity does offer a bit of reassurance. Mario Gabelli bought about $58 million of Series M preferred shares in December 2025, and directors added common shares in early 2026. The stock has also had a strong run, up roughly 36 percent over the past year with a total return of 35 percent, ahead of the S&P 500’s 31 percent. The wide 12 percent NAV discount noted in early‑2025 commentary has narrowed meaningfully as the market has rallied.

Safety Verdict

The base monthly payout looks well supported by the portfolio’s dividend income, the fund’s 23‑year record of uninterrupted payments, and management’s willingness to put personal capital behind the structure. The caveat is the rally itself. With the discount now tight and the share price near the upper end of its 52‑week range of $23 to $30, the extra cushion that a wide discount once provided has mostly disappeared.

Income‑focused holders still have a reasonably secure payout. New buyers stepping in at record highs are paying full price for that income, and the March 2026 “divergent sentiment and breakdown” call from Stock Traders Daily is a reminder that leveraged CEFs can cut sharply when NAV momentum turns.

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American Express‘s (NYSE:AXP) Q1 2026 earnings beat drew a split verdict from Wall Street. Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $387 from $381, while Barclays kept an Equal Weight rating and trimmed its price target to $322 from $323.

The disagreement cuts to the heart of the premium consumer debate. American Express posted EPS of $4.28 and revenue of $18.907 billion, both topping estimates. AXP stock trades at $312.82, down 13% year to date.

For long-term American Express investors, the dueling calls crystallize a real choice: trust the durability of premium spending, or brace for credit normalization. The answer shapes whether American Express stock deserves accumulation on weakness or a lighter position size.

The Analyst’s Case

Bank of America’s bullish stance leans on what it called “strong” Q1 results that beat on both top and bottom line. The firm argues the print is consistent with its view that “premium consumers are doing well”, underpinning its higher American Express price target.

Barclays acknowledges the quarter’s operational strength and highlighted that billed business growth accelerated across consumer, commercial, and international, driving revenue growth “towards the aspirational target”. Yet Barclays held at Equal Weight, implying the good news is largely priced into AXP shares.

Both firms agree on the top line. American Express delivered billed business of $428 billion, up 10% year over year and 9% FX-adjusted Card Member spending growth, the highest quarterly rate in three years. The debate centers on valuation and demand durability.

Company Snapshot

American Express is a global premium card issuer and closed-loop payments network with a market capitalization of $228.57 billion. Its membership model generates recurring card fees alongside transaction and lending revenue.

American Express’s Q1 2026 net income came in at $2.971 billion, up roughly 15% year over year, while credit held firm with a net write-off rate of 2%, down from 2.1%. Management reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance for 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90.

Why the Move Matters Now

American Express shares trade at a trailing P/E ratio of 20x and a forward P/E ratio of 18x, with an analyst consensus target of $359.02. BofA’s $387 sits at the bullish end while Barclays’ $322 sits below the current AXP stock price.

The macro backdrop complicates the read. University of Michigan consumer sentiment fell to 53.3 in March, a pessimistic reading, while unemployment sits at 4%. For broader context on the payments landscape shaping American Express, see our recent credit card stocks outlook.

What It Means for Your Portfolio

The bull case for AXP stock rests on premium consumer resilience, international expansion, and pricing power on card fees. American Express has posted 30-plus consecutive quarters of double-digit net card fee growth, and the U.S. Platinum refresh doubled new account acquisitions versus pre-refresh levels.

The bear case centers on credit normalization, rising competition from Capital One (NYSE:COF) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) premium cards, and recession risk if consumer sentiment slides. A 15% year-to-date decline in American Express stock already reflects some caution.

For investors, the framework is straightforward. If affluent spending holds up through a soft patch, BofA’s thesis may prove right and current weakness could offer an attractive entry. However, if consumer credit cracks and surcharging or rate-cap regulation tightens, Barclays’ caution is the safer read and trimming American Express stock exposure would be prudent.

The post American Express Gets Dueling Calls From BofA and Barclays: Which Side Is Right? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

American Express (NYSE:AXP) reports first-quarter 2026 results after the market closes tomorrow, April 23. With a fresh acquisition, a deepening AI strategy, and a macro backdrop that management itself flagged as a genuine risk, this print carries more weight than usual.

Premium Momentum Meets a Tougher Macro

Last quarter, American Express delivered a narrow EPS miss, reporting $3.53 versus the $3.55 estimate, while revenue of $18.98 billion cleared expectations. The headline that mattered most was durability: net card fee revenues grew double digits for the 30th consecutive quarter. That streak is the spine of the Amex investment thesis.

Since that January 30 report, the stock has pulled back. Shares sit at $329.79 as of April 21, down 10.38% year-to-date even as they remain up 37.42% over the past year. Consumer sentiment has deteriorated, sitting at 56.6 on the University of Michigan index, approaching recessionary territory. Management flagged tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty as material risks in January, and that caution looks prescient heading into this quarter.

On the positive side, retail sales hit $752.1 billion in March 2026, up 2.4% month-over-month, which supports the spending environment Amex relies on. The tension between soft sentiment and firm actual spending is the key dynamic to watch in management’s commentary tomorrow.

Consensus Estimates for Q1 2026

Prediction market traders on Polymarket are pricing an 85% probability that Amex beats the $3.99 consensus EPS estimate, a notable confidence level given the Q4 miss. The analyst community leans constructive as well, with 8 buy ratings and 16 holds against just one sell, and a consensus price target of $356.15.

Hyper Acquisition and AI Ambition Take Center Stage

The biggest development since the Q4 report is Amex’s announced acquisition of Hypercard Network, also known as Hyper, an agentic expense management startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The deal, announced April 16 and 17, is expected to close within Q2 2026. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

Hyper was founded in 2022 and uses AI agents to automate expense categorization, policy checking, and submission reminders for business customers. The company previously partnered with Amex in 2024 to launch the Hypercard Rewards American Express card with embedded AI-powered expense agents. Now Amex is bringing that team in-house to build what Raymond Joabar, group president of Global Commercial Services, described as “next-generation AI capabilities into our products and services, including our expense management platform launching later this year.”

This acquisition layers on top of an already aggressive AI posture. CEO Stephen Squeri noted on the Q4 call that Amex’s third-generation data and analytics platform is already reducing the time for key processes in marketing and fraud by 90%, with a full migration to the cloud targeted by 2027. The company spends $5 billion annually on technology, and that number has grown at an 11% CAGR.

Investors will be watching whether management provides any quantified guidance around the Hyper integration timeline, expected product launches, and how this fits with the Center acquisition that is set to launch by midyear. Two commercial AI acquisitions in quick succession signal ambition, but investors will want to understand how expense pressure from integration costs flows through the income statement in 2026.

Card fee growth trajectory also warrants close attention. CFO Christophe Le Caillec guided for card fee growth to pick up as the year progresses, exiting 2026 in the high teens. If Q1 card fee revenue shows early acceleration, that is a meaningful signal the Platinum Card refresh is compounding. Credit quality deserves a close look, too. The Q4 net write-off rate ticked up to 2.1% from 1.9% a year ago. Management called credit metrics “best-in-class” and guided for stability, but that trend line needs to hold given the macro backdrop.

The Quarter That Tests Whether AI Pays Off

American Express has spent aggressively on technology, refreshed its flagship product, and now acquired a second AI-focused commercial services company in less than a year. This quarter is the first real checkpoint on whether those investments translate into accelerating revenue and margin discipline simultaneously. If Squeri maintains the $17.30 to $17.90 full-year EPS guidance range while delivering a Q1 beat, the year-to-date pullback would align with a constructive fundamental setup. If guidance gets trimmed citing macro headwinds, the narrative around premium resilience faces a harder test.

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Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (NYSE:GDV) trades at roughly $29 and pays a $0.15 monthly distribution, which annualizes to about 6.2% on the share price. For income investors comparing that against a 10-year Treasury yielding around 4.3%, the premium looks appealing. But whether that income is safe depends on understanding what GDV actually is and how it earns its keep.

What GDV Is and How It Pays You

GDV is a diversified, closed-end management investment company run by Gabelli Funds. Unlike an ETF, it trades on the stock exchange at a market price that can diverge from underlying portfolio value. Shares trade at roughly $29 while the fund’s net asset value (NAV) sits near $32, a discount of about 10%.

The fund holds primarily dividend-paying equities. Income comes from dividends, supplemented by capital gains and return of capital. It uses modest leverage to amplify returns, Effective leverage sits at about 14.6%, funded through roughly $437 million in debt and $48 million in preferred shares. The fund’s total expense ratio including interest runs about 1.83%, versus a baseline of around 1.27% before financing costs.

The distribution is managed, meaning Gabelli sets a target payout and adjusts it periodically rather than simply passing through whatever dividends the portfolio generates. This provides predictability but also means the payout can include return of capital when portfolio income falls short. Average earnings per share as of year-end 2025 were just $0.037, a fraction of the $0.15 monthly distribution. This confirms that return of capital and capital gains are significant components of payouts.

The Holdings That Drive the Income

GDV’s portfolio is anchored by large, well-capitalized companies. Financial services represent 18% of the fund, the largest sector, followed by health care at 9%, food and beverage at 7%, and computer software and services at 6%. Top holdings span payment networks, big banks, and consumer staples, including Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, American Express, and Philip Morris International, among others.

The three largest positions are payment networks with instructive dividend profiles. Mastercard generated full-year 2025 operating cash flow of $17.6 billion against capital expenditures of only $489 million, leaving enormous free cash flow relative to dividend obligations. The company paid roughly $687 million in dividends in a single quarter while generating billions in operating cash. Revenue grew 16% in 2025, leaving no near-term payout pressure.

JPMorgan Chase posted Q1 2026 earnings of $5.94 per share and raised its quarterly dividend to $1.50 per share. The bank holds a CET1 capital ratio of 14.3% and maintains $1.5 trillion in cash and marketable securities. Its dividend is well-covered by one of the most capitalized balance sheets in global banking.

American Express raised its quarterly dividend by 16% to $0.95 per share starting in 2026, guided for full-year 2026 EPS of $17.30 to $17.90, and has delivered 30 consecutive quarters of double-digit net card fee revenue growth. Its credit quality remains best-in-class with a net write-off rate of just 2.0%.

The Outlier: Philip Morris International

Philip Morris International carries negative shareholders’ equity of roughly $8 billion, a consequence of years of share buybacks and aggressive dividends exceeding retained earnings. Its total liabilities of $77.2 billion exceed total assets of $69.2 billion, which looks alarming on traditional balance sheet screens.

Context matters. Philip Morris generates powerful operating cash flow: $12.2 billion in full-year 2025, against a quarterly dividend of $1.47 per share. The company is targeting a net debt to EBITDA ratio of close to 2x by year-end 2026 and guided for 2026 operating cash flow of approximately $13.5 billion. The negative book value reflects capital return history, not operational distress. Its smoke-free business now accounts for 41.5% of total net revenues and is growing rapidly. The dividend, while aggressive relative to book value, is well-covered by cash generation.

Leverage and Rate Environment

GDV’s leverage is modest by closed-end fund standards. With the Fed funds rate currently at 3.75%, down from a peak of 4.5% in September 2025, borrowing costs have eased. The Fed cut rates by a cumulative 75 basis points over the second half of 2025, with rates on hold since December. The VIX has dropped sharply from a peak of 31 in late March 2026 to around 18, signaling normal volatility and supporting NAV stability.

Total Return and the Discount

GDV’s total return is strong. Shares have gained roughly 35% over the past year and 65% over three years. The fund has delivered total return on NAV of about 16.9% over the trailing 12 months, well ahead of the distribution rate, meaning the payout is genuinely sustainable from an asset preservation standpoint.

The persistent discount to NAV is valuable. GDV has traded at an average discount of about 11% over the past year and nearly 13% over three years. Buying at a discount means acquiring $32 worth of assets for roughly $29, enhancing effective yield on NAV. The annualized distribution rate on NAV is about 5.6%, while the yield on market price is closer to 6.2%.

Distribution History

The fund maintained a steady $0.11 monthly payment for more than six consecutive years from 2018 through 2023. It then raised the payout to $0.14 in 2025 and $0.15 in 2026, two consecutive annual increases signaling management confidence. The current $1.80 annualized rate represents a meaningful step up, and the fund has never suspended its monthly payment since November 2003.

The Verdict

GDV’s distribution is safe in the near term. The fund holds high-quality companies with strong cash flow, leverage is modest and well-managed, and NAV total return has comfortably exceeded the distribution rate. A significant portion of the distribution likely includes return of capital or realized gains rather than pure dividend income. For income investors comfortable with a managed distribution structure and large-cap companies, GDV offers compelling yield at a meaningful NAV discount. Investors focused exclusively on pure dividend income may find the managed distribution structure less suitable.

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Gabelli Equity Trust (NYSE:GAB) has paid a steady $0.15 quarterly dividend for years, which at a recent share price of roughly $5.7 translates to an annualized yield near 10.6%. That kind of yield draws income investors, but it also raises a reasonable question: what exactly is backing it?

How GAB Generates Its Distributions

GAB is a diversified, closed-end management investment company run by Gabelli Funds. Unlike a typical ETF that simply passes through dividends from its holdings, GAB operates under a managed distribution policy. The fund collects dividends and interest from its equity portfolio, but those underlying dividends alone rarely cover a yield this high. The gap is filled by leverage, and when necessary, by returning capital to shareholders.

Capital gains from portfolio turnover also contribute to distributions. This is a common structure for closed-end funds, but it means the $0.15 quarterly payment is not purely organic income. Part of it may represent your own money being returned to you, which does not compound wealth over time.

The fund uses leverage to amplify returns on its $2.1 billion in net assets. Leverage boosts income in rising markets but cuts the other way when equities fall, and it introduces borrowing costs that drag on returns regardless of market direction. The fund’s expense ratio of 1.6% is meaningful on a per-dollar basis and compounds against net asset value over time.

What the Portfolio Looks Like

GAB’s primary investment objective is long-term growth of capital, with income as a secondary objective. That framing matters: the fund was not built around generating income. Its top holdings reflect a value-oriented equity strategy. The largest positions include Berkshire Hathaway, AMETEK, American Express, Mastercard, and Deere, according to the 4Q 2025 fact sheet. These are quality businesses, but most pay modest dividends themselves. Berkshire pays none at all. The portfolio is not naturally high-yielding.

Sector concentration skews toward Financial Services at 14%, followed by Equipment and Supplies at 9% and Food and Beverage at 7%. This is a broadly diversified equity fund, not an income-focused one.

Distribution Consistency vs. Distribution Coverage

On the surface, the dividend record looks consistent. GAB has paid $0.15 per quarter consistently since at least 2022, with four payments every year in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, plus one already in 2026. The fund has never missed a payment in this window and occasionally pays elevated year-end distributions, as it did with a $0.18 special dividend in December 2021.

Consistency, though, is not the same as coverage. Because GAB’s underlying portfolio holds low-yielding equities and relies on leverage and capital gains to bridge the gap, the distribution is more sensitive to equity market performance than a bond fund’s coupon would be. A prolonged equity drawdown compresses both the capital gains available for distribution and the NAV supporting the leverage. The fund is down about 5% year-to-date even as it returned roughly 19% over the past year.

The current rate environment adds another layer of pressure. The 10-year Treasury yield sits near 4.3%, which raises the cost of the borrowing that funds GAB’s leverage strategy and gives income-seeking investors a lower-risk alternative.

GAB’s Dividend Is Consistent, Not Structurally Secure

GAB’s $0.15 quarterly dividend is consistent but structurally dependent on equity market performance, leverage, and periodic return of capital rather than organic portfolio income. The payment has not been cut in years, but it is not the kind of dividend backed by a simple, growing cash flow stream. Investors who prioritize predictable income from underlying business earnings will find the structure less reassuring than the track record suggests. GAB suits investors who understand they are buying a managed equity fund with an income overlay and who are comfortable with NAV erosion risk in down markets.

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A $0.15 monthly distribution on a fund trading near $28 works out to roughly 6.3% annualized yield, paid monthly. Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (NYSE:GDV) has delivered that consistency for over two decades, with distributions rising from $0.11 per month in 2024 to $0.14 in 2025 to $0.15 starting January 2026. That is a 36% increase from the 2024 rate. The price is up about 10% over the past six months and 38% over the past year. The expense ratio and leverage mechanics are where the story gets complicated.

What GDV Actually Does With Your Money

GDV is a closed-end fund with a fixed number of shares trading on the NYSE like a stock. Its objective is a high level of total return with an emphasis on dividends and income. The fund holds 685 securities across a portfolio worth roughly $3.4 billion, managed by Mario Gabelli’s team.

The return engine is straightforward: GDV buys dividend-paying stocks, collects their income, realizes capital gains through active trading, and passes those proceeds to shareholders as monthly distributions. It also uses leverage, borrowing through preferred share issuances to buy more securities than its equity base alone would allow. Leverage amplifies income in good markets and losses in bad ones.

The portfolio leans heavily into financials. Top holdings include Mastercard (NYSE:MA), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), American Express (NYSE:AXP), and BNY Mellon, giving financial services an 18% weighting. The rest spreads across health care at 9%, food and beverage at 7%, software at 6%, and diversified industrial at 4%. It is an actively managed, concentrated bet on large-cap dividend growers with a financial sector tilt.

The Distribution Is Real, but the Cost Is High

GDV’s distribution history is genuinely strong. No missed or cut payments in recent history, with 23 consecutive years of dividend payments. Recent increases suggest management confidence in the portfolio’s income generation. Insider buying reinforces that: Mario Gabelli himself purchased over $58 million in preferred shares in December 2025.

GDV charges a 1.5% expense ratio, which is steep compared to passive index funds charging 0.03% to 0.10%. Over a decade, that fee drag compounds into meaningful return erosion. The fund’s ten-year price return of about 195% compares unfavorably to the S&P 500, which delivered stronger total returns over the same period with far lower fees and no leverage risk.

The distribution can include return of capital, meaning the fund sometimes pays you back your own money and calls it income. The fund’s own press release noted that 2026 distributions would include approximately 4% return of capital. That is a small portion, but it is worth understanding the distinction.

Leverage, Discounts, and Fees: What GDV’s Structure Actually Costs

1. Leverage cuts both ways. GDV has authorized up to 30 million Series M preferred shares at a 4.80% rate, with 16.85 million outstanding. When markets fall, the fund still owes preferred dividends before common shareholders see a dime. A sharp correction could pressure the distribution or widen the discount to NAV.
2. The discount to NAV fluctuates. GDV recently traded at a 12.3% discount to its net asset value. That discount can widen during market stress, meaning your shares could lose value even if the underlying holdings hold steady. For sellers, a widening discount is a real cost.
3. Active management has not consistently beaten passive alternatives. The 1.5% expense ratio funds a team of stock pickers. Over long stretches, the total return gap between GDV and a simple S&P 500 index fund has favored the index. You are paying for income smoothing and monthly checks, which have real value for retirees, but younger investors compounding wealth will likely do better elsewhere.

Retirees who prioritize monthly cash flow often find closed-end funds like GDV worth examining, given the consistent distribution history and monthly payment schedule. The 1.5% expense ratio and leverage mechanics are structural features that affect long-term total return, which is why cost-conscious investors typically compare CEFs against lower-fee passive alternatives before committing capital.

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Warren Buffett built his fortune by buying businesses with durable competitive advantages at reasonable prices and holding them for decades. Now well into the second half of 2026, tracking these systematic frameworks has become more consequential than ever. The first half of the year delivered a harsh sorting mechanism across value strategies, severely punishing asset classes that over-indexed on bloated tech moats while rewarding pure cash flow and low-fee stability.

MOAT: The Purest Expression of the Moat Philosophy

VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (NYSEARCA:MOAT) is the most direct institutional translation of Buffett’s core idea: buy companies with sustainable competitive advantages at a discount to fair value. Morningstar’s equity analysts assign economic moat ratings based on structural advantages including switching costs, network effects, intangible assets, and cost advantages. MOAT holds only companies that earn a “wide moat” designation and trade at attractive valuations relative to Morningstar’s fair value estimates.

That dual filter separates this fund from a generic quality ETF. A company can have a wide moat and still be excluded if it trades above fair value. The index rebalances quarterly, rotating toward names that have become more attractively priced. This creates a systematic buy-low discipline that mirrors Buffett’s insistence on margin of safety.

The portfolio holds roughly 50 to 60 names, with no single position exceeding about 3%. The sector mix skews toward information technology at 27%, consumer defensive at 18%, and healthcare at 18%. The tech weighting reflects the modern reality that software businesses often carry the most durable moats. Current holdings include Fortinet, Zoetis, and Danaher alongside Microsoft and NVIDIA.

The fund carries a net expense ratio of 0.46% and total net assets of $11.71 billion as of mid-July 2026. After suffering a steep decline in the early part of the year, the fund has recovered to a year-to-date gain of roughly 2.5%. That early-year stumble had an identifiable cause: Morningstar’s Q1 data revealed that U.S. wide-moat stocks underperformed broader allocations, with high-profile holdings like Microsoft and Meta suffering double-digit drawdowns as artificial intelligence shifted from a universal growth catalyst into a more selective competitive force.

COWZ: Buffett’s Cash Flow Obsession, Systematized

Buffett has long emphasized free cash flow as the true measure of a business’s earning power, preferring it over reported earnings that accounting choices can distort. Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF (NYSEARCA:COWZ) operationalizes that preference by screening the Russell 1000 for the 100 companies with the highest free cash flow yield and rebalancing quarterly.

The result is a portfolio that systematically gravitates toward businesses generating more cash than they need, often trading at depressed prices relative to their cash production. The fund’s quarterly rebalances also shift its sector composition meaningfully as valuations change. As of late June 2026, the top holdings included Booking Holdings, Lowe’s, HCA Healthcare, Uber, T-Mobile, Verizon, Altria, AT&T, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, names that collectively generate substantial cash relative to their market prices.

Assets stood at approximately $17.85 billion as of late June 2026, a decline from earlier in the year as value-oriented outperformance attracted some rotation back into growth funds. The fund’s dividend yield runs near 2.23%, and its trailing price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 15 reflects the portfolio’s deep-value character. COWZ’s rules-based screening generates a fundamental profile that diverges sharply from the broader market, anchored by a high free cash flow yield that cushions the portfolio during momentum-driven selloffs.

The tradeoff is sector concentration risk. Because free cash flow yield tends to cluster in certain industries, the portfolio can carry heavy exposure to energy or healthcare depending on where valuations sit. When those sectors lag, COWZ underperforms regardless of its fundamental merits.

OMAH: Direct Access to Berkshire’s Portfolio, With an Income Layer

VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) mirrors the largest holdings of Berkshire Hathaway’s equity portfolio, adds Berkshire itself as a direct position, and overlays a covered call strategy to generate monthly income targeting a 15% annual yield. The fund is not affiliated with Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffett.

The holdings read like Berkshire’s 13-F filings. Apple sits near the top alongside Berkshire itself, followed by American Express, Occidental Petroleum, and Chevron. The financial sector dominates at roughly 39%, consistent with Buffett’s long-standing preference for financial services businesses with durable competitive positions. Consumer staples account for another meaningful slice.

The covered call overlay is the distinguishing structural feature. By writing calls against equity positions, the fund generates premium income that supplements dividends, allowing it to pursue that 15% income target. The cost of this approach is capped upside in strongly rising markets, since the calls obligate the fund to sell shares at the strike price if the underlying rallies through it.

OMAH has grown substantially since its March 2025 launch. Assets reached approximately $891 million as of early July 2026, up from $689 million in mid-May, reflecting continued investor appetite for options-income strategies. The most recent monthly dividend was $0.24 per share, paid in late June 2026, and the fund’s year-to-date total return has climbed to roughly 9.1% including those distributions. The expense ratio of 0.95% is the highest on this list, a meaningful drag relative to the passive alternatives here.

VTV: The Low-Cost Foundation for Broad Value Exposure

Vanguard Value Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:VTV) does not try to replicate Buffett’s stock-picking. It provides broad, passive exposure to large-cap value stocks at a cost consistent with his long-standing preference for low fees. Buffett has repeatedly argued that most investors are better served by low-cost index funds than by attempting to select individual stocks or pay active management fees.

The fund tracks the CRSP US Large Cap Value Index and holds 326 companies. As of mid-2026, its largest position is Micron Technology at roughly 4.2%, followed by JPMorgan Chase at about 2.9%, Berkshire Hathaway at 2.8%, ExxonMobil at 2.3%, and Johnson and Johnson at 2.1%. The sector breakdown is more balanced than the other funds here, with financials at 21%, healthcare at 15%, and industrials at 14%.

The expense ratio of 0.03% is the defining feature. At that cost, essentially nothing is consumed by fees over time, a compounding advantage that grows more significant over multi-decade holding periods. Total net assets have expanded to approximately $254 billion as of mid-July 2026, cementing VTV’s status as one of the largest ETFs in existence. The fund has delivered a year-to-date gain of roughly 15%, making it the strongest performer among the four funds covered here over that period.

The tradeoff is breadth. VTV holds every large-cap stock that qualifies as value by CRSP’s methodology, including companies with no particular competitive advantage. An investor seeking only businesses with durable moats or exceptional cash generation will find the portfolio diluted by mediocre names that simply screen as cheap.

Which Fund Fits Which Investor

Each fund connects to Buffett’s investment principles through a different mechanism. MOAT applies Morningstar’s moat framework with a valuation filter and quarterly rotation, making it the closest systematic approximation of Buffett’s stock-picking philosophy. COWZ screens for free cash flow yield across the Russell 1000, shifting sector exposure as valuations change and delivering a portfolio profile that looks nothing like the broad market. OMAH holds Berkshire’s largest equity positions directly and uses a covered call overlay to generate monthly income, with the tradeoffs of capped upside and the highest expense ratio on this list. VTV offers broad, low-cost exposure to large-cap value at 0.03% annually, with a portfolio that includes the full range of companies meeting CRSP’s value criteria and the deepest liquidity of the four.

Editor’s note: This pass updated assets under management for all four funds to reflect figures current through July 2026, corrected VTV’s YTD return to approximately 15% and its top holdings to reflect Micron Technology’s move to the largest position, revised MOAT’s YTD return to roughly 2.5% (from the earlier -4.1% figure tied to mid-May data), updated OMAH’s AUM to approximately $891 million and its most recent monthly dividend to $0.24 per share paid in June 2026, and revised COWZ’s AUM to approximately $17.85 billion alongside updated top holdings as of its most recent quarterly rebalance.

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Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (NYSE:GDV) trades around $28 and has returned 42% over the past year, a number that tells you something important before you even look at the income. This closed-end fund launched in November 2003 with $2.9 billion in total net assets and seeks high total return with an emphasis on dividends and income. It uses leverage, which amplifies both gains and losses, and carries a 1.5% expense ratio.

How GDV Generates Its Income

GDV collects dividends from its holdings and distributes that income to shareholders. Leverage means the fund borrows money to buy more securities, boosting distributions when markets cooperate and compressing them when they do not. The portfolio leans heavily on financial services at 18% of assets, followed by health care at 9% and food and beverage at 7%.

Top holdings driving the income are:

1. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM)
2. Mastercard (NYSE:MA)
3. American Express (NYSE:AXP)
4. BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK)
5. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

JPMorgan and American Express: The Dividend Anchors

JPMorgan is the clearest dividend anchor. The bank pays $1.50 per quarter, climbing steadily from $1.00 per quarter in 2023 with no missed payments across 27 years. With FY2025 EPS of $20.02 and a dividend yield near 2%, the payout ratio sits well below 30%, leaving room before any stress scenario threatens the dividend. The bank generated a 33.9% profit margin and holds $343 billion in cash. This dividend is safe.

American Express raised its quarterly payout from $0.82 to $0.95, a 16% increase backed by FY2026 guidance calling for EPS of $17.30 to $17.90. The company’s net write-off rate of 2.0% for the full year is best-in-class for a credit card issuer, and net card fee revenues have posted double-digit growth for 30 consecutive quarters. The dividend is well-supported and growing.

BNY Mellon: Consistent Dividend Growth

BNY Mellon’s dividend trajectory is one of the most consistent in the fund. The quarterly payout has risen from $0.31 in 2020 to $0.53 today, with no cuts across the entire dataset. FY2025 net income grew 23%, and the bank delivered eight consecutive quarters of positive GAAP operating leverage. With a trailing P/E near 17x and 27.7% profit margins, the payout ratio remains modest. BNY also returned $5 billion in capital to shareholders in 2025, signaling confidence in cash generation.

Mastercard and Microsoft: Growth Stocks With Dividends

Mastercard’s yield is only 0.6%, but dividend growth tells the real story. The quarterly payment has risen from $0.40 in 2020 to $0.87 today, supported by a 45.7% profit margin and FY2025 operating cash flow of nearly $18 billion against CapEx of just $489 million. The dividend is essentially riskless at current earnings levels.

Microsoft pays $3.48 per share annually against TTM EPS of $15.97, a payout ratio well under 25%. CapEx nearly doubled to almost $30 billion as Microsoft invests in AI infrastructure, compressing near-term free cash flow. With 39% profit margins and Azure growing 39% year-over-year, the dividend faces no realistic threat.

Total Return and Interest Rate Environment

GDV shares are up 3.2% year-to-date and nearly 43% over the past year, capturing both yield and price appreciation. The 10-year Treasury sits near 4.33%, creating competition for dividend income but not pressuring GDV’s price. The Fed funds rate at 3.75% after cuts since late 2025 provides a somewhat supportive backdrop for equity valuations.

GDV’s Income Stream Is Solid, but Leverage Is the Risk to Watch

The dividends feeding GDV are safe. Every major holding has a payout ratio well below stress levels, growing free cash flow, and a multi-decade track record of uninterrupted payments. Leverage is the primary structural risk: in a sharp downturn, borrowed money amplifies losses and could pressure distributions. For investors seeking dividend growth with financial sector concentration and tolerance for closed-end fund mechanics, GDV’s income stream is solid. Those wanting simplicity or zero leverage should look elsewhere.

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Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) shares are up 13% in early trading Wednesday morning, recovering sharply after yesterday’s close of $65.62. The move comes despite a headline GAAP net loss and a fuel bill that would make most airline executives lose sleep. Here’s why investors are cheering anyway.

The paradox is real: Delta Air Lines posted a $289 million net loss and absorbed $2.591 billion in fuel expenses during the quarter. Yet, the stock already zoomed to $74 before the opening bell. The answer lies in what the adjusted numbers reveal about the underlying business.

The GAAP loss was driven almost entirely by $550 million in mark-to-market investment losses, not operations. Strip those out, and you get a company that beat Wall Street on every metric that matters.

Earnings Beat Drives the Surge

Delta Air Lines delivered adjusted EPS of $0.64, comfortably ahead of the $0.57 consensus estimate. That’s 44% higher than the same quarter a year ago, and it marks four consecutive quarters of beating consensus EPS estimates.

Adjusted revenue came in at $14.2 billion, topping the $14.11 billion Wall Street expected and growing 9.4% year-over-year. Delta’s premium revenue grew 14% year-over-year, loyalty and related revenue climbed 13%, and American Express (NYSE:AXP) remuneration crossed $2 billion, up 10% year-over-year.

CEO Ed Bastian is understandably confident:

“Delta’s results underscore the power of our brand and the durability of our financial foundation. We delivered earnings that were more than 40% higher than last year, even with a significant increase in fuel costs and operational disruptions across the industry.”

The Fuel Headwind Is Real, and Massive

Jet fuel prices surged nearly 88% since late February, driven by U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran on February 28 that tightened the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil markets sharply higher. WTI crude oil peaked at $104.69 per barrel on March 30, up from roughly $66 per barrel in late February. That’s not a rounding error for an airline.

Delta Air Lines’ adjusted fuel expense rose 8% year-over-year in Q1 to $2.591 billion. For Q2, the company projects a fuel cost increase of more than $2 billion year-over-year, with an all-in fuel price of $4.30 per gallon. Bastian asserted, “The question of not just the day, of the month, is going to be how we navigate this higher fuel environment brought on by the Iranian conflict.”

Management isn’t waiting around. Delta Air Lines is cutting planned Q2 capacity growth by 3.5 percentage points, reducing flights in low-traffic markets and on midweek schedules, and raising checked bag fees to recapture costs. These moves signal a management team playing offense, not defense.

The Refinery Advantage Investors Often Overlook

Here’s where Delta Air Lines’ story gets genuinely interesting. The company owns the Monroe refinery outside Philadelphia, acquired from Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) in 2012, which converts crude oil directly into jet fuel. That ownership acts as a natural hedge when fuel prices spike, and it’s paying off right now.

Delta Air Lines expects a $300 million refinery benefit in Q2 alone. Bastian acknowledged the uncertainty but leaned into the asset: “We don’t know where fuel is going to go, but to the extent fuel stays elevated, that refinery will continue to help us.” It’s the kind of vertical integration that most carriers simply don’t have.

Guidance Holds, and That’s the Real Signal

Delta Air Lines guided Q2 revenue growth in the “low teens” percentage range, with an operating margin of 6% to 8% and adjusted EPS of $1 to $1.50. The company expects pretax profit of around $1 billion for the quarter, even with the fuel headwind. Crucially, Delta Air Lines maintained its full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $6.50 to $7.50, with Bastian saying simply: “We’re not walking it back.”

A secondary tailwind is lifting airline stocks broadly today. A recent Middle East ceasefire and Iran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has pushed crude oil prices lower from their March highs, offering forward relief on fuel costs. That’s a meaningful shift in the macro backdrop for the whole sector. Investors watching United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) stock may find additional context in Wall Street’s $138.56 price target analysis published last month.

No matter how you slice it, today’s move reflects the market’s verdict: Delta Air Lines absorbed a brutal fuel environment, still beat estimates, maintained full-year guidance, and showed that its premium brand and refinery ownership give it tools most competitors lack. Watch for whether the gains hold into the close and whether the earnings call at 10:00 a.m. EST today adds color on demand trends heading into the summer travel season.

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Visa shares are trading near $298, down roughly 14% year to date, even as the company posted one of its strongest quarters in recent memory. That gap has drawn attention in r/stocks, where the stock appeared in a post listing quality names trading near 52-week lows.

A post titled “Quality Companies at 52 Week Lows” from user Insteadly drew 486 upvotes and 221 comments over the weekend of March 28, listing Visa among names like Berkshire, Microsoft, and BlackRock that have pulled back from highs. Visa appeared at -20% from its peak, with a 94% upvote ratio suggesting broad agreement that the framing was worth discussing.

Visa’s Q1 Numbers Versus the Macro Backdrop

For its fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2025, Visa reported net revenue of $10.9 billion, up 15% year over year. Volume metrics held up across the board:

• Payment volume grew 8% on a constant-dollar basis
• Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe rose 11%
• Processed transactions reached 69.4 billion, up 9%

CEO Ryan McInerney attributed the results to “resilient consumer spending and a strong holiday season, as well as continued strength in value-added services and commercial and money movement solutions.”

The macro picture is less clean, as the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index sat at 56.6 in February 2026 (trending to 53.3 in March 2026), well below the neutral threshold of 80 and approaching levels historically associated with recessions, all while retail sales dipped to $733.5 billion in January 2026, a modest pullback from the November holiday peak.

Where Reddit Sentiment on Visa Stands

A composite sentiment score of 55.45 places Visa in neutral territory, with the 30-day trend down 3.48 points. Discussion is concentrated almost entirely in r/stocks, with the “52-week lows” framing driving the most recent engagement. The tone leans toward value interest rather than momentum buying. As it stands, there are three factors that are helping to shape the conversation:

• Visa carries $21.1 billion in remaining share buyback authorization, with $5.1 billion returned to shareholders in Q1
• A $707 million litigation provision for interchange MDL settlement weighed on GAAP results and adds ongoing legal uncertainty
• Non-GAAP operating expenses grew 16% year over year in Q1, outpacing what some investors expected, given the macro caution

Analyst Targets Sit Far Above Current Levels

Looking at where analysts are currently learning on Visa stock, Wall Street has 36 buy ratings and 3 holds, with a consensus price target of around $399, implying roughly 33% upside from current levels. American Express, which targets higher-income cardholders, reported stable spending volumes in its most recent quarter. For the moment, investors are looking to Visa’s fiscal Q2 results, due in April, which will cover the period when consumer sentiment was at its weakest.

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Berkshire Hathaway shares had fallen for eight consecutive sessions, their longest losing streak since eight straight down days in December 2018. While that streak was broken on Monday, Berkshire Hathaway Class B (NYSE: BRK-B) shares look compelling at current levels for several reasons. After 8 consecutive down sessions, the stock appears technically oversold, offering a potential entry point that long-term investors rarely get.

Fundamentally, Berkshire remains one of the most fortress-like companies in the world, with a massive cash hoard reported at $373 billion a diversified portfolio of wholly-owned businesses spanning insurance, energy, railroads, and manufacturing, plus significant equity stakes in blue-chip names like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), American Express (NYSE: AXP), and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO).

The company’s insurance operations, led by GEICO and General Re, generate substantial income that Warren Buffett and his team deploy with exceptional discipline. Unlike most companies, Berkshire actually benefits from market downturns because it has the balance sheet to go shopping when others are forced to sell. Greg Abel, having been groomed for the top role and stepping into the CEO slot on January 1, has been buying back Berkshire shares for the portfolio and his personal account. Concerns about the transition have been largely addressed, and the recent sell-off was likely just a byproduct of the recent stock market correction. For patient investors with a multi-year horizon, a pullback of this magnitude in a business of this quality is historically the kind of opportunity that looks obvious in hindsight.

One unsung set of winners in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio is its energy holdings. While just two companies make the cut for Berkshire Hathaway, one is an integrated giant that has been absolutely on fire, and the other is a position Buffett built over the years that has finally exploded higher with the price of oil, recently hitting highs not seen since July of 2022. Both are outstanding ideas for long-term investors, and both are rated Buy at top Wall Street firms.

Chevron

Chevron (NYSE: CVX)is an American multinational energy company primarily focused on oil and gas. This integrated giant is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector and pays a substantial 3.29% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. Berkshire Hathaway bought a very well-timed 8 million additional shares in the fourth quarter and now owns 130,156,362 shares, which equals 6.5% of the float and 8% of the portfolio.

Chevron operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide through two segments. The Upstream segment is involved in:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Mizuho has an Overweight rating with a $217 target price.

Occidental Petroleum

After years of building this position, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are finally in the money on this company, which pays a 1.49% dividend. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) is an international energy company with assets primarily in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. The company is an oil and gas producer in the United States, including the Permian and DJ basins and the offshore Gulf of Mexico.

Berkshire Hathaway has a large position in the company, owning 264,941,431 shares, which is a stunning 26.7% of the float and 5.6% of the portfolio.

Occidental’s oil and gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil (including condensate), natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The midstream and marketing segment purchases, markets, gathers, processes, transports, and stores oil (including condensate), NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), and power. This segment provides flow assurance and maximizes the value of its oil and gas, as well as optimizing the company’s transportation and storage capacity. It also invests in entities that conduct similar activities, including low-carbon venture businesses.

A very notable development recently was Occidental’s decision to sell its OxyChem subsidiary to Berkshire Hathaway, with the bulk of the proceeds expected to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and further concentrate its business on oil and gas. The move was especially interesting because Buffett had reportedly long been interested in OxyChem, and Berkshire now owns the business outright. Berkshire Hathaway completed its purchase of OxyChem from Occidental on January 2, 2026, giving Buffett full ownership of the chemicals business while providing Occidental with $9.7 billion in cash to reduce debt and sharpen its focus on energy.

Mizuho has an Overweight rating on this stock, and a $72 price objective.

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VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH) promises something Berkshire Hathaway itself has never offered: a monthly paycheck. By mirroring Berkshire’s top equity holdings and selling covered call options against those positions, the fund targets roughly 15% in annual income. Since its March 4, 2025 launch, it has grown to nearly $690 million in assets, attracting retirees and income investors who want Buffett’s portfolio without the zero-dividend reality of owning Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) directly.

Two structural risks affect every distribution check the fund sends out, and both are worth understanding before committing capital.

The Yield You Receive May Be Eroding the Value You Hold

OMAH’s 0.95% expense ratio and 15% annual distribution target create a math problem worth understanding. The fund’s holdings — Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at 11.76%, Berkshire Hathaway Class B at 9.33%, and American Express (NYSE:AXP) at 8.68% — generate modest natural dividends. The fund’s reported dividend yield is just 0.69%, meaning most monthly distributions come from option premiums and, critically, return of capital.

Return of capital (ROC) is not income in the traditional sense. When a fund distributes more cash than it earns, it returns a portion of your own investment to you. The check arrives, but the NAV shrinks to fund it. Over time, this can quietly hollow out the portfolio’s value even as distributions keep arriving. Multiple analysts covering OMAH have flagged this as the central sustainability question around the 15% target.

The current monthly distribution of $0.2396 per share annualizes to roughly $2.88 per share. With the fund trading near $18.11, that implies a yield of approximately 15.9% on current price. Sustaining it requires either strong option premium income or ongoing capital distribution. The fund’s NAV has remained relatively stable since inception, but the track record spans just over a year, and the option premium environment has been unusually favorable due to elevated volatility.

Volatility Giveth, and Volatility Taketh Away

The covered call strategy depends entirely on option premiums, and option premiums depend on implied volatility. The VIX currently sits at 27.44, well above its 12-month average of 19.3 and up 40.4% over the past month. Higher volatility means richer premiums, which helps OMAH generate income.

Elevated volatility is historically temporary. The VIX peaked at 52.33 in April 2025 and then fell steadily to a year-low of 13.47 by December 2025. During low-volatility stretches, premium income from selling calls on Berkshire’s holdings compresses meaningfully. Berkshire’s portfolio is defensively oriented — financials, consumer staples, energy — and these sectors do not generate the implied volatility that tech-heavy funds enjoy. When the broader market calms, OMAH’s income engine runs at reduced capacity.

There is also the upside cap to consider. When OMAH sells a call option against a holding, it collects a premium but surrenders any gains above the strike price. Apple gained 14.65% over the past year and American Express gained 9.65%. OMAH holders received option income instead of that appreciation wherever calls were exercised. The fund’s own one-year price return is 5.01%, well below what direct ownership of its top holdings would have produced in a rising market.

What to Monitor Going Forward

Two indicators matter most for OMAH holders.

1. The VIX: Track it at FRED’s VIXCLS series, updated daily. If the VIX drops sustainably below 15, option premiums across OMAH’s holdings will compress and the fund will face pressure to maintain its distribution target without leaning more heavily on return of capital. Check it monthly, or around major Federal Reserve meetings when volatility tends to shift.
2. NAV trend versus distribution rate: VistaShares publishes monthly distribution announcements and NAV data. If NAV trends consistently lower while distributions hold steady, that gap is being funded by capital erosion rather than earned income. A fund that pays 15% annually but loses 10% of NAV per year is delivering far less than the headline yield suggests.

OMAH is a genuinely novel income product built on a sensible premise. Berkshire’s portfolio is diversified, defensively positioned, and well-understood. The covered call overlay is a legitimate income strategy. But the 15% target requires a sustained volatility environment and disciplined options management to avoid quietly transferring NAV to the distribution line. Investors who own it for income need to watch whether the check is being funded by the portfolio’s earnings or by the portfolio itself.

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Four ETFs, each yielding above 6%, each paying monthly. On a $100,000 investment spread across these funds, the income math works out to more than $6,000 a year before taxes. That kind of cash flow is what income investors are hunting for, especially with the 10-year Treasury sitting at 4.13% and the Fed Funds Rate at 3.75% after three cuts over the past year. The funds below use four different mechanisms to generate that income, which matters because each one carries a different risk profile.

DIV: Global X SuperDividend U.S. ETF

DIV earns its place on this list through sheer yield concentration. The fund holds 50 U.S. stocks specifically selected for high dividend output, spanning utilities, energy infrastructure, healthcare REITs, shipping, and consumer staples. The top holdings read like a tour of sectors that generate cash regardless of economic growth cycles: Omega Healthcare Investors, Philip Morris, Altria, Dominion Energy, and Global Ship Lease all appear near the top of the portfolio.

The income record is consistent. DIV paid $0.105 per share in March 2026 and $0.102 in February, continuing a monthly cadence that has held up across market cycles. The fund yields 6.1% and carries a 0.45% expense ratio on $737 million in assets.

The tradeoff is that chasing yield this aggressively means owning companies that the broader market has often passed over. Shipping stocks, tobacco names, and struggling utilities can stay cheap for a reason. DIV’s price has returned 9% over the past year and 38% over five years, which suggests the income has been relatively stable but the capital appreciation thesis is modest. The fund is structured around cash flow generation rather than capital appreciation, with holdings that growth investors typically avoid.

DIVO: Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF

DIVO takes a fundamentally different approach. Rather than screening for the highest-yielding stocks, it holds blue-chip dividend payers like RTX, Caterpillar, Apple, Home Depot, and JPMorgan, then writes covered calls on select positions to generate additional income on top of the dividends those companies already pay.

The covered call strategy is visible in the fund’s holdings data, which shows short call positions on RTX, Caterpillar, Apple, AXP, and Merck with expirations in February and March 2026. Those options positions are what push the fund’s income above what the underlying dividends alone would produce. DIVO carries a 0.56% expense ratio and manages $6.6 billion in assets, making it by far the largest fund on this list.

The five-year price return of 73% reflects the quality of the underlying holdings. That is the core appeal: DIVO does not sacrifice capital growth to generate income the way a pure high-yield screen does. The tradeoff is that covered calls cap upside in strong rallies. When Apple or Caterpillar surges, DIVO captures only part of the gain because the calls it sold obligate it to deliver shares at the strike price.

PFFD: Global X U.S. Preferred ETF

Preferred stocks occupy a structural position between bonds and common equity. They pay fixed or floating dividends that must be satisfied before common shareholders receive anything, and they sit ahead of common stock in the capital structure if a company runs into trouble. PFFD packages that asset class into a single, low-cost ETF.

The fund yields 6.2% and charges just 0.23% annually, making it one of the cheapest ways to access the preferred stock market. It holds $2.3 billion in assets and has maintained a steady monthly payout. PFFD has paid exactly $0.10 per share every month since at least April 2025, a consistency that bond-like investors find reassuring.

The stability of that payout comes with a corresponding limitation on price appreciation. Over five years, PFFD’s price has moved only 1%. The fund essentially functions as an income vehicle, not a growth one. Preferred stocks are also sensitive to interest rate changes: when rates rise, fixed preferred dividends become less competitive and prices fall. The recent rate-cutting cycle has been supportive, but that dynamic can reverse.

SPHY: SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

SPHY is the only fixed-income fund on this list, and it brings a different income engine entirely. Rather than holding stocks or preferred shares, it tracks the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, which covers USD-denominated corporate bonds rated below investment grade. These are bonds issued by companies that carry meaningful credit risk, which is why they pay higher coupons than investment-grade debt.

SPHY yields 6.7% and charges just 0.05% in annual expenses, the lowest fee on this list by a wide margin. The fund holds $10.8 billion in assets. That combination of high yield and minimal cost makes it the most efficient income vehicle on this list on a fee-adjusted basis.

The portfolio leans heavily toward consumer-facing and communications companies, sectors where companies often carry higher leverage and therefore issue high-yield debt to fund operations. That tilt means the fund’s income is most vulnerable during consumer downturns, when default risk rises across these industries. The three largest sector exposures are consumer cyclicals at 18%, communications at 15%, and consumer staples at 11%, meaning the fund’s income is tied to the health of consumer spending and corporate balance sheets in those industries.

Monthly payouts have been consistent. SPHY paid $0.1396 per share in March 2026 and $0.1379 in February, continuing a pattern of monthly distributions that has held since the fund’s 2012 inception. The main risk is credit: if economic conditions deteriorate and corporate default rates rise, high-yield bond prices fall and the income stream can weaken. SPHY does not hedge that credit exposure. It is a broad, passive bet on the high-yield market delivering its coupons.

Comparing the Four Funds

The four funds represent a spectrum of income strategies. An investor prioritizing fee efficiency and raw yield would gravitate toward SPHY, accepting credit risk as the price of admission. Someone who wants income without sacrificing equity upside might prefer DIVO, even though covered calls cap gains in strong markets. PFFD suits investors who want bond-like consistency — the steady monthly payout has not wavered — but who understand that preferred stocks offer little price appreciation. DIV sits in the middle: equity-based income with a concentrated yield screen, best suited for investors who can tolerate the volatility of shipping, tobacco, and utility names.

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American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) are two of Warren Buffett’s most enduring financial bets. Both have been cornerstones of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio for years, built on his conviction in durable business models, pricing power, and consistent capital returns. Holding either stock is really a story of trusting that thesis through cycles.

Two Very Different Financial Powerhouses

Bank of America spent much of the 2010s recovering from the financial crisis, rebuilding capital and cutting costs under CEO Brian Moynihan. That patience paid off as interest rates rose and the bank’s massive deposit base became a structural advantage. Average deposits topped $2 trillion for the first time in Q4 2025, and net income reached $30.5 billion for full-year 2025, up 12.45% year over year.

American Express leaned into its premium card model and younger cardholders. Gen Z and millennial cardholders now represent 60% of new card acquisitions, and net card fee revenues have grown by double digits for 30 consecutive quarters. The brand’s pricing power has proven remarkably resilient.

What $1,000 Would Be Worth Today

Bank of America

• 1-Year Return
  • Initial Investment: $1,000
  • Current Value: $1,183
  • Total Return: +18.31%
  • S&P 500 (same period): $1,178 (+17.77%)
• 5-Year Return
  • Initial Investment: $1,000
  • Current Value: $1,447
  • Total Return: +44.73%
  • S&P 500 (same period): $1,741 (+74.1%)
• 10-Year Return
  • Initial Investment: $1,000
  • Current Value: $4,332
  • Total Return: +333.19%
  • S&P 500 (same period): $3,345 (+234.52%)

American Express

• 1-Year Return
  • Initial Investment: $1,000
  • Current Value: $1,130
  • Total Return: +12.99%
  • S&P 500 (same period): $1,178 (+17.77%)
• 5-Year Return
  • Initial Investment: $1,000
  • Current Value: $2,211
  • Total Return: +121.1%
  • S&P 500 (same period): $1,741 (+74.1%)
• 10-Year Return
  • Initial Investment: $1,000
  • Current Value: $5,915
  • Total Return: +491.5%
  • S&P 500 (same period): $3,345 (+234.52%)

Note: figures reflect price return only and exclude reinvested dividends, which would push both totals higher, given each company’s consistent dividend growth.

The 10-year story is where both stocks shine. BAC’s recovery turned a $1,000 bet into over $4,300. AXP’s compounding premium model turned it into nearly $6,000, nearly doubling the S&P 500’s return. Over five years, Amex outpaced the market handily while BofA lagged, weighed down by rate uncertainty early in that period.

The Case For and Against Buying Here

Bulls point to the supportive rate environment and climbing NII as reasons to favor BofA. Management guided for 5% to 7% NII growth in 2026, and the stock trades at roughly 12x trailing earnings with a $62.35 analyst consensus price target. Bears cite risks including potential rate declines and credit quality concerns following nonperforming loan increases flagged in Q4.

For Amex, the bull case rests on whether millennial and Gen Z acquisition momentum translates into long-term loyalty. The 2026 guidance calls for 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90. But at roughly 19x trailing earnings, the valuation leaves less margin for error, and a consumer spending slowdown would hit Amex harder than BofA. Both stocks have pulled back sharply year to date. Buffett’s thesis on both hasn’t changed. Analysts remain divided on whether current valuations reflect those long-term fundamentals.

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Ten years ago, a $1,000 investment split between Visa (NYSE: V) and American Express (NYSE: AXP) would have seemed like a safe bet on global payments. The results might surprise you, depending on which company you favored.

Two Networks, Two Very Different Paths

Visa built its decade on one idea: own the rails, not the cargo. As a pure payment network, Visa earns fees every time a card transaction clears without taking on credit risk. That asset-light model generated extraordinary margins and consistent cash flow. Cross-border volume, digital payments growth, and the global shift away from cash were powerful tailwinds. Visa also became a technology infrastructure company, investing in tokenization, real-time payments, and stablecoin settlement capabilities.

American Express played a different game. As both a card network and a lender, it earns from merchant fees, card fees, and interest income. Over the past decade, Amex leaned into its premium brand with discipline. CEO Stephen Squeri doubled down on affluent cardholders, refreshed flagship products like the Platinum Card, and captured younger spenders: Gen Z and millennials now represent 60% of new card acquisitions. Net card fee revenues have posted double-digit growth for 30 consecutive quarters. Amex quietly outpaced Visa by a wide margin.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Visa (V): $1,000 Invested March 2016

• 1-Year Return: Initial $1,000 / Current Value: $929 / Total Return: −7.10% / S&P 500 same period: $1,174 (+17.4%)
• 5-Year Return: Initial $1,000 / Current Value: $1,529 / Total Return: +52.86% / S&P 500 same period: $1,753 (+75.27%)
• 10-Year Return: Initial $1,000 / Current Value: $4,821 / Total Return: +382.05% / S&P 500 same period: $3,389 (+238.9%)

American Express (AXP): $1,000 Invested March 2016

• 1-Year Return: Initial $1,000 / Current Value: $1,104 / Total Return: +10.38% / S&P 500 same period: $1,174 (+17.4%)
• 5-Year Return: Initial $1,000 / Current Value: $2,171 / Total Return: +117.07% / S&P 500 same period: $1,753 (+75.27%)
• 10-Year Return: Initial $1,000 / Current Value: $5,833 / Total Return: +483.31% / S&P 500 same period: $3,389 (+238.9%)

Both stocks crushed the S&P 500 over a decade, with Amex pulling further ahead. Dividend reinvestment would have added meaningfully on top: Visa grew its quarterly dividend from $0.14 in early 2016 to $0.67 today, while Amex went from $0.29 per quarter in 2016 to $0.95 starting in Q1 2026. Neither is a high-yield play, but consistent reinvestment compounds quietly over time.

Both Are Down Hard in 2026: What the Valuation Data Shows

Visa is off 11.03% year-to-date and trades around a forward P/E of 25x, with a consensus analyst target of $400.47. Amex has been hit harder, down 20.24% YTD, trading near a forward P/E of 17x against a target of $377.28.

Visa’s pure-network model has historically insulated it from credit cycles, and ongoing litigation risk around interchange fees is a known overhang. For Amex, analysts point to FY2026 guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90 as a potential support for the valuation. The bear case is real: Amex carries credit exposure, and a consumer slowdown hits it harder than Visa. The 10-year record speaks for itself.

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If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For 60 years, the “Oracle of Omaha” had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting drew thousands of loyal investors. They were stunned at last year’s meeting when Buffett announced he would step down as CEO of the investment giant at year’s end. While he will remain the board chair and vows to come to the office every day, he will also continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations. His pre-announced successor and long-time lieutenant, Greg Abel, has assumed the CEO position and will likely direct or have a say in most, if not all, new investments, public or private. Some big changes have come to the forefront as Abel announced that Berkshire Hathaway would resume purchasing its own shares and that he would use all of his $25 million per year salary to buy shares in the corporation.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote, “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So it’s not surprising to report that for all of the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, five top companies make up almost 60% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years and will likely continue to do so. In addition, Abel said in his first letter to shareholders that the course forward would remain the same, and he would directly oversee the equity portfolio, with Ted Weschler continuing to manage about 6% of it. He said the portfolio will remain concentrated in a small group of companies.

That small group of companies currently makes up just shy of 60% of the portfolio, and all are dividend-paying gems. In addition, all are Strong Buy-rated by some of the top firms we cover on Wall Street.

Why do we cover Berkshire Hathaway stocks?

There are few investors with the results and reputation that Mr. Buffett has garnered over the last 60 years. Though he has stepped away from the CEO chair, his impact and investment guidelines are likely to remain in place long after he is gone. While investing has evolved since Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach and never go out of style.

American Express

American Express (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025, offering a dividend yield of 1.07%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations. Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS), which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services (CS) offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services (ICS) provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22.1 % of American Express’s float, and 14.7% of the portfolio.

Truist Financial has a Buy rating with a $400 target price.

Apple

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, offering a small dividend of 0.39%. It’s almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent fourth-quarter sale of 10 million shares and a surge in sales over the last two years, still accounts for a stunning 18.9% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock.

The company designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. It offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Wedbush has an Outperform rating with a $325 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the past two years and sold a whopping 50 million shares in the fourth quarter, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2.18% dividend yield. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and financial holding company that reported impressive Q4 results. Berkshire Hathaway owns 517,295,934 shares, which is 8.1% of the portfolio and 7.2% of the float.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking, which offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) comprises two businesses:
  • Merrill Wealth Management offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products.
  • Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $67 target price.

Chevron

Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is an American multinational energy company primarily focused on oil and gas. This integrated giant is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector and pays a substantial 3.61% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. Berkshire Hathaway bought a very well-timed 8 million additional shares in the fourth quarter, and now owns 130,156,362 shares, which equals 6.5% of the float and 8% of the portfolio.

Chevron operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide through two segments. The Upstream segment is involved in:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Bank of America has a Buy rating with a $206 target price.

Coca-Cola

This American multinational corporation was founded in 1892. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) remains a top long-time Buffett holding. Berkshire Hathaway owns a massive 400 million shares, which is 9.3% of the float and 9.9% of the portfolio. The stock pays a dependable 2.50% dividend.

Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, its portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day.

Note that Coca-Cola owns 19.5% of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a target price of $87.

The post 5 Dividend Stocks Are 60% of Berkshire Hathaway After Buffett’s Q4 Selling Spree appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Summary:

24/7 Wall St. Analyst Lee Jackson recently named a trio of potential low-risk places to park cash in a volatile economic environment.

High yield savings accounts and money market funds are currently perceived as attractive alternatives to traditional CDs, which can carry early withdrawal penalties. Among the names Jackson mentioned are American Express and PNC, which he highlights for offering FDIC-insured accounts with competitive monthly yields and full liquidity.

“American Express has one that pays a 3.3% dividend monthly,” Jackson explains. “You can move money in and out at any time, and it’s insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC. So if for any reason Amex were to go out of business, which I find highly doubtful since it’s been one of Warren Buffett’s longest holdings, you would get your money back eventually.”

Jackson also mentions Quontic Bank, which offers a higher yield with a low minimum deposit. He cites the flexibility to move money freely without penalties as a key advantage.

While yields may decline if rates fall, these accounts still provide significantly better returns than standard checking or passbook savings accounts.

Transcript:

Doug: You know, right now I’m looking for as many riskless assets as I can find. What have you got?

Lee: Well, it’s funny. One of the nice things about when interest rates were higher is some quality money markets, and they’re called high yield money markets or high yield savings accounts. Sometimes you see HSA or HYSA. The great thing about these, and this is why we want our viewers to remember them, is that as opposed to a CD, which can be great, typically if you get a five-year CD yielding four or four and a quarter, you need to hold it. If you try to liquidate it early, you’ll probably pay a principal penalty if you don’t hold it to maturity.

Now there are high yield money markets that we really like. American Express (NYSE: AXP) has one that pays a 3.3% dividend monthly. You can move money in and out at any time, and it’s insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC. So if for any reason Amex were to go out of business, which I find highly doubtful since it’s been one of Warren Buffett’s longest holdings, you would get your money back eventually.

PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC), which is a big East Coast and Upper Midwest bank based in Pittsburgh, has one as well. You can get all of these online. The PNC account yields 3.30%, paid monthly, with the same $250,000 insurance. If you put in more than $250,000, the excess isn’t insured, but you could open accounts at different institutions and keep each insured up to that limit.

Another one that is good to consider is Quontic Bank, spelled Q-U-O-N-T-I-C. They have a 4% yielding high yield savings account with a minimum of just $100. Again, you’re getting 4% paid monthly. The yield can go up and down with the market. The American Express and PNC accounts used to yield four and a quarter when rates were higher.

One option you can buy like a regular mutual fund is run by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK). The symbol is BFCXX. It’s one of BlackRock’s large money market funds, with roughly $370 billion in assets. I personally use it in my account at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). It pays around 3% and maintains a $1 net asset value, which is typical for money markets. It hasn’t broken the dollar, and if money markets ever break the dollar again, that would signal serious trouble.

These are the kinds of investments to consider if you’re worried and your passbook savings account is paying 0.07% or 0.10%. You can open these accounts online and transfer funds via ACH safely and easily. They’re essentially riskless. Could interest rates go lower? Sure, they probably will. But inflation is still running around 2.7% to 2.8%, and until that’s under control, rate cuts may be limited.

Doug: If you leave your money in a checking account, all you get is a free pen from the bank.

Lee: That’s right. They pay you nothing. It’s a crime. It’s unfortunate they don’t pay more on traditional savings, but there are ways around it. Just remember names like American Express and PNC, or simply search for high yield savings accounts and you’ll find options.

The post 3 Clear Winners When Exploring High-Yield Savings Accounts appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

American Express (NYSE: AXP) has slipped 15% year-to-date as of February 27, pulling back from a 52-week high of $387.49 to around $315, while the broader market is essentially flat year-to-date. For long-term holders, the question is whether this is a dip worth buying or an early signal of something structural.

The Bear Case: Real Risks, Not Just Noise

The most immediate concern is Washington. During the Q4 earnings call, CEO Stephen Squeri addressed a proposed 10% credit card interest rate cap directly:

I don’t think a 10% credit card cap is the answer to that. I think it would reduce the number of cards ultimately in the marketplace. I think it would reduce line sizes… it just has this sort of effect of a downward spiral from my perspective.

While American Express is more insulated than pure lenders due to its fee-based model, the policy risk remains unresolved.

Macro headwinds compound the concern. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index sits at 56.6, down 12.5% year-over-year and approaching recessionary territory. Premium discretionary spending, which is the engine of the American Express model, tends to lag sentiment by one to three months.

Insider activity is also notable. Following the Q4 release, CEO Squeri sold 62,466 shares at roughly $352, with several other senior executives making significant sales. No discretionary insider buying occurred during the pullback.

At a forward P/E of around 19x, the valuation still prices in continued execution. Any stumble in 2026 spending data could reprice shares lower.

The Bull Case: Fundamentals Hold Up

The Q4 miss was narrow. Revenue of $18.98 billion missed estimates by just $130 million, and net income grew 13% year-over-year. Full-year 2025 EPS came in at $15.38, up 15%. The company raised its quarterly dividend by 16%, to $0.95 per share.

Spending trends remain healthy. CFO Christophe Le Caillec noted that luxury retail was up 15% and restaurant spending rose 9% in Q4. Millennial and Gen Z cardholders now represent the largest share of U.S. consumer spending, with the average new Platinum cardholder aged 33, providing a long growth runway.

Wells Fargo maintained its Overweight rating and a $425 price target after the February selloff. The consensus analyst target stands at $379.60, implying roughly 18% upside. Berkshire Hathaway has held American Express for decades, and under Greg Abel there is little reason to expect that conviction to waver.

Verdict

American Express’s fee-driven model, elite customer demographics, and consistent double-digit EPS growth distinguish it from pure credit lenders. However, the unresolved rate cap threat, softening consumer sentiment, and insider selling are factors analysts are watching closely. Q1 2026 spending data will be a key test: if card member spending decelerates meaningfully from the current 8% to 9% pace, the current valuation leaves little room for error.

The post American Express Has Slumped: Is It a Bargain or a Red Flag? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

The markets are higher out of the gate, with technology leaders including Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) leading the way. Traders and investors are looking to Nvidia’s earnings report after the bell alongside comments from CEO Jensen Huang to improve market sentiment, which has taken a hit of late, with the Nasdaq Composite clocking declines of 3% over the past month. All three of the major stock market averages are seeing green, including a 0.75% boost in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

In last evening’s State of the Union address, President Trump touted an era of economic prosperity, labeling the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on his tariff policy as “disappointing” while digging in his heels on the strategy.

The PHLX Semi Index is gaining 1.83% in today’s session, with leaders including Nvidia, AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) and Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) buoying the index. In South  Korea, SK Hynix has jumped on the tech capex bandwagon, with reported plans to pour over $15 billion to bolster its chip capacity in the country.

Here’s a look at where things stand as of morning trading:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 49,376.31 Up 202.52 (+0.41%)
Nasdaq Composite: 23,036.22 Up 170.29 (+0.75%)
S&P 500: 6,924.84 Up 33.77 (+0.50%)

Market Movers

Fintech and stablecoin company Circle (NYSE: CRCL) has the wind at its back today, with the stock soaring by a double digit percentage on the heels of its earnings print. While cryptocurrencies are stuck in a rut, rising stablecoin demand has been a positive catalyst.

Earlier this week, we learned that digital trading platform Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) was expanding into stock and ETF trading. COIN stock is tacking on 6.3% today.

American Express (NYSE: AXP) is relocating its corporate headquarters to lower Manhattan in New York City. Developers will break ground on the building later this year with a targeted completion date of 2031.

The post Live Nasdaq Composite: Tech Tailwinds Boost Market Sentiment, Reclaiming Lost Ground appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Last year, the S&P 500 declined 19% from its February highs to its late April lows. A wild rally took it higher for the balance of 2025, and it closed up 17% for the year. From a market risk perspective, most of the decline was attributable to a single event. This was the Donald Trump “Liberation Day,” which targeted huge tariffs across much of the world.

Liberation Day, on April 2, was the day when the president threatened tariffs on nearly 100 nations. It was presented as a blanket set of charges, but some countries faced larger amounts. At one point, China faced tariffs exceeding 50%. The market assumed that international trade would be affected by hundreds of billions of dollars. Earnings at thousands of US companies were put at risk. The president backed down, quickly. Suddenly, the market began to rebound.

A 20% correction has occurred several times this century. The Dotcom bust triggered one. The COVID-19 drop was part of a panic about how many people the virus would kill worldwide. The 2008/2009 housing bubble also caused a drop.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is unique among indices because it comprises only 30 components, in contrast to the S&P 500. The Dow, therefore, has a less stable base. Most of the run-up from 25,000 on January 4, 2018, to 50,000 recently was driven by a few stocks. According to The Wall Street Journal, the engine of the increase was driven by jumps in financial and tech stocks. In particular, this includes Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MST), Visa (NYSE: V), Amex (NYSE AXP), and JPMorgan (NYSE JPM).

What drove the Dow up from 25,000 to 50,000 could drive it down. Two Dow components have exposure to the AI sector, which some analysts believe is a bubble. Apple and Microsoft are among the companies at the center of this. Among the exposures financial stocks face is the potential disruption of their industry by AI. Trading and lending are particularly vulnerable to AI replacing humans. That would open the door to smaller financial services companies.

Financial services companies also have exposure to inflation. Although it is nearly dead today, it was alive in March 2022, when the CPI jumped 8.5%. Inflation is among the primary reasons for loan defaults. The economy is hot now based on GDP. Many forecasts for this year is that hot will get hotter

The wild card in market value is geopolitical considerations. Parts of the world are unstable at present, and recent decisions by the US could exacerbate these problems. The war in Ukraine continues to drive worry about inflation, particularly in the energy sector. The US has one aircraft carrier in the Middle East region and may send another soon. The Dow has also risen at an unusually fast rate. It crossed 40,000 on March 16, 2024.

Stock markets rarely go down slowly. Usually, one or more events cause a correction, or even a crash. There is a threat of one or more of the catalysts today.

The post A Big Correction Would Cost Dow 10,000 Points appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

John Bogle, the legendary Vanguard Group founder and index fund pioneer, left an enduring legacy of knowledge and inspiration. He was wealthy, of course, but you can apply Bogle’s dividend investment principles with $10,000 or less.

The “Core and Explore” Compromise

While John Bogle is the undisputed father of low-cost index funds, he was not entirely opposed to investors holding individual stocks, provided it was done with guardrails. For a $10,000 portfolio, building a diversified stream of individual equities can be capital-intensive and risky. A Bogle-approved workaround for dividend seekers is the “Core and Explore” strategy. Allocate 80% of your capital to a broad-market, dividend-paying index fund (like a High Dividend Yield ETF) to act as your stable foundation, and deploy the remaining 20% into high-conviction individual dividend growth stocks such as American Express or Johnson & Johnson. That split limits downside while giving you the hands-on satisfaction of stock picking.

Plenty of today’s investors are enamored with high-yield stocks, but Bogle did not over-focus on the biggest dividends. Instead, he adhered to sensible, basic principles that have stood the test of time.

His fans, known as “Bogle-heads,” come from a variety of backgrounds and carry investment accounts of every size. Bogle left the world a dividend methodology with action steps that practically anyone can use to grow a small portfolio over the long term.

Earnings Growth, Not Mega-Yields

Bigger yields are not always the best choice. Bogle warned, “Most investors should avoid reaching out on the risky limbs of higher-yielding junk bonds and high-dividend stocks.”

The imagery is stark and purposeful: stocks with gigantic dividend yields belong in the same risk category as junk bonds. The tempting near-term payouts will probably not be worth the long-term loss of value.

Consider focusing on earnings growth instead, because it is a fundamental driver of wealth building. As Bogle put it, “Simply because of dividend yields and earnings growth, the fundamental value of stocks is highly likely to increase over time.”

It is entirely possible to find dividend-paying stocks representing businesses with genuine earnings growth. If you want to uphold Bogle’s spirit and values, stick to stocks representing all-around rock-solid companies. A portfolio under $10,000 is no reason to gamble with your capital. Bogle would steer you away from the tempting but risky “doughnuts” of the market and toward the healthier “bagels,” which center on “dividend yields plus earnings growth.”

Case in Point: AXP Stock

While we cannot know exactly what dividend stocks Bogle would choose for a portfolio today, we can look at the current trajectory of American Express (NYSE:AXP).

It is not the lowest-priced stock on the market, but even a small-sized account should have room for one or two American Express shares. For fiscal year 2026, American Express has set a strong EPS guidance of $17.30 to $17.90. The company reinforced its commitment to shareholders by raising its quarterly dividend 16% to $0.95 per share, paid on May 8, 2026, at a five-year dividend growth rate averaging over 17% annually. A next quarterly payment of $0.95 per share is scheduled for August 10, 2026.

Bogle would not stop at the dividend yield. He would also look for growth in earnings, and the Q1 2026 results deliver on that front. American Express posted Q1 2026 EPS of $4.28, up 18% year-over-year, on revenue of $18.9 billion, which was up 11%. Management reaffirmed the full-year EPS guidance range after those results, a signal of the consistent fundamental value that makes AXP a potentially strong Bogle-style pick for dividend portfolio builders today.

Applying the “Hedgehog” Philosophy

To follow Bogle’s lead, one must embrace the “hedgehog” concept. “Foxes” on Wall Street try to outsmart the market with complex, rapid trades. “Hedgehogs” win by doing one simple thing: staying the course with a low-cost, long-term plan. For a portfolio under $10,000, tax efficiency is a critical part of this plan. Utilizing tax-advantaged accounts like a Roth IRA prevents the government or brokers from taking a “croupier’s cut” of your dividends before they can be reinvested.

The Bogle-Style Checklist for 2026

Along with decent dividend distributions and earnings growth, Bogle’s investment method emphasized clarity of “investment strategy and dividend policy.” When researching dependable, low-volatility stocks for a small portfolio, investors should look for the following benchmarks:

• Expense Ratio: Keep this below 0.05% to ensure you keep what you earn.
• Payout Ratio: A healthy range of 40% to 60% suggests the dividend is sustainable and supported by real earnings growth. A payout ratio spiking over 80% signals that the company may be overextending itself to appease shareholders, risking a future dividend cut.
• Turnover Rate: Aim for less than 10% to minimize the transaction costs that can quietly erode a small account. High turnover means the fund manager or the individual investor is constantly buying and selling, generating frictional trading fees and taxable events that eat away at compound interest.

Researching companies like Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), Home Depot (NYSE:HD), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) provides a good starting point. Johnson & Johnson marked its 64th consecutive year of dividend increases in April 2026, raising its quarterly payout from $1.30 to $1.34 per share, for an indicated annual rate of $5.36 per share.

Harnessing the Frictionless DRIP

For an account under $10,000, compounding is your ultimate engine. To honor Bogle’s focus on minimizing costs, utilize a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) through a fractional-share brokerage. Because a single share of a premium stock can cost hundreds of dollars, automated fractional reinvestment ensures that every penny of your dividend payouts goes immediately back to work buying more shares, entirely bypassing manual trade commissions.

To be a true “Bogle-head,” only consider dividend-paying stocks you would want to hold for the long haul. Bogle was a marathon runner, not a sprinter. Research carefully, keep your focus on earnings growth, and build your portfolio slowly for best results.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include American Express’s Q1 2026 reported EPS of $4.28 (up 18% year-over-year) and the company’s next quarterly dividend payment of $0.95 per share scheduled for August 10, 2026, along with Johnson & Johnson’s indicated annual dividend rate of $5.36 per share following its 64th consecutive annual increase in April 2026.

The post The John Bogle Method for Building a Dividend Portfolio Under $10,000 appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

It hasn’t been the best start to the year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which finds itself on a three-week losing streak to cap off January. Undoubtedly, the Dow, a basket of 30 stocks, isn’t exactly the best gauge of the market, but it is worth keeping tabs on whenever its performance deviates from the S&P 500. While the S&P 500 is a much better gauge of how the broader market is faring, tech has grown to account for quite a hefty slice of the pie.

It’s been a choppy January. Will volatility stay higher for longer?

While there are better ways to track how U.S. large-cap value is faring, I do think the Dow remains a quick and easy way to spot any sudden sentiment shifts on any given day. Of course, given that the index is price-weighted, I wouldn’t take any trends too seriously. If anything, the Dow is more of a fun basket to watch than anything else, especially since one can easily look underneath the hood to see what’s gone wrong (or right). 

In any case, with the S&P and Nasdaq 100 also having a rough second half of January, questions linger about whether the rest of the year will be like January. Personally, I wouldn’t make too much of the Dow’s recent three-week losing streak. As we found out in the depths of January, stocks can bounce back quite quickly.

Indeed, volatility can work on the way up just as it does on the way down. And that’s why 2026 might be a dangerous year to time the market, especially if heightened volatility becomes more of an expectation than anything that’s all too surprising.

Looking under the hood of the Dow after a jumpy January

Looking underneath the hood of the Dow, we’ll see that it’s the same laggards from last year that have dragged the index lower in the first month of January. Undoubtedly, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) are down around 20% and 13%, respectively, year to date. On a more surprising note, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stood out as a double-digit percentage loser so far in 2026, which is now down just over 12% on the year.

Undoubtedly, the Dow seems to be feeling the impact of the software slump as well as the recent pressure on certain parts of the financial sector, with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), and American Express (NYSE:AXP), two fairly large holdings in the Dow, all treading water since the Trump credit card cap plans sparked a fairly nasty dip in the banks. 

Despite these notable dents in the armor, however, I wouldn’t be so quick to dub the Dow’s three-week losing streak as a sign of more pain to come.

If anything, the headline makes things look worse than they actually are, with the Dow finishing the last three weeks off by a fraction of a percent. All it takes is one good up day to make up for the slow-and-steady bleed that was the last three weeks. While the terrain may have been a bit rougher for investors in the past three weeks (perhaps those overweight in software or financials), I’m more inclined to view the recent volatility as normal, even healthy.

My real issue with the Dow going into the remaining 11 months of the year

The Dow is not a perfect index, and there are far better ways to play a broad market shift from growth towards value. But, at the end of the day, I don’t see anything to get worried over with the Dow, especially when you consider the fairly modest price of admission (23.6 times trailing price-to-earnings) relative to the S&P or Nasdaq 100. 

If anything, my biggest concern with the Dow is the relative lack of weight to the mega-cap tech stocks looking to monetize AI. Of course, you’ll pay up for this premier AI exposure, but if the titans get monetization right, I think there’s a good chance the Dow could be left behind as the S&P’s concentration in big tech turns into a source of strength.

While the S&P has been just as turbulent as the Dow in January, I certainly wouldn’t get anxious here, even if a correction does loom. At the end of the day, heightened volatility and multi-week losing streaks present an opportunity for stock pickers willing to be selective.

The post Is the Dow Flashing a Warning Sign For Investors? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

American Express (NYSE: AXP) reported Q4 2025 results that fell short of Wall Street expectations, with EPS of $3.53 missing the $3.57 consensus by 1.1% and revenue of $18.98 billion missing estimates of $19.11 billion. Despite the misses, shares declined only 3.7% to $345.41 in Friday trading as investors focused on robust 2026 guidance and the company’s premium customer momentum.

Earnings Scorecard

Bottom Line: Premium Strategy Paying Off Despite Near-Term Miss

The Q4 miss masks underlying strength in American Express’s premium customer strategy. The September 2025 Platinum Card refresh drove exceptional engagement, with management noting “some of the lower cost of acquisition for Platinum in the last 2 years” despite raising the annual fee to $325. Card fee revenue reached a record $10 billion in 2025 and is expected to accelerate in H2 2026 as renewals hit at higher price points.

The company’s strategic shift toward fee-paying premium products improved marketing efficiency, with fee-paying acquisitions growing 8 percentage points year-over-year. Card member spending grew 9% (8% FX-adjusted) in Q4, demonstrating resilient affluent consumer demand even as the broader economy faces uncertainty.

With a forward P/E of 20x against expected 13-16% EPS growth, American Express trades at a valuation that reflects its expected earnings growth trajectory. The 16% dividend increase signals management confidence in cash generation, while the stock’s 34% ROE outpaces financial services peers.

Investors should monitor whether the Platinum Card momentum sustains through 2026 renewal cycles and whether marketing efficiency gains continue. The company’s ability to grow card fees while maintaining retention rates will be critical to achieving the upper end of guidance. The Q4 miss appears tactical rather than structural, with the premium positioning intact.

The post Scorecard: Grading American Express Q4 Earnings appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Dave Ramsey, the personal finance radio host and author, has long compared credit cards to cigarettes, calling them “the cigarette of the financial world” in his 2003 book The Total Money Makeover. His argument: both products are socially acceptable, heavily marketed, and financially destructive over time. With Americans now carrying $1.233 trillion in credit card debt and average interest rates exceeding 22%, his warning deserves a closer look.

Where Ramsey Gets It Right

The debt crisis has intensified as cardholders struggle under the weight of growing balances. The typical American now owes nearly $8,000 on their cards, and with interest rates exceeding 22%, that debt compounds rapidly. What starts as manageable monthly charges transforms into a multi-year trap when borrowers can only afford minimum payments, illustrating exactly the cycle Ramsey warns against.

The mathematics of minimum payments reveal the true danger. Recent analysis shows how a typical balance at standard interest rates can keep borrowers trapped for over a decade, with interest charges nearly doubling what they originally spent. This compound interest effect is precisely what makes the debt cycle so difficult to break.

The industry’s business model depends on consumers carrying balances. Payment processors like Visa and Mastercard achieve profit margins near 50%, while card issuers extract returns above 20% from interest and fees. This profitability comes at the expense of Americans trapped in the revolving debt cycle that Ramsey criticizes.

What the Advice Oversimplifies

Ramsey’s analogy breaks down in one important way: credit cards aren’t inherently harmful. Unlike cigarettes, which damage health with every use, credit cards only become problematic when balances aren’t paid in full. Cardholders who pay monthly avoid interest entirely while earning rewards and building credit history.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau documented how APRs for general purpose cards climbed to 25.2% in 2024, creating an expensive burden for the millions of Americans who carry revolving balances. This rate increase reflects the growing cost of consumer credit as the Federal Reserve maintained higher interest rates throughout the period.

The Trump administration’s recent proposal for a 10% APR cap highlights another complexity: restricting credit card terms could reduce access for higher-risk borrowers, potentially pushing consumers toward less regulated lending options.

How to Think About This Advice

Ramsey’s warning works best for people who struggle with spending discipline or already carry revolving balances. If you’re paying interest month after month, his advice to cut up cards and pay cash makes practical sense. The math doesn’t lie: 22% interest compounds quickly.

But the cigarette comparison doesn’t fit cardholders who use credit strategically. The question to ask yourself: do you pay your balance in full each month? If yes, cards are tools. If no, Ramsey’s concerns about the debt trap apply directly to your situation.

Financial advice from well-known personalities often uses strong language to break through consumer complacency. Ramsey’s metaphor succeeds at that. Whether it applies to your circumstances depends entirely on how you use the product.

The post Dave Ramsey Calls Credit Cards ‘Financial Cigarettes’, and He Has A Point appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) on December 31, 2025, after six decades leading the conglomerate he transformed from a struggling textile mill into a $1 trillion empire. The “Oracle of Omaha” left his successor, Greg Abel, with a very concentrated portfolio: 65% of Berkshire’s $381 billion in assets is invested in just six stocks. Abel, who has served as vice chair overseeing non-insurance operations, officially took over as CEO on January 1, 2026. At 95 years old, Buffett is not fully retiring. He will remain as board chair and plans to continue coming to the Omaha headquarters as much as before. However, he has stated he will be “going quiet” and leaving all decision-making to Abel.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote: “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So, it is not surprising to report that for all the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, six top companies make up 65% of the fund’s total holdings. While Buffett has departed, there is a good chance that the six stocks at the core of Berkshire Hathaway will remain in the portfolio indefinitely. At 24/7 Wall Street, we believe four of the stocks are good growth and income investments that can be safely acquired now and held in investment portfolios forever. They are ideal companies for passive-income investors seeking total return potential, and all are rated Buy by top Wall Street firms we cover.

Why do we cover Berkshire Hathaway stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 60 years. Though he has stepped away from the CEO role, his impact and investment guidelines are likely to remain in place long after he is gone. While investing has evolved since Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach and never go out of style.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. The stock performed strongly in 2025, and it comes with a dividend yield of 0.86%.

American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses. It offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, or 22% of American Express’s float. It is 18.2% of the portfolio.

Royal Bank of Canada has an Outperform rating and a $425 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the past two years, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2.05% dividend yield. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and financial holding company that reported impressive fourth-quarter results.  Berkshire Hathaway owns 568,070,012 shares, which is 9.9% of the portfolio and 7.8% of the float.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking, which offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management comprises two businesses. Merrill Wealth Management offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $65 target price.

Chevron

This American multinational energy company is primarily focused on oil and gas. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector. It pays a substantial 4.05% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. Berkshire Hathaway owns 122,064,792 shares, which equals 6.1% of the float and 5.8% of the portfolio.

Chevron operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide through two segments. The Upstream segment is involved in the following:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Bank of America has a Buy rating with a $180 target price.

Coca-Cola

This American multinational corporation, founded in 1892, remains a top long-time holding of Buffett. He owns 400 million shares of Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), which is 9.3% of the float and 9% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. The stock increased by a huge 17.1% in 2025 and comes with a dependable 2.80% dividend.

Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the number one provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day.

Note that the company also owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Bank of America has a Buy rating and a target price of $80.

Consumer Staples Are Exploding Higher in 2026: Buy 5 High-Yielding Dividend Kings Now

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Guy Spier of Aquamarine Capital is an incredibly intelligent value investor who’s heavily influenced by the great Warren Buffett. Just have a look at the Aquamarine portfolio, and you’ll notice many Buffett stocks as well as names that the Oracle of Omaha probably would have liked. With Buffett now retired, perhaps it’s Guy Spier and other Buffett followers who might be worth watching in any given quarter.

In any case, Guy Spier’s fourth-quarter moves are out, and there were remarkable sales right across the board. That might come off as a bit worrisome, especially given how rough January has been so far, with the S&P now down close to 1% on the year after a treacherous Tuesday over Greenland worries.

With valuations at a high point, it should come as no surprise to see a Buffett-style value investor take quite a few chips off the table in the fourth quarter. For Q4, it was all sells and no buys for Aquamarine Capital. Whether it’s worth Spier and company following amid the recent January volatility spike, though, remains the big question.

Let’s dig deeper and get into the four big share sales from Q4:

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B), is, by far, the largest holding of Spier’s fund. He’s a big Buffett fan who actually went to lunch with the man, so it’s no surprise to see Berkshire Hathaway comprise the core of Aquamarine. Reportedly, Spier reduced its Berkshire stake by just over 30%, which might be ringing alarm bells in the ears of some. Of course, the share sales would have come ahead of Buffett’s eventual retirement.

And while Berkshire still remains the largest holding, comprising nearly a third of the portfolio, I do think that such a substantial reduction might have more to do with market-wide valuations than anything against Berkshire. Though Berkshire Hathaway stock certainly isn’t the priciest stock in the market, it certainly is a name that’s had a rough go in recent quarters.

Perhaps there will be a better entry point on the horizon should the market tumble into a correction at some point. Until Berkshire really gets aggressive with share repurchases, perhaps the stock isn’t cheap enough to consider at this juncture, especially as new CEO Greg Abel looks to make his mark.

American Express

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is Berkshire’s second-largest public portfolio holding, just as it is for Aquamarine. With Spier reportedly trimming his stake in the credit card firm by around 69%, there’s a lot to be concerned about, especially now that Trump is floating around credit card cap plans. Of course, American Express stock has been on a run, and it’s a prime candidate for profit-taking.

As to whether the massive reduction is the answer to the now heftier 23.6 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple remains the big question. I think the premium price is worth paying, but other investors might not think the same, especially as the health of the consumer comes into question.

Personally, I view businesses that are more exposed to the middle-income consumer as a good place to be. As such, while American Express is one of Spier’s bigger sells last quarter, I see the name as still buyable despite choppiness and the expanded multiple.

Mastercard

Sticking with the theme of credit cards, Spier trimmed his stake in Mastercard (NYSE:MA) by around 39% in the fourth quarter. Undoubtedly, it’s a profit-taking move that seems to mirror the cut in the American Express stake.

While less heated in the past year, I do think Mastercard is not a cheap stock at 34 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E), even if there are AI catalysts in play for the new year.

Ferrari

Finally, Spier cut his Ferrari (NYSE:RACE) stake in half, a move that looks well-timed, given shares have accelerated to the downside in recent weeks, off by close to 11% in a month.

With downgrades and other uncertainties to worry about, perhaps the luxury automaker isn’t the best place to be in an environment that’s poised to cool. With a soft growth outlook and less excitement ahead, perhaps the name deserves to be trimmed.

The post 4 Stocks Guy Spier Was Selling in Q4 appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

President Trump’s proposed plan to cap credit card rates at 10% have sent big waves through the financial scene, causing shares of banks and credit card companies to take a fairly sizeable hit. Undoubtedly, the initial reaction felt a tad overdone and even a bit fear-driven, especially since a cap isn’t yet a guarantee. Perhaps bank and credit card shareholders are fearing the worst because few had such a risk on their radar going into the new year. In any case, the big banks have not wasted time voicing their concerns about such a move and the potential impact.

On paper, putting a 10% cap on credit card interest sounds like an incredibly good idea that could give some of the more indebted consumers a break, at least for some period of time.

Undoubtedly, it’s tough to climb out of a debt spiral, especially if you’re deep in credit card debt, which tends to boast some of the highest interest rates out there. Though 10% seems to be a fairer level that might be a huge win for certain consumers, the potential net effect might not be all too positive, especially when one considers how the banks could react in response to such a potentially disruptive and sudden move.

The disruptive impact might actually hurt the economy, say industry pundits

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) noted that such a credit card cap would wind up working against consumers as well as the economy. They might have a pretty strong case for why such caps shouldn’t go through.

Undoubtedly, tackling affordability through credit card interest caps may entail unwanted side effects. According to big bank CEOs, the big risk is that lenders might stop lending to those who aren’t deemed to be “low risk.”

If the rewards aren’t satisfactory for the risks taken on, perhaps many Americans might wind up with less credit at the end of the day. And while credit card interest caps come from a good place, it feels like the consequences may very well outweigh the benefits.

Additionally, the credit card issuers may need to find other ways to offset the lost earnings that would have come from interest rates far north of the 20% mark. From lowering the bar on credit card rewards to raising fees further, there are many ways for affected banks to pivot in light of a shocker that may have long-lasting implications for the industry.

With a broad basket of financial stocks plunging over fears that a cap could hit sooner rather than later, investors might wish to give the affected names a second look, especially since there’s still a good chance that the caps might not come into effect.

Of course, it’s difficult to play an event that could cause such a severe hit to earnings. In any case, with the big banks resisting such a move, it’s unclear how long a cap would stay in place once it’s discovered how hard the earnings impact is on the big credit card issuers.

American Express stock takes a big hit. It might be an opportunity to buy

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is a well-known Warren Buffett stock that’s now down just shy of 7% since the credit card cap news. It’s been a painful decline that may very well be just getting started, especially if the caps come into effect and the firm is forced to change its business model to cope with the effect on the bottom line.

As a firm with very generous rewards, American Express might have room to trim away on the perks of some of its lower-margin cards. Additionally, since the premier player in the credit card scene has had little issue with raising monthly fees, I do view the firm as better able to pass on more of the cost to consumers. Arguably, I think American Express is likelier to increase fees in response than to cut perks.

Either way, the firm might actually be able to gain at the expense of the banks, especially those that have tried so hard to offer more upscale perks for a higher price of admission, effectively taking a page out of American Express’s playbook. Could such a disruptive event for the credit card issuers actually help American Express gain market share?

It’s tough to say. Either way, perhaps investors are worried about an event that might be scrapped at some point down the line. If that’s the case, it might not be long before shares return to where they were before Trump’s credit card plan caused a rush to the exits.

The post Trump’s 10% Credit Card Cap Plan Hit AmEx Stock Hard appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If any investor has stood the test of time, it is Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For 60 years, the “Oracle of Omaha” had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) shareholders meeting drew thousands of loyal investors. They were stunned at last year’s meeting when Buffett announced that he would step down as CEO of the investment giant at year’s end. While he remains board chair and vows to come to the office every day, he will also continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations. His pre-announced successor and long-time lieutenant, Greg Abel, has assumed the CEO position and will likely direct or have a say in most, if not all, new investments, public or private.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens know that his favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever, so it’s not surprising to report that for all the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, only three top companies make up almost 50% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years and will likely continue to do so. The question for investors is whether Abel will remain comfortable with the fund’s equity allocation to just three companies.

In addition, for years, Wall Street has urged Buffett to pay dividends to shareholders, as Berkshire Hathaway, according to recent reports, earns approximately $4.37 billion annually in dividend income from its stock portfolio. This income comes from the dividend-paying stocks that Buffett and his team have accumulated over the decades. Whether Abel will be able to persuade Buffett to change the dividend policy remains a wild card issue.

Berkshire Hathaway has a long history of beating the market. Over the past 20 years, it has delivered an average annual return of 12.1%, compared to the S&P 500’s 11.5%. It is essential to note that Berkshire Hathaway holds significant stakes in numerous well-known private companies, including Acme Brick, Benjamin Moore, Dairy Queen, Duracell, GEICO, and Lubrizol. Investors who still believe the path forward for Berkshire Hathaway will be optimistic should consider buying shares below $500, which is right in the middle of the 52-week trading range.

Here are the three companies that make up almost 50% of Berkshire Hathaway.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025, offering a dividend yield of 0.86%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The financial giant posted strong third-quarter earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing the forecast of $18.05 billion. Net income increased 16%, to $2.9 billion, compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Service provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22% of American Express’s float and 17.9% of the portfolio.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $425 target price.

Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It also offers a small dividend of 0.38%. It is almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent sale of 20 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still makes up a stunning 20.5% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $330 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett trimmed the position over the past two years, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 1.89% dividend yield. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and financial holding company that reported impressive Q3 results. Earnings per share of $1.06 vs. $0.95, as revenue of $28.24 billion vs. $27.5 billion beat analysts’ estimates. Profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, and revenue grew 11% year-over-year, with EPS jumping 31%. Berkshire Hathaway owns 568,070,012 shares, which is 10% of the portfolio and 7.8% of the float.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking, which offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management includes two businesses. Merrill Wealth Management offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. And Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services. These include integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $68 target price.

Our Top 2026 Passive Income Ultra-High-Yield Picks With Up to 10% Dividends

The post With Warren Buffett Done as CEO, Just 3 Stocks Make Up Almost 50% of Berkshire Hathaway appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

As you may be aware, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) is in a state of transition. Warren Buffett is retiring from his role as CEO, which will be taken over by Greg Abel. Thus, a legendary career is coming to a close.

Still, you don’t need to dump your Berkshire Hathaway shares just because Buffett is retiring. Berkshire’s current portfolio currently reflects the carefully selected stock picks of Buffett and his associates. Thus, whatever’s in the company’s stock holdings list is worth considering.

It may surprise you to learn that 50% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio consists of just three stocks. This fact is less shocking, however, when you see the three stocks as they represent top-tier businesses. So, without further ado, let’s reveal the three stocks that dominate Buffett’s portfolio right now.

Apple (AAPL)

Buffett isn’t known for loading up on Magnificent Seven technology stocks very often. Yet, believe it or not, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock shares comprise 21.1% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio weighting.

That’s a huge portfolio portion for just one stock, you must admit. All told, Berkshire Hathaway holds around 238.2 million AAPL shares, representing a 1.6% stake in Apple.

Buffett usually doesn’t explain why Berkshire Hathaway bought a particular stock. Since he’s known as a value investor, we should be able to find a good value in Apple stock.

This may not be immediately evident if we apply an old-school valuation metric, the trailing 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Apple’s P/E ratio is 36.58x, which isn’t outrageously high for a Magnificent Seven company but also isn’t extremely low.

Instead of focusing on the company’s P/E ratio, perhaps we should observe that Apple stock doubled over the past five years. Furthermore, Buffett surely knows that Apple is a reliable revenue grower.

For example, Apple total net sales grew from $391.035 billion in the quarter ended September 28, 2024, to $416.161 billion in the quarter ended September 27, 2024. During that time frame, Apple recorded increases in iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Services sales.

Now, we’re starting to see how Apple stock can be a good value irrespective of Apple’s P/E ratio. At the end of the day, Apple’s value comes from the company’s steady growth and the stock’s consistent price appreciation. Therefore, if you believe in Buffett’s portfolio strategies, you might want to own some AAPL shares.

American Express (AXP)

Turning to the financial sector, Berkshire Hathaway holds approximately 151.6 million shares of credit card provider American Express (NYSE:AXP). Consequently, Berkshire owns a huge 22% stake in American Express.

Interestingly, AXP stock takes up 18.4% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. Why would Buffett like this stock so much, though?

Here’s a fact that might startle you. Whereas Apple stock has doubled over the past five years, American Express stock has actually tripled during that time.

It just goes to show that financial sector stocks aren’t boring at all. Additionally, there may be a good value here as American Express’s P/E ratio is fairly reasonable at 25.1x.

But again, we need to look beyond the P/E ratio. We can peek into American Express’s third-quarter 2025 results to see if the company is really raking in the revenue.

As it turns out American Express’s Q3 2025 total revenue net of interest expense grew 11% year over year to $18.426 billion. Notably, American Express’s net interest income increased by 12%, “primarily reflecting growth in balances and net yield expansion.”

Clearly, AXP stock isn’t just a safety play; it’s a growth investment, as well. With that in mind, you’re welcome to mimic Buffett’s portfolio and give American Express stock a try.

Bank of America (BAC)

To round out our list of the three stocks that make up 50% of Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings, we have another financial sector pick, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) stock. Comprising 10.2% of Berkshire’s portfolio, Buffet’s company owns more than 568 million shares of BAC.

Berkshire Hathaway controls a 7.8% stake in Bank of America, so there’s no denying that Buffett believes in this famous banking firm. And in case you’re curious, Bank of America has a P/E ratio of 15.11x, which seems reasonable enough.

Digging deeper than the P/E ratio, it’s worthwhile to see how Bank of America performed during the third quarter of 2025. The company’s total revenue, net of interest expense, increased from $25.345 billion in the year-earlier quarter to $28.088 billion in Q3 2025.

It’s also worth noting that, during this time frame, Bank of America recorded increases in credit card and debit card purchase volumes, as well as in total home equity loan production. All in all, it was a solid quarter for Bank of America.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Bank of America stock rallied 84% over the past five years, which is nothing to sneeze at. Hence, investors ought to take a look at BAC stock along with AAPL and AXP as great Buffett-backed buy-and-hold portfolio additions.

The post These 3 Stocks Make Up 50% of Warren Buffett’s Portfolio appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If any investor has stood the test of time, it is Warren Buffett, and sadly, that time has come to an end.  For years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal investors. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Buffett announced he would step down as CEO of the investment giant at year’s end. While he will remain board chair and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the CEO position as of Friday.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens know that he favors holding S&P 500 stocks forever. So it’s not surprising to report that, for all the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, five top companies make up almost 65% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years. It is likely to continue doing so in the future.

The question many would ask, given Buffett’s departure, is which stocks are likely to remain in the portfolio in the long term? We screened the portfolio, and these longtime stalwarts, which all pay dividends and make up the bulk of the portfolio, are likely to stay in the portfolio for the foreseeable future.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 50 years. While investing has evolved over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach. There is also a good chance that Abel will retain all these gigantic positions.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025, offering a dividend yield of 0.82%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The financial giant posted strong third-quarter earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing the forecast of $18.05 billion, as net income increased 16% to $2.9 billion compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS), which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services (CS) offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services (ICS) provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22 % of American Express’s float, and 18.2% of the portfolio.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $425 target price.

Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, offering a small dividend of 0.37%. It is almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent sale of 20 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still makes up a stunning 20.8% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock. Apple designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $330 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the last two years, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 1.89% dividend yield. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and financial holding company that reported impressive Q3 results. Earnings per share of $1.06 vs. $0.95, as revenue of $28.24 billion vs. $27.5 billion beat analysts’ estimates. Profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, and revenue grew 11% year-over-year, with EPS jumping 31%. Berkshire Hathaway owns 568,070,012 shares, which is 9.9% of the portfolio and 7.8% of the float.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM)
• Global Banking
• Global Markets

Consumer Banking segment offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.

The GWIM comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products.

Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.

The Global Banking segment offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.

The Global Markets segment offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $68 target price.

Chevron

This American multinational energy company primarily focuses on oil and gas. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector, and it pays a substantial 4.51% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. Chevron operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide through two segments. Berkshire Hathaway owns 122,064,792 shares, which equals 6.1% of the float and 5.8% of the portfolio.

The Upstream segment is involved in the following:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Bank of America has a Buy rating with a $180 target price.

Coca-Cola

This American multinational corporation was founded in 1892. Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) remains a top long-time holding of Buffett. He owns a massive 400 million shares, which is 9.3% of the float and 9% of the portfolio. The stock has increased by a solid 13.8% in 2025 and comes with a dependable 2.88% dividend. The world’s largest beverage company offers consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks.

Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. It is also important to remember that the company owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Bank of America has a Buy rating and set a target price of $80.

Five Ultra-Safe Dividend Investments With Higher Yields Than 2026 Social Security COLA

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If any investor has stood the test of time, it is Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal investors. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Buffett announced he would step down as CEO of the investment giant at year’s end. While he will remain board chair and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the CEO position at the end of the year.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens know that he favors holding S&P 500 stocks forever. So it’s not surprising to report that, for all the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, five top companies make up almost 64% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years. It is likely to continue doing so in the future. The question many would ask, given his impending departure, is which stocks are likely to remain in the portfolio in the long term? We screened the portfolio, and these longtime stalwarts, which all pay dividends and make up the bulk of the portfolio, are likely to stay at the dance for decades to come.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

There are few investors with the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 50 years. While investing has evolved over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide and paying dividends will always remain a timeless approach. There is also a good chance that Greg Abel will retain all of these gigantic positions.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025, offering a dividend yield of 0.84%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The financial giant posted strong third-quarter earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing the forecast of $18.05 billion, as net income increased 16% to $2.9 billion compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS), which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services (CS) offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services (ICS) provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 22 % of American Express’s float, and 18.2% of the portfolio.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $425 target price.

Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, offering a small dividend of 0.37%. It is almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent sale of 20 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still makes up a stunning 20.8% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds 1.6% of Apple’s stock. Apple designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, and operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $330 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the last two years, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 1.95% dividend yield. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and financial holding company that reported impressive Q3 results. Earnings per share of $1.06 vs. $0.95, as revenue of $28.24 billion vs. $27.5 billion beat analysts’ estimates. Profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, and revenue grew 11% year-over-year, with EPS jumping 31%. Berkshire Hathaway owns 568,070,012 shares, which is 9.9% of the portfolio and 7.8% of the float.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM)
• Global Banking
• Global Markets

Consumer Banking segment offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.

The GWIM comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products.

Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.

The Global Banking segment offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.

The Global Markets segment offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $68 target price.

Chevron

This American multinational energy company primarily focuses on oil and gas. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector, and it pays a substantial 4.58% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. Chevron operates integrated energy and chemicals businesses worldwide through two segments. Berkshire Hathaway owns 122,064,792 shares, which equals 6.1% of the float and 5.8% of the portfolio.

The Upstream segment is involved in the following:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Bank of America has a Buy rating with an $180 target price.

Coca-Cola

This American multinational corporation was founded in 1892. Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) remains a top long-time holding of Buffett. He owns a massive 400 million shares, which is 9.3% of the float and 9% of the portfolio. The stock has increased by a solid 13.8% in 2025 and comes with a dependable 2.86% dividend. The world’s largest beverage company offers consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks.

Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. It is also important to remember that the company owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Bank of America has a Buy rating and set a target price of $80.

Five Ultra-Safe Dividend Investments With Higher Yields Than 2026 Social Security COLA

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Dividends are an excellent vehicle for creating long-term wealth. By focusing on dividend growth stocks, investors can juice their returns for powerful generational wealth. According to data from Hartford Funds, dividend growth stocks in the S&P 500 outperform all other classes of stocks over long periods. They have also contributed significantly to total returns, even in challenging decades like the 2000s when the broader index had negative returns but dividends provided positive annualized contribution. 

And what American Express (NYSE:AXP) CEO Stephen Squeri just said should get income investors very excited.

Why Warren Buffett Made AmEx a Core Holding

American Express has long been a favorite of Warren Buffett. His investment in the financial services giant dates back to the 1960s, but the current large position stems from the 1990s, including a $300 million purchase of preferred shares in 1991. These were later converted to common shares, and holdings grew further with a 3-for-1 stock split in 2000.

According to the latest filings, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B) owns approximately 151.6 million shares of American Express. This makes it the second-largest position in the portfolio, representing 18% of the portfolio’s total holdings, just behind Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at 20%.

More importantly, while Buffett has trimmed positions in many stocks to raise cash in recent periods, seemingly preparing for a market crash, he has maintained his full stake in American Express without selling any shares.

The Power of Dividend Growth

American Express continues to throw off substantial cash returns through its dividend. The current yield stands at around 0.8%, meager even in comparison to the 1.1% yield of the S&P 500.

However, for long-term holders like Buffett, AmEx’s yield on cost tells a different story. Yield on cost is the annual dividend divided by the original purchase price per share. It is a critical concept for dividend investors as it measures the current dividend payment as a percentage of the stock price at the time of purchase, rather than the current market price. 

For American Express, this metric highlights the power of holding a stock with consistent dividend increases. For investors who have held onto shares over many years, repeated hikes in the payout boost this effective yield significantly. Over the past decade, AmEx’s yield on cost is now 4.7%.

American Express’s strong track record of dividend reliability and growth makes it a classic dividend growth stock. It has increased its dividend at an 11% compound growth rate of over the last 10 years and at nearly 13% for the last five.

American Express’s Hidden Strength

At the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference last week, Squeri told analysts the company’s credit quality and customer base is second to none. 

What historically you’ve seen, if our card members get distressed, they will pay us before they pay the competition. And then, look, if it gets bad like it was at some point during COVID or what have you, what we know is we’re going to perform better than our competitors perform…Our write-off rates are lower than anybody else through bad cycles.

American Express CEO Stephen Squieri

Because it focuses on affluent customers who are less impacted by recessions, its bottom line is stronger.

Key Takeaway

This strength is particularly relevant now, as doubts about the U.S. economy mount. The latest jobs report showed unemployment rising to 4.6%, the highest level in four years. American Express is positioned to weather any economic slowdown or recession better than many peers and the broader market, thanks to its premium customer focus.

This is why it’s a quality dividend growth stock worth owning — and why Buffett has held firm without selling. It’s also why American Express deserves to be part of every income investor’s portfolio.

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Building a portfolio that pays you every month is something that millions of investors are striving for at this point. Yes, there is a definite goal of creating long-term wealth, but there is also this idea that you can invest wisely and create income you can count on that pays you monthly and feels like a steady paycheck even in retirement. 

The idea here is actually pretty simple in that when your investments generate income, you are relieving pressure. This pressure often comes in the form of not feeling this sudden need to panic sell during market pullbacks, which in turn gives you a more complete feeling over your financial life. 

This shift, both literally and as a mindset, is continuing to grow as more people move into their retirement or pre-retirement phase. Monthly income strategies have become a core part of a movement that has people looking to generate income that can help them keep up with how they previously lived and spent while employed full-time. 

The Case for Building a Monthly Income Portfolio 

A portfolio that is designed to pay a monthly income works best when you combine reliability with smart diversification. The goal here is to avoid depending on one asset class or one type of dividend schedule. This means creating a portfolio that is a balanced mix of ETFs, stocks, REITs, and bonds. Each will contribute a portion of the total monthly income you receive, so that one single position isn’t carrying all of the weight and responsibility. 

The hope is that this approach can help you manage risk and smooth out cash flow, especially when the market is volatile. Dividend investors are also going to want to look at scheduling as you want monthly payouts, but some US companies, many of them in fact, pay out quarterly, so you want to try and stagger holdings that pay in different months, so you are building a rotation that pays you monthly, even if it’s actually being paid quarterly. 

Thankfully, you can also consider including monthly-pay ETFs and REITs to fill any calendar gaps, resulting in predictable income that doesn’t depend on market timing. 

Dividend Stocks Will Anchor Monthly Income

Dividend stocks are arguably going to be one of the strongest building blocks for recurring payments, as large companies with solid business models can provide reliable cash flow that supports recurring dividends. The recommendation would be to use a combination of monthly payers and high-quality quarterly payers. 

Some of the best recommendations would be names like Realty Income (NYSE:O) and Main Street Capital (NYSE:MAIN) that pay out monthly dividends of $0.26 and $0.25 per share for every share owned, respectively. You can add these stocks to staple dividend players like Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), American Express (NYSE:AXP), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) that offer steady performance and long histories of dividend payouts. While these names may not pay monthly, they work together with the REIT names to create reliable long-term growth. 

REITs That Deliver Steady Cash Flow

Real estate investment trusts distribute most of their income back to shareholders, which makes them a strong addition to any portfolio that is income-focused. It’s why names like Realty Income and Main Street Capital can combine with NNN REIT (NYSE:NNN) and the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (NYSE:VNQ) to provide consistent cash flow, which is ideal for anyone who wants stability. 

These names provide diversified exposure to commercial properties, retail locations, and broader real estate markets, and consistently pay dividends, all while outperforming during periods of inflation when rents and property values rise. 

Bond Funds Round Out the Income Mix

Bond funds should be another staple addition as they provide predictable interest payments that can be layered alongside dividends. Short-term corporate bond ETFs focus on stability, while high-yield bond funds offer more income, albeit with more risk. 

Names like JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (NYSE:JEPI), NEOS Nasdaq 100 High Income ETF (NASDAQ:QQQI), and State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (NYSE:SPYD) bring in diversified income through options strategies, high-yield equity baskets, and S&P 500 dividend screens. 

Adding these ETFs into the mix supports monthly cash flow when combined with stocks, dividend ETFs, and REITs. Using everything together helps create a portfolio that generates income across different sectors. 

Creating Monthly Cash Flow With a Simple Payment Structure

It should go without saying that the goal here is to build a mix that pays every month without introducing added complexity into your life. This is why a staggered system can work so well. You’ll want to create one group that pays every January, April, July, and October. 

Next, you’ll look for a second group that covers February, May, August, and November. The third group fills the gaps with payments every March, June, September, and December. Monthly paying ETFs and REITs sit on top of this rotation and ensure that every month gets at least some kind of payment, no matter what. 

Over time, if you are early in this portfolio-building process and don’t immediately need the money, you can reinvest dividends to accelerate compounding and increase future monthly payments. When you get to the point of retirement where income matters more than accumulation, you switch from reinvesting to withdrawing. 

Staying on Track With Regular Reviews

Of course, you also want to make sure you are on track with your earnings, so periodic portfolio reviews are highly recommended. Unsurprisingly, yields can change, dividends can grow or decline, and bonds mature, and any one of these can fall out of alignment with your monthly income goals. Checking your portfolio throughout the year and making the necessary adjustments will help keep your income stable. 

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A globally recognized investor, Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors of all time. He identifies stocks at the right time, and his investments have paid off for years. While it can be interesting to follow his decisions, you must be cautious when you mimic a billionaire’s moves. Based on the recent 13F filing, we’ve noticed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) make significant moves in the third quarter. While the investor owns several artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, he also focuses on dividend-paying stocks. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), American Express (NYSE:AXP), and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) form 52% of his portfolio, and here’s why I think they’re an excellent buy. 

Apple – 22.69% of the portfolio 

Apple continues to remain the largest holding of Berkshire Hathaway at 22.69% of the portfolio. The iPhone maker was considered to be making little progress as compared to its peers, but the company has reported impressive quarterly results and growing product demand. The company added new AI features to the latest iPhone model, which are seeing strong demand. Besides the growing iPhone sales, the company has also seen an improvement in service revenue. 

The stock has gained 14.35% in 2025 and is exchanging hands for $278.85. It is very close to the 52-week high of $280. Apple has a dividend yield of 0.37%, and while it isn’t a high yield, the company has the ability to increase the dividends in the coming years. Apple has increased dividends for 12 consecutive years and pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share. The tech giant has a payout ratio of 13.65%, which means there’s a strong chance of higher dividends in the long term. 

In the recently announced fourth-quarter results, Apple reported a revenue of $102.5 billion, up 8% year-over-year, a record revenue for the quarter, and an all-time revenue record for services. Its EPS stood at $1.85, up 13% year-over-year, while the services revenue came in at $28.75 billion. Its iPhone segment continued to remain a growth driver with a revenue of $49.03 billion. This was the best quarter ever in the history of the company. Apple is strained on several models of iPhone 17, which means we could see another blowout quarter. 

American Express- 18.84% of the portfolio

Fintech company American Express holds the second largest position in Buffett’s portfolio at 18.84%. It is a card issuer and payment processor that generates revenue through transaction fees and interest payments. This ensures that it manages the income stream despite economic ups and downs. 

The company has a loyal customer base, a strong industry presence, and services that are hard to replace. American Express enjoys the loyalty of its customers, which has allowed it to raise annual fees while maintaining profitability. It is attracting millennials and Gen Z customers through its premium offerings. The company has benefitted from the increased spending on the cards across all its products. The numbers speak for themselves. 

In the third quarter, it saw an 11% jump in revenue to $18.4 billion and a 16% jump in profits to $2.9 billion, driven by affluent customers. The growth was driven by international card services, which saw a 13% year-over-year rise, while the total card member spending jumped 9% year over year. It reported an EPS of $4.14. The strong quarter led the management to raise its full-year guidance and is now aiming for a revenue growth of 9% to 10% and an EPS of $15.20 to $15.50. 

Up 22.40%, American Express stock is exchanging hands for $365.27 and has a dividend yield of 0.90%. It pays an annual dividend of $3.28 per share and has a payout ratio of 21.21%. The company has grown dividends for 4 consecutive years. American Express has never cut its dividend and has continued to reward shareholders even during periods of financial crisis. 

American Express has a resilient customer base, and its rally might not end anytime soon. It is one of the safer stocks to own during economic uncertainty. 

Bank of America- 10.96% of the portfolio

Another financial company in Berkshire’s portfolio, Bank of America, forms 10.96% of the total holdings. It owns over 568 million shares of the company. Berkshire began purchasing shares of Bank of America in 2020 and has steadily added to them. However, the hedge fund has also trimmed its share in the company and reduced it by 45%. Despite the sale, it still represents a sizeable chunk of the total portfolio. 

One of the largest financial institutions in the world, Bank of America is the most durable business around. In the third quarter, it reported a revenue of $28.1 billion, up 11% year over year. It reported a net income of $8.5 billion and added an impressive 212,000 net new consumer checking accounts.

The Federal Reserve is cutting the benchmark interest rate, and with more cuts on the horizon, the borrowing costs could lower. This will mean higher revenue for the bank. Bank of America has a yield of 2.09% and has raised dividends for 11 years. It pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a payout ratio of 28.88%. 

The risk-reward profile of Bank of America is favorable for investors. The financial institution is in a place to benefit from lower interest rates, growing consumer accounts, and a higher net income.

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Investors have spent a lifetime trying to decode Warren Buffett’s investing philosophy, but the foundation of his approach has long been far easier than most consider, and it’s all about staying consistent. The companies Buffett likes to invest in don’t focus on hype or short-term cycles. Instead, they survive by delivering products and services people use every day, regardless of market conditions.

Ultimately, Buffett’s style of investing rewards patience, and it’s because of this that he has become not just one of the world’s best investors but also one of the richest people in history. His methodology rewards buying companies that compound over decades, not just a strong quarter here and there.

It’s this philosophy that Berkshire Hathaway was built around, and the stocks he has held the longest all share the same traits. Of course, Buffett is also looking for new companies that can meet this same criteria.

Why Buffett Gravitates Toward Businesses With Moats

Over time, the world has learned that Warren Buffett seeks companies that can defend their market positions. He’s long looked for brand strength, customer loyalty, scale advantages, and predictable cash generation. It’s these traits that have rewarded Buffett’s investments as his picks allow earnings to compound steadily and over time. Unsurprisingly, the world knows and watches as he also seeks consistent dividends, which Buffett has long argued is a clear sign that management is prioritizing long-term value creation.

It’s these companies below that reflect Buffett’s mindset, past and present, and each one has the exact right blend of stability, competitive strength, and reliable shareholder returns.

Coca-Cola

It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of Warren Buffett’s investing philosophy at work than it is with Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). That Buffett has never sold a single share of Coca-Cola exemplifies his holding “forever” investment philosophy. Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola is a company that sells beverages that people buy in both good and bad markets, so there is a steady demand that supports consistent cash flow and has long allowed this beverage favorite to maintain its long history of shareholder returns.

Currently, Coca-Cola is paying a dividend yield of 2.87% and an annual dividend of $2.04, all while providing shareholders with a 16.7% year-to-date return in 2025 and a 5-year return of 55.69%. It’s these numbers that prove Buffett’s belief that by keeping the business model simple, the Coca-Cola brand has remained globally dominant, all while focusing on shareholder returns as a central part of management’s philosophy.

American Express

Another cornerstone of the Berkshire portfolio, along with Coca-Cola, is American Express (NYSE:AXP), the company Buffett has refused to sell a single share of since he first purchased shares in 1991. Well, this story comes with a caveat, as he originally purchased in 1964 and sold his first $13 million investment in the company in 1968, making a 150% return. After purchasing again in August 1991, Buffett hasn’t sold a single share of this second investment, and it speaks to his favorite type of stock almost immediately. American Express has a moat from its closed-loop network, premium customer base, and global brand.

American Express also offers a 0.95% dividend yield, but an annual dividend of $3.28 per share, and the company has grown its dividend for the last three years straight, reflecting its strong profitability. That Buffett hasn’t sold any shares since 1991 is a definitive look at how Buffett looks at stocks that can protect themselves throughout different market conditions.

Alphabet

A more recent addition to Warren Buffett’s portfolio, the acquisition of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock in the third quarter of 2025, indicates that his favorite type of stock hasn’t wavered. Having expressed regret for not investing in both 2017 and 2019 and for “blew it,” Buffett has made up for that mistake by purchasing almost $4.3 billion in Alphabet stock.

What makes this notable is that even against regulatory noise, Buffett sees what the best investors know in that Alphabet is a dominant force in search, cloud services, YouTube, email, and AI infrastructure. Revenue growth of 16% in Q3 2025 and strong EPS performance support Buffett’s view that Alphabet’s business is fundamentally sound. For shareholders, the 0.29% dividend yield and $0.84 dividend won’t jump out as making anyone rich, but the exceptionally low 8.29% percent payout ratio leaves plenty of room for future dividend increases, and it’s likely that Alphabet will want to raise the stakes as part of a multi-decade shareholder return strategy.

Ultimately, all three of these stocks reflect qualities that Buffett has long valued, and it’s these qualities that define his favorite type of stock. Coca-Cola, American Express, and Alphabet all sell or provide services people use every day, and they generate steady cash flow through every market cycle and reward long-term shareholders with dependable income and rising value. Buffett has shown for decades that durable brands and consistent earnings matter more than hype or headlines.

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The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ), SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:DIA) are among the market’s biggest ETFs, each tracking a different theme. Most investors hold a blend of these ETFs in their portfolios in different proportions.

There are also investors who pick one of those three as their core holding, then pick satellite holdings to complement that core ETF.

Whichever type of investor you may be, it’s a good idea to take a closer look at all three of these ETFs and determine which one is worth having more exposure to. It is also important to be aware that the market is constantly evolving. Making investment decisions by looking at which ETFs have done well in the recent past can lead to pitfalls.

Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)

The QQQ has been the biggest gainer among the three in recent history, thanks to tech companies spearheading the U.S. economy. The Nasdaq-100 is packed with the tech companies that have been doubling every two to three years.

The ETF tracks the performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index and gives you exposure to all of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq as-is. The passive nature allows QQQ to have an expense ratio of just 0.20%, or $20 per $10,000. This is one of the cheapest ways to get exposure to tech companies and outperform the market, assuming tech dominance continues.

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee this will be the case. The top holdings of the QQQ are Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) at 9.89%, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) at 7.96%, Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) at 5.77% and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) at 5.6%. These four companies alone constitute 29.22% of the entire ETF. AI exposure can work out if the rally continues indefinitely, but with some hyperscalers burning through their cash reserves and depreciation catching up, the narrative that AI will rally enduringly is in limbo. QQQ is likely to significantly underperform if the market starts correcting.

Nonetheless, if you’re young and looking to hold for decades and ride out the storm, QQQ is worth having as your biggest holding. Tech is unlikely to stop being the growth engine of the U.S. economy.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

The S&P 500 has long been considered the best place to put your money. And that likely remains the case today, but the ETF has been leaning heavier and heavier into a narrow group of tech companies. It’s not as concentrated as the QQQ, but Nvidia still constitutes 8.07% of the ETF. Microsoft has a 6.47% weighting, followed by Amazon at 4.14%. That’s around 18.68% of the ETF in just three AI-heavy plays.

That’s great if you’re a strong believer in AI, but if your portfolio holds both the SPY and the QQQ and perhaps some AI ETFs, the overlapping exposure to AI can leave you vulnerable.

The SPY has an expense ratio of 0.09%, or $9 per $10,000. If you are not worried about liquidity and slippage, you can buy the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPYM). It carries a 0.02% expense ratio or just $2 per $10,000.

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA)

The DIA ETF is the most “defensive” of the three and is looking more appealing in the current environment. The ETF tracks the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), one of the oldest and most widely recognized stock market indices. DIA holds the 30 blue-chip stocks that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average in their appropriate weightings.

The biggest holding here is Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) at 10.4%, followed by Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) 7.29%, Microsoft at 6.53%, Home Depot (NYSE:HD) at 4.8%, and American Express (NYSE:AXP) at 4.75%. The 4 non-AI blue-chip stocks will add much-needed ballast to your portfolio if you are heavily exposed to QQQ and the SPY.

DIA yields 1.4% and distributes its dividends monthly. The expense ratio is the highest of the bunch at 0.16%, or $16 per $10,000.

Which ETF Should You Buy?

If you are in your 20s or 30s and you can afford to take a 30-40% slide from here if the AI narrative fails, maintaining a heavily QQQ/SPY tilt is fine, given that you also hold some bonds. Tech is unlikely to fail you in the long run.

If you don’t fit that criteria, it would be better to increase exposure to DIA. There’s a serious risk of the tech rally faltering in the next few quarters. It also helps counteract overexposing your portfolio to just a handful of AI stocks. DIA is likely to outperform both QQQ and the SPY if the market has a red 2026. DIA’s historical drawdowns have been much shallower.

The post QQQ vs. SPY vs. DIA: Which ETF Is the Ultimate Winner? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is currently sitting on an unprecedented and massive cash pile, with approximately 31% of its portfolio held in cash and short-term Treasury bills—a record $381 billion. This enormous cash position continues to raise eyebrows across Wall Street, as it represents a stunning departure from Buffett’s typical approach of deploying capital into undervalued businesses and stocks.

The Oracle of Omaha has been a net seller of stocks for eight consecutive quarters, notably trimming Berkshire’s massive stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and offloading significant positions in Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). Many market professionals interpret this defensive posture as a strong signal that Buffett views current market valuations as overheated, with few attractive investment opportunities meeting his very stringent criteria for long-term value. In addition, he not only thinks the stock market is overvalued, but he has not repurchased any Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) since the second quarter of 2024.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote: “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So it is not surprising to report that for all of the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, just five top companies make up over 70% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years. It is likely to continue doing so in the future. The question many would ask, given his impending departure, is what dividend stocks are likely to remain in the portfolio for the long term? We screened the portfolio, and these three longtime stalwarts, which pay dividends, are likely to stay in the portfolio for decades to come.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 50 years. While investing has evolved in the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide, while paying dividends, will always remain a timeless approach.

American Express

This American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializes in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025, offering a dividend yield of 0.86%. American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses. It offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

The financial giant posted strong third-quarter earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing the forecast of $18.05 billion, as net income increased 16% to $2.9 billion compared to last year.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 21.6 % of American Express’s float, and 15.5% of the portfolio.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $400 target price.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. This company remains a top long-time Buffett holding, and he owns a massive 400 million shares. They have increased by a solid 11% in 2025 and come with a dependable 2.92% dividend. Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day.

It is also important to remember that the company owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Bank of America has a Buy rating and a target price of $80.

Kroger

This American retail company operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. This grocery chain giant is a consistently solid and conservative investment with a 2.02% dividend. Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) also operates combination food and drug stores, marketplace stores, and price-impact warehouses.

Its combination of food and drug stores offers:

• Natural food and organic sections
• Pharmacies
• General Merchandise
• Pet centers
• Fresh seafood and organic produce

Multi-department stores offer:

• Apparel
• Home fashion and furnishings
• Outdoor living
• Electronics
• Automotive products
• Toys

The company’s marketplace stores offer:

• Full-service grocery, pharmacy, health, and beauty care
• Perishable goods, as well as general merchandise, including apparel, home goods, and toys
• Price-impact warehouse stores sell groceries, health and beauty care products, meat, dairy, baked goods, and fresh produce

The company also manufactures and processes food products in its supermarkets and online, and it sells fuel through 1,613 fuel centers.

 Jefferies has a Buy rating with an $83 price objective.

As Warren Buffett Waves Goodbye, Five Dividend Stocks That Will Never Leave Berkshire Hathaway

The post Warren Buffett Stepping Down With 31% of Berkshire in Cash: His 3 Ultra Safest Stocks appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If any investor has stood the test of time, it is Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For over half a century, the Oracle of Omaha has had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal fans who are investors. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Buffett announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of the investment giant at the end of the year. While he will remain the board chair and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the chief executive position at the end of the year. As 2025 winds down, Buffett will step away, making far fewer appearances, and will not be onstage at the next shareholder meeting. Abel will take the stage for the next meeting and write the annual shareholder letter.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote: “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So it is not surprising to report that for all of the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, five top companies make up over 70% of its total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years. It is likely to continue doing so in the future. The question many would ask, given his impending departure, is what dividend stocks are likely to remain in the portfolio for the long term? We screened the portfolio, and these longtime stalwarts, which all pay dividends, are likely to stay at the dance for decades to come.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 50 years. While investing has evolved over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide, while paying dividends, will always remain a timeless approach.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025 and offers a dividend yield of 0.88%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The financial giant posted strong third-quarter earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing the forecast of $18.05 billion, as net income increased 16% to $2.9 billion compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 21.6 % of American Express’s float, and 15.5% of the portfolio.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $400 target price.

Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services, and it offers a small dividend of 0.38%. It is almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant, even after a recent sale of 20 million shares and a surge in sales over the past two years, still makes up a stunning 23.8% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. It holds just under 2% of Apple’s stock. Apple designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also offers AppleCare support and cloud services, as well as operates various platforms, including the App Store, which enables customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, videos, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $300 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the past two years, this quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2% dividend yield. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and financial holding company that reported impressive third-quarter results. Both earnings per share (EPS) of $1.06 and revenue of $28.24 billion beat analysts’ estimates. Profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, and revenue grew 11% year-over-year, with EPS jumping 31%.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating, accompanied by a $70 target price.

Chevron

This American multinational energy company predominantly specializes in oil and gas. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is a safer option for investors looking to position themselves in the energy sector, and it pays a substantial 4.42% dividend, which was raised by 5% earlier this year. This integrated giant operates energy and chemicals businesses worldwide through two segments.

The Upstream segment is involved in the following:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines, and transportation, storage
• Marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum products
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

It also involves cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.

Chevron announced in late 2023 that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hess in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, or $171 per share based on Chevron’s closing price on October 20, 2023. Under the terms of the agreement, Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. The transaction’s total enterprise value, including debt, is $60 billion. The Federal Trade Commission has approved the deal, and it is expected to close this fall.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a target price of $190.

Coca-Cola

This American multinational corporation, founded in 1892, remains a top long-time holding of Warren Buffett. He owns a massive 400 million Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) shares, which have increased by a solid 11% in 2025 and come with a dependable 2.92% dividend. The world’s largest beverage company offers consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks.

Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. It is also important to remember that the company owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Bank of America has a Buy rating and a target price of $80.

Three Warren Buffett Dividend Stocks to Buy Now With Just $1000

The post As Warren Buffett Waves Goodbye, 5 Dividend Stocks That Never Leave Berkshire Hathaway appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Legendary investor Warren Buffett has been steadily unloading stocks at Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B) while amassing a massive cash reserve, sparking questions about a potential market crash. If the Oracle of Omaha is selling and stashing cash, should we be buying?

In the third quarter, Berkshire’s cash holdings ballooned to a record $381.7 billion, even as U.S. markets hit new highs. This cautious stance comes as Buffett, now 95, prepares to step down as CEO at year’s end, handing the reins to Greg Abel. But does this really signal an impending market crash? Analysts are divided, viewing it as a mix of prudence and missed opportunities in a rallying economy.

Berkshire’s latest earnings report underscores Buffett’s conservative approach. For the 12th consecutive quarter, the conglomerate was a net seller of equities in its $312 billion portfolio, which still includes major stakes in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and American Express (NYSE:AXP). Buffett also didn’t buy back any Berkshire stock for the fifth straight quarter, despite Berkshire’s shares underperforming the broader market. 

The S&P 500 has surged ahead this year, leaving Berkshire’s stock down 2% since Buffett announced his CEO exit in May and trailing the index by 12 percentage points for the full year.

Still, why the hoarding? Buffett has long preached buying undervalued assets, but current valuations seem to appear too rich for his taste. The Oracle is not known for chasing valuations higher.

 “If you feel like stocks are expensive, including your own shares, you’re eventually going to be right, but you can be wrong for a long time,” said James Shanahan, an analyst at Edward Jones who recently upgraded Berkshire to a “buy” rating. This echoes Buffett’s history of sitting on cash during frothy markets, only to deploy it during downturns — like the 2008 financial crisis when he snapped up bargains.

Profit Surge Masks Underlying Slowdown

Despite the caution, Berkshire posted solid results. Third-quarter operating profit climbed 34% to $13.49 billion, or about $9,376 per Class A share, beating Wall Street’s expectations. Net income rose 17% to $30.8 billion, fueled by lower insurance losses and the absence of major catastrophes. Currency fluctuations contributed over two-fifths of the operating gain, while Geico saw policy growth but higher acquisition costs.

However, revenue growth lagged at just 2%, below U.S. GDP expansion. Subsidiaries faced headwinds: Clayton Homes struggled with waning consumer confidence, and units like Duracell, Fruit of the Loom, and Jazwares saw sales dips. BNSF railroad profit rose 6% on lower fuel costs and better productivity, but Berkshire Hathaway Energy dipped 9% due to wildfire legal bills and higher pipeline expenses. Falling interest rates are expected to crimp future earnings from cash holdings, adding pressure.

Cathy Seifert, a CFRA Research analyst with a “hold” rating, told Reuters Berkshire’s role as a U.S. economy proxy isn’t shining. “Berkshire isn’t even keeping up,” she said, highlighting the lack of catalysts for investors.

Abel’s Turn: Dividend or Deals Ahead?

Buffett’s exit marks a pivotal shift. Abel, a more operational leader, inherits a $1.03 trillion empire spanning insurance, railroads, energy, and consumer brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candies. Options for the cash include Berkshire’s first dividend since 1967 or acquisitions — its last big one was Precision Castparts in 2016 for $32.1 billion. A recent $9.7 billion deal for Occidental Petroleum‘s (NYSE:OXY) OxyChem unit uses some cash, but much remains untapped.

Analysts speculate Abel might invest in operations to boost performance. Tom Russo, a longtime Berkshire investor, defended the strategy: “Berkshire isn’t going to deploy capital that won’t increase intrinsic value.” Yet, with markets rallying, the cash pile raises eyebrows about overvaluation risks.

Crash Warning or Smart Patience?

Buffett’s moves don’t necessarily signal imminent doom but reflect his value discipline, though timing is tricky. Past cash builds did precede corrections, such as in 2000 and 2007. Economic uncertainty, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act impacting renewables, the government shutdown, and consumer slowdowns add some context.

While Berkshire’s diversified businesses position it for resilience in the event a crash hits —  Buffett’s stash could fund plenty of bargain buys —  the transition to Abel’s stewardship remains the biggest question mark. His lack of proven stock-picking success introduces risk suggesting investors should take a wait-and-see approach before buying in.

The post Warren Buffett Keeps Selling Stocks, Builds Record $381 Billion Cash Stash. Is a Market Crash Imminent? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If any investor has stood the test of time, it is Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For 60 years, the Oracle of Omaha has had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal fans who are investors. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Buffett announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of the investment giant at the end of the year. While he will remain board chair and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the position of chief executive at the end of the year.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter, thanks to some outstanding performance from the insurance companies in the portfolio. The company’s Q3 2025 earnings increased to nearly $30.8 billion, a substantial rise driven by improved operating profits and higher investment gains. The company’s cash reserves increased to a record $382 billion, while Buffett continued to be a net seller of stocks, with sales totaling $12.5 billion compared to $6.4 billion in purchases. The company beat estimates, with a massive 34% year-over-year increase in operating earnings to $13.485 billion. This was primarily driven by a surge in insurance underwriting income, which grew by over 200%.

Once again, no Berkshire Hathaway stock was repurchased, and Buffett remained a net seller of stocks in the third quarter by parting with approximately $12.5 billion of stock and buying about $6.4 billion. This marks the 12th consecutive quarter of net selling, contributing to a record cash pile of $382 billion. Despite the strong earnings performance for the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway is underperforming the S&P 500 by a significant margin in 2025, gaining just 5.5% compared to an almost 16% gain for the venerable index.

One thing is sure: despite the net-seller status Berkshire Hathaway has maintained for the past three years, there are two stocks that Buffett or  Abel will never sell. Both are dividend-paying giants that have been part of the portfolios for decades.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

Few investors have the results and reputation that Buffett has garnered over the past 50 years. While investing has evolved over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide, while paying dividends, will always remain a timeless approach. Here are the two stocks that Buffett has never sold a share of and likely will stay in his portfolio long after he’s gone.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has performed strongly in 2025, offering a dividend yield of 0.92%. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that operates in card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card-network businesses, and has been part of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio since 1991.

The financial giant posted earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing the forecast of $18.05 billion, as net income increased 16% to $2.9 billion compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS), which offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services (CS) offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services (ICS) provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, which is 21.6 % of American Express’s float, and 15.5% of the portfolio.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $400 price objective.

Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886. This stock remains a top long-time holding of Buffett, who owns a massive 400 million shares. That makes up almost 9% of the portfolio, and shares are up a solid 11.4% in 2025.

The world’s largest beverage company offers consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands. The company reported strong third-quarter 2025 earnings, which beat analyst expectations for earnings per share (EPS) but fell slightly short of revenue expectations.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

1. Diet Coke
2. Coca-Cola Light
3. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
4. Caffeine-free Diet Coke
5. Cherry Coke
6. Fanta Orange
7. Fanta Zero Orange
8. Fanta Zero Sugar
9. Fanta Apple
10. Sprite
11. Sprite Zero Sugar
12. Simply Orange
13. Simply Apple
14. Simply Grapefruit
15. Fresca
16. Schweppes
17. Dasani
18. Fuze Tea
19. Glacéau Smartwater
20. Glacéau Vitaminwater
21. Gold Peak
22. Ice Dew
23. Powerade
24. Topo Chico
25. Minute Maid

Globally, it is the top provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks.

Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day. It’s also important to remember that the company owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

Piper Sandler has an Overweight rating and a target price of $81.

The post Warren Buffett’s Cash Up to $382 Billion: 2 Dividend Stocks He Never Sells appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For years, the Oracle of Omaha has had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal investor fans. Buffett remains one of the world’s most prominent investors, known for his long buy-and-hold strategies and massive portfolio of public and private holdings.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote, “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So it is not surprising to report that for all of the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, three top companies make up over 50% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years and likely will in the future.

Here are the three companies that are over 50% of Berkshire Hathaway.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

There are few investors with the results and reputation Buffett has garnered over the past 50 years. While investing has changed over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services known worldwide while paying dividends will always stay in style.

American Express

This American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializes in payment cards. This stock has been strong in 2025 and pays a 0.92% dividend. American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The financial giant posted earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing forecasts of $18.05 billion as net income of $2.9 billion was up 16% compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services, which offers travel and lifestyle services and banking and non-card financing products.
• Commercial Services, which offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.
• International Card Services, which provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.
• Global Merchant and Network Services operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 21.6 % of American Express’s float, and 17.3% of the portfolio.

Keefe, Bruyette, and Woods has an Outperform rating with a $394 target price.

Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant, with 280 million shares, still makes up a stunning 23.2% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which holds almost 2% of Apple’s stock even after selling tens of millions of shares over the last few years. Apple designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories, and sells a variety of related services.

The company’s product categories include iPhone, Mac, iPad, Wearables, Home, and Accessories. Its software platforms include iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS. And the services include advertising, AppleCare, cloud services, digital content, and payment services.

Apple operates various platforms, including the App Store, that allow customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, video, games, and podcasts. It also offers digital content through subscription-based services, including

• Apple Arcade
• Apple Fitness+
• Apple Music
• Apple News+
• Apple TV

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $298 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his position over the past two years, this quality financial giant is an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2.03% dividend. Still, it makes up 10.2% of the portfolio. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and a financial holding company that posted huge third-quarter results. Earnings per share of $1.06 versus $0.95, as revenue of $28.24 billion versus $27.5 billion beat analysts’ estimates. Profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, and revenue grew 11% year-over-year, with EPS jumping 31%.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM)
• Global Banking
• Global Markets

Consumer Banking segment offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.

The GWIM comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products.

Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.

The Global Banking segment offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.

The Global Markets segment offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating to go with a $67 target price.

Goldman Sachs Reveals Sectors With Top 2026 Payouts: 5 Strong Buys

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When it comes to picking dividend stocks, you not only want a firm that can support a generous payout, but one that can grow it at a fairly predictable rate over extended periods of time. Indeed, when thinking about dividend stocks with a long-term horizon in mind, I think it makes more sense to focus on the growth profile and the shareholder-return policy than just how large the upfront yield is.

While those with higher income needs, like retirees, may prioritize yield above all else, including growth, I do think that analyzing the dividend from different angles, as well as a company’s overall fundamentals, could allow for a dividend that not only pays you in perpetuity, but can deliver on dividend growth and total returns.

At the end of the day, you don’t need to settle for below-average total returns if you’re going for dividend payers. In some instances, a dividend payer can deliver solid risk-adjusted total returns, and in this piece, we’ll have a look at two such names that I think offer an impressive value proposition at the current price of admission.

AT&T

AT&T (NYSE:T) has come a long way in the past two years, and while the impressive 84% worth of gains in the last two years may suggest the easy money has already been made, I still think there’s a longer-term opportunity in the name, especially as shares come in.

The dividend yield is still incredibly attractive at 4.3% after shares corrected more than 11% from their late-summer highs. While it could prove difficult to grow wireless subscribers relative to its rivals, there’s no discounting the efficiency gains the firm has unlocked.

The turnaround has worked wonders, at least so far, and I think there’s more room to the upside as the firm makes good use of AI tech to improve the service it provides. Not to mention the potential for additional cost savings, which could translate to fatter margins and more cash to return to shareholders.

Undoubtedly, churn remains a concern for the top industry players, but with promos in place and the potential for an iPhone 17-driven upgrade cycle, I certainly wouldn’t bet against AT&T while it’s going for 15.1 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E). 

American Express

American Express (NYSE:AXP) really impressed as it topped expectations for its fourth quarter. Indeed, shares rocketed 7.3% on Friday in response to the big beat, which saw strength in the consumer at a time when many investors were bracing for some bumps in the road. For now, it looks like smooth sailing for the premier credit card firm.

With credit card price hikes in the books and better-tailored perks for Millennials, I view shares of AXP as still incredibly undervalued. While uncertainty may still be ahead, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the firm continues punching above its own sales estimates, especially if the consumer proves more resilient going into the new year.

Additionally, premium card price hikes, I think, have been taken quite well, given the even more significant hike in the value proposition (the value of the upscale perks). Indeed, communicating the extra value provided is a fantastic way to go about increasing prices without sparking a wave of customer outrage.

Sure, the nearly 1% dividend yield makes the name less enticing for income investors. However, with robust growth and the means to keep raising the payout, I’d look to stash away the name for the long haul. It’s a premier financial with a dividend poised to keep climbing.

For now, the revenue growth forecast has been narrowed to 9-10%. If more users sign up for Amex’s pricier Platinum cards because of the extra perks (pay more to get much more), while the firm continues expanding its international footprint, while beckoning in younger Millennials, I wouldn’t be surprised if another 11% (or higher) worth of growth is in the cards for the premier Buffett stock.

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To meet their investment goals, some people turn to popular exchange traded funds (ETFs) like the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD). Also, they may choose to own shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) stock, which isn’t actually an ETF but does provide exposure to a diversified basket of stocks.

There’s no denying that the SCHD ETF has benefits for investors, but it’s not the only way to generate passive income. For fans of Berkshire Hathaway and its famous CEO, Warren Buffet, there’s a fund that also produces income and could rival the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF. In the end, you might be convinced to try out a unique ETF that competes with SCHD and even with Berkshire Hathaway stock.

SCHD and Buffett-Style Investing

To a limited extent, investors can implement Buffett-style investing with the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF. For many years, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have focused on rock-solid, reasonably valued businesses that pay reliable dividends; a couple of examples would be Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX).

Passive income seekers may be disappointed to learn, however, that Berkshire Hathaway stock doesn’t pay a dividend. Since there is some overlap between SCHD’s holdings and Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings (Coca-Cola stock, Chevron stock, etc.), Buffett aficionados and income investors might be interested in the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF.

In all, the SCHD ETF has 103 stocks in its holdings list and they’re generally blue-chip companies that pay consistent dividends. Berkshire Hathaway stock doesn’t deduct an expense ratio since it’s not an ETF; the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF does impose an annual expense ratio, but it’s only 0.06% so it’s not very costly.

Regarding income opportunities, the SCHD ETF currently advertises a 3.81% annual distribution yield. Consequently, income seekers may want to add the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF to a position in Berkshire Hathaway stock. If they really like SCHD, they might even be tempted to buy it instead of Berkshire Hathaway stock.

How does the SCHD ETF manage to achieve such a high distribution yield? Along with holding a basket of dividend-yielding stocks, the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF may trade “derivatives, principally futures contracts.”

The fund’s prospectus acknowledges that trading derivatives can involve risks, such as potentially reducing SCHD’s performance and increasing its volatility. Thus, while the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF pays a dividend and Berkshire Hathaway stock doesn’t, the SCHD ETF involves risks that investors should consider.

Meet OMAH, an Alternative to SCHD

SCHD’s 3.81% distribution yield is quite good, and the fund’s holdings somewhat overlap Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings. However, for high yield seekers and Buffett fans there’s another ETF that could have stronger appeal that the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF.

Please allow me to introduce to you a fund called the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH). This fund attempts to provide exposure to Berkshire Hathaway’s 20 largest holdings by market capitalization while also providing substantial income.

Hence, whereas SCHD overlaps Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings somewhat, OMAH strongly matches Berkshire’s holdings. You won’t get an exact one-to-one match, but you’ll probably get reliable indirect exposure to Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings through the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF.

Although the OMAH ETF actually has 70 holdings in total, the lion’s share of the fund consists of Berkshire Hathaway stock (11.03% of the ETF’s weighting) and Berkshire’s 20 largest holdings. You’ll find many of the stocks you’d expect to see, such as Coca-Cola, Chevron, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and American Express (NYSE:AXP).

Much like the SCHD ETF and Berkshire Hathaway stock, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF provides broad diversification to a multitude of market sectors. Moreover, like the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF, OMAH uses derivatives to generate extra income.

In contrast to SCHD, which seems to focus on futures contracts, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF appears to emphasize options-trading strategies. In particular, the OMAH ETF “earns income by collecting premiums from selling (writing) options,” presumably call options on those aforementioned Berkshire stocks.

OMAH: Rewards Could Outweigh Risks

Since the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF may sell covered call options to generate income, there’s a risk of limited share-price gains. On the other hand, the OMAH ETF’s 15% annual distribution rate easily beats 3.81% for SCHD and 0% for Berkshire Hathaway stock.

Another benefit of the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF is that it pays out its distributions on a monthly basis. In contrast, the SCHD ETF has a quarterly distribution schedule.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the OMAH ETF has a relatively high annual expense ratio of 0.95%. This, along with the fund’s covered call writing strategies, could reduce the share-price performance of the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF.

As long as you understand and accept those drawbacks, you might want to consider a position in the OMAH ETF. In some respects, it’s like Berkshire Hathaway stock but with a nice passive income stream that beats what SCHD has to offer. Whether you’re a Buffett devotee or not, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF could be your ticket to instant portfolio diversification and hefty monthly cash payouts.

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The specter of 2023’s regional banking crisis — when Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic crumbled — looms large again. The September bankruptcy of First Brands Group, an auto parts giant with up to $50 billion in liabilities, has exposed hidden cracks in private credit markets, rattling regional banks like Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) and Western Alliance (NYSE:WAL). With $1 trillion in commercial real estate loans looming and fears of more “cockroaches” (undisclosed bad loans) lurking, investors are on edge. 

The SPDR Regional Banking ETF (NYSEARCA:KRE) has slid 10% in a month, and whispers of contagion are growing louder. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said, “When you see one cockroach, there’s probably more. Everyone should be forewarned on this one.”

For risk-tolerant investors eyeing a speculative play, inverse and ultra-short exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer a way to profit from further declines — but only in small doses. Don’t back up the truck on these.

Unlike traditional ETFs that track an index’s gains, inverse ETFs aim to deliver the opposite daily return, often amplified (e.g., -2x), making them high-risk tools for betting against a sector. Their leveraged nature causes value decay over time, so they’re unsuitable for long-term holding. Only a tiny portfolio sliver should be allocated, as sharp market rebounds can erase gains fast. 

For those investors who can stomach volatility, the two ETFs below are poised to capitalize if regional banks falter, though they come with strict risk caveats.

Tuttle Capital 2X Inverse Regional Bank ETF (SKRE)

The Tuttle Capital 2X Inverse Regional Bank ETF (NASDAQ:SKRE) is a pinpoint tool for betting against regional banks, seeking -2x the daily return of the S&P Regional Banks Select Industry Index, the same benchmark as KRE. If KRE drops 1% in a day, SKRE aims to gain 2%, ideal for traders expecting a shakeout. 

The First Brands bankruptcy, alongside Tricolor’s subprime auto lending collapse, exposed loan fraud, with Zions taking a $50 million charge-off and Western Alliance suing over fraudulent collateral. With commercial real estate (CRE) delinquencies elevated, specifically in office loans, climbing to 10.4% for regional lenders — near 2008 highs — and $1 trillion in CRE loans due by year-end, further defaults could crush KRE, driving SKRE higher.

On Thursday, when KRE plunged 6.3% amid panic, SKRE spiked nearly 12%, showcasing its potency in fear-driven selloffs. But when banks like Truist Financial (NYSE:TFC) and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) posted solid earnings on Friday, KRE rebounded 1.6%, and SKRE shed gains (it lost 3.5%). This volatility highlights SKRE’s risk: its 2x leverage amplifies losses in recoveries, and daily resets cause decay in flat or choppy markets. 

Upcoming earnings, like Western Alliance’s on Oct. 21, could reveal more loan issues, boosting SKRE if losses mount. Risk-tolerant traders must use tight stop-losses and short-term holds (days, not weeks), as prolonged exposure can erode profits even if banks weaken overall, especially with potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts stabilizing markets.

ProShares UltraShort Financials ETF (SKF)

The ProShares UltraShort Financials ETF (NYSEARCA:SKF) targets -2x the daily return of the S&P Financial Select Sector Index, covering regional banks, big banks like JPMorgan, and insurers. A 1% drop in its index could yield a 2% gain for SKF, offering a broader play on financial sector stress. 

First Brands’ fallout hit firms like Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF), which disclosed $715 million in exposure, driving its stock down 20% in a month. JPM itself took a $170 million hit from Tricolor. If contagion spreads — through collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), private credit defaults, or auto loan stress — SKF could rally significantly. 

SKF also shot higher last Thursday as regional bank fears peaked, reflecting its sensitivity to sector panic. Yet, the next day, strong earnings from American Express (NYSE:AXP) and others lifted financials, slashing SKF’s gains. This swing underscores its danger: 2x leverage magnifies losses in rebounds, and long-term holds decay due to daily resets, especially in volatile markets. 

SKF is less precise than SKRE for regional banks but captures wider financial fallout, like CLO unwinds or insurer losses tied to credit markets. With $1.5 trillion in leveraged loans outstanding, a broader credit crunch could fuel SKF. Aggressive traders should also limit their positions and exit quickly, as big banks’ stability or positive earnings could cap upside, making timing critical.

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If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For 60 years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal investor fans. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Mr. Buffett announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of the investment giant at the end of the year. While he will remain Chairman of the Board and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the CEO position at the end of the year. 

Warren Buffett remains one of the world’s most prominent investors, renowned for his long-term buy-and-hold strategies and extensive portfolio of public and private holdings. With interest rates poised to decline, it makes sense to consider adding Warren Buffett’s dividend-paying stocks, which are expected to rally as bond yields fall. Since Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) has prominent positions in the financial sector, three have already delivered outstanding results for the third quarter, and they remain exceptional buy-and-hold stocks for growth and income investors. In addition, all are Buy-rated at top Wall Street firms. 

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

There are few investors with the results and reputation that Mr. Buffett has garnered over the last 60 years. While investing has evolved over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide, while paying dividends, will always remain a timeless approach. 

Ally Financial

The former GMAC posted strong results for the quarter and offers investors a solid 3.02% dividend. Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a financial services company that posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.15, significantly beating the analyst consensus of $1.00. Revenue for the quarter reached $2.17 billion, beating estimates of $2.12 billion. Adjusted earnings more than doubled from $0.43 per share in the same quarter last year.

The Company’s segments include:

• Automotive Finance operations
• Insurance operations
• Corporate Finance operations

The Automotive Finance operations segment is engaged in providing automotive financing services to consumers, automotive dealers and retailers, companies, and municipalities.

Its Insurance operations segment operates as a complementary automotive-focused business, offering both consumer finance protection and insurance products sold primarily through the automotive dealer channel, and commercial insurance products sold directly to dealers.

The Corporate Finance operations segment provides senior secured asset-based and leveraged cash flow loans to U.S.-based middle-market companies, with a focus on businesses owned by private equity sponsors.

Ally Financial also includes a robust corporate finance business that offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies.

Citigroup has a Buy rating with a giant $70 target price.

American Express

American Express Company is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has been strong in 2025 and pays a 0.92% dividend. American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The financial giant posted earnings per share of $4.14, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.99, representing a 19% year-over-year increase. Revenue grew 11% to $18.43 billion, surpassing forecasts of $18.05 billion as net income of $2.9 billion was up 16% compared to last year.

The company offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS)
• Commercial Services (CS)
• International Card Services (ICS)
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS)

USCS offers travel and lifestyle services and banking and non-card financing products.

CS offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.

ICS provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.

GMNS operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 21.6 % of American Express’s float, and 15.5% of the portfolio.

Keefe, Bruyette, and Woods has an Outperform rating with a $394 target price objective.

Bank of America

While Warren Buffett has trimmed his position over the last two years, this quality financial giant is an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 2.03% dividend. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is a bank holding company and a financial holding company that posted huge Q3 results. Earnings per share of $1.06 vs. $0.95, as revenue of $28.24 billion vs. $27.5 billion beat analysts’ estimates. Profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion, and revenue grew 11% year-over-year, with EPS jumping 31%

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM)
• Global Banking
• Global Markets

Consumer Banking segment offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.

The GWIM comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products.

Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.

The Global Banking segment offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.

The Global Markets segment offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating to go with a $67 target price.

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It’s been quite a wild ride for markets over the past seven years, from the short-lived COVID-19 crash in 2020 and the nearly year-long bear market in 2022 to the tariff chaos that unfolded in the April 2025. Despite the ups and downs, the rollercoaster ride has been worth staying on. Of course, it’s easy to invest when stocks are in the midst of a powerful bull market led by a profound technological revolution. Indeed, valuation concerns aside, the AI revolution really does stand out as a revolution. And it’s been lifting many boats in the market waters, including some of the steady dividend payers.

In this piece, we’ll look at two of the most impressive dividend payers underneath the hood of my portfolio that have helped power a good mix of dividend growth and capital appreciation. Though they’ve been true powerhouses of performance, I still view the names as worth hanging onto or even buying for those with new money to put to work. Of course, the valuations may not be as appealing anymore. But given the dividend growth potential and potential for reignited earnings growth moving forward, I certainly wouldn’t sleep on the following defensive powerhouses.

The same could be said for many stocks after yet another bullish first three quarters of gains are now in the books. Either way, I have no plans to sell the following names, even if some skeptics have fears about a frothy market that’s overdue for a correction. 

McDonald’s

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) stock is really one of those names you can comfortably buy and hold for the long haul. Undoubtedly, shares have been somewhat choppier in recent years, thanks in part to the effects of inflation, which has sent prices of everything from labor to ingredients and everything in between higher.

Though McDonald’s could have done a better job of communicating the value proposition in the earlier waves of inflation, I do think the golden arches has done a fantastic job of winning back the love of diners with its latest value menu. In fact, Citi analyst Jon Tower sees MCD stock rising to $381 per share, thanks in part to the value menu.

Add new menu innovations into the equation, and it won’t take a whole lot to smash expectations in the coming quarters. The big question going into the next round of quarterly earnings is whether McDonald’s can take share from its rivals. Either way, I view the more than 6% dip in the stock as completely unwarranted. So, if you seek a low beta (0.50), a nice dividend (2.36%), and the potential for more dividend hikes, look no further than the name while it’s trading at 22.6 times forward price-to-earnings (P/E).

MCD’s dividend currently yields 2.36%, or $1.77 per share quarterly.

American Express

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is another blue chip that keeps finding new ways to pay dividends. The yield might now sit at less than 1%, but given the catalysts that could ignite earnings, I wouldn’t count out the potential for above-average dividend hikes in the coming years. Indeed, American Express has done a fantastic job of winning the business of younger crowds.

In a prior piece, I briefly remarked on the latest price hikes on the premier Platinum card. The latest Platinum perks are good enough, at least in my view, to justify paying $200 more for the card. Of course, the Platinum card has more value to offer those who make use of the $3,500 worth of perks. $3,500 in value for just shy of $900? Sounds like a pretty good deal.

With a strong, premier brand in the credit card scene and the love of Millennials and even Gen Z, I view American Express as a future-proof dividend grower whose stock might be worth a price hike in the coming months.

The stock trades at 18.7 times forward P/E, which seems too low given the thematic tailwinds and timely growth drivers (like recent price hikes) at hand. The stock is up 128% in two years, and earnings are on tap in just over two weeks’ time. I think Amex is in for another decent quarter and view the latest 3% dip, driven by consumer jitters, as overdone. 

AXP’s dividend currently yields 0.99%, or 82 cents per share quarterly.

The post My 7-Year Dividend Journey: 2 Steady Stocks for Big-Time Yield appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Warren Buffett has long championed dividend stocks as a cornerstone of wealth building. At Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B), more than half of his equity portfolio — around 55% — consists of companies that pay dividends. 

These reliable cash flows align with his value investing philosophy, providing steady returns without the need to sell shares. Buffett favors firms with durable competitive advantages, or “moats,” that generate predictable earnings to support growing payouts over time.

Yet, despite this preference, Buffett staunchly opposes paying dividends from Berkshire itself. He argues that reinvesting profits into high-return opportunities — acquisitions, buybacks, or new ventures — creates more value for shareholders than distributing cash. “We don’t pay dividends because we think we can do better with the money,” he has said. This approach has compounded Berkshire’s book value at an astonishing 19.8% annually since 1965.

That conviction doesn’t stop Buffett from collecting dividends elsewhere. Recently, one of his longest-held positions cut him a quarterly check for $204 million. This payout underscores the enduring power of dividend stocks: buy quality companies early, hold through market cycles, and let compounding turn modest investments into fortunes.

Buffett’s Obsession Fuels a Massive Stake

Buffett’s relationship with Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) dates back to the late 1980s, when he began building a position amid the company’s global expansion. By 1989, Berkshire owned about 7% of KO, a stake that has remained largely unchanged. What draws Buffett to the beverage giant is partly personal. A self-proclaimed Cherry Coke devotee, he downs five to six cans daily — his only indulgence in the stock’s products.

Today, Buffett holds 400 million shares of KO stock, valued at $26.7 billion. This represents 8.8% of Berkshire’s $304 billion stock portfolio, making it the fourth-largest holding after Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), American Express (NYSE:AXP), and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC). 

Coke’s latest quarterly dividend of $0.51 per share translates to $204 million flowing straight to Omaha every three months.

Quarterly Checks That Never Stop — and Only Grow

This $204 million arrives like clockwork, every quarter, year after year, as long as Buffett owns the shares. But KO isn’t just any dividend payer; it’s a Dividend King — a stock that raises its payout annually for 50 years or more. Coca-Cola has hiked its payout annually for 63 straight years, and it currently yields 3% annually. It means KO is delivering Berkshire about $816 million a year from this one stock alone.

If you had invested $1,000 in KO alongside Buffett’s initial buy in 1988 — when the split-adjusted dividend was $0.21 per share — the principal would have grown to $13,700 through price appreciation alone, a 1,270% gain over 37 years.

Had you reinvested those dividends (as you should), the magic of compounding would have taken effect.  The payouts would have bought additional shares, it would have added an additional $18,140, giving you a total worth $31,840. That’s a cumulative return of 3,080%, or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7%.

Although the S&P 500 would have returned 3,750% over the same stretch, that’s skewed by the artificial intelligence-fueled surge of the last five years. Tech titans like Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) now dominate the index, driving outsized gains. For most of those 37 years, KO handily beat the benchmark, thanks to its defensive qualities during downturns.

Key Takeaway

Buffett’s KO ownership proves the case for patient, dividend-focused investing. He hasn’t added a single share since 1994, yet compounding has turned a legacy bet into a cash machine. The 100 million shares of KO in Berkshire’s portfolio when he made his last purchase have grown to 400 million today from reinvested dividends and stock splits, generating nearly $1 billion annually in income. At the current 5% annual increase pace, it should cross that threshold within four years.

Quality dividend growers like Coca-Cola offer inflation protection, income stability, and automatic reinvestment potential. They reward holders who ignore short-term noise and focus on decades-long ownership.

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Building a portfolio that can replace your paycheck and keep growing is the central puzzle of retirement. Dividend ETFs have become the favorite tool for solving it because one ticker delivers an instant basket of companies that have already proven they can return cash year in, year out.

Unlike the old choice between a growth stock that might double and a bond that barely beats inflation, today’s dividend ETFs offer both the cash and exposure to some of the hottest indexes.

However, building a retirement-ready portfolio by just looking at the yield is a bad idea. The sensible way of building such a portfolio is by balancing growth, stability, and income. Ideally, you’d want to target a mid-single-digit yield dividend ETF as your core holding, with some satellite ETFs to boost growth and income.

The following five cover just that.

Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF (DIVO)

Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF (NYSEARCA:DIVO) is perhaps the best core dividend holding you can have at the moment. The structure is very clever and has allowed it to outperform even the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD). And if that’s not enough, DIVO yields more and pays monthly.

This ETF owns ~20-25 stocks of large-cap U.S. companies that have a history of raising their dividends. These companies are reliable, and their earnings growth often outpaces the dividend growth.

The top five holdings are  Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), American Express (NYSE:AXP), RTX (NYSE:RTX), and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), with each having ~5% to 5.5% weighting. If you haven’t noticed already, each of those companies is in a distinct sector and is considered a blue chip.

But you may be wondering how DIVO gets you a 4.51% dividend yield, which is also paid monthly. None of those stocks pays big dividends.

The secret recipe is that the ETF writes covered call options on a fraction of its holdings. It’s mild enough not to noticeably impact upside, but still efficacious when it comes to boosting dividends.

You can still choose SCHD if you are are in your early 60s and you want slightly more growth over monthly dividends. DIVO is great for all retirees.

The expense ratio is 0.56%, or $56 per $10,000.

iShares Core Dividend ETF (DIVB)

iShares Core Dividend ETF (BATS:DIVB) is a passive ETF that tracks the Morningstar US Dividend and Buyback Index.

DIVB is designed for investors who want broad U.S. equity exposure with an emphasis on companies that systematically return cash (dividends + buybacks) rather than simply chasing the highest dividend yield.

This is quite unique, since buybacks are rarely taken into account, even though the impact they have can sometimes be even better than receiving dividends if you are in it for the long run. This is because buybacks are more tax-friendly.

DIVB is up 9.3% year-to-date and comes with a 2.59% yield on top of that. The expense ratio is 0.05%, or $5 per 10,000.

Capital Group Dividend Growers ETF (CGDG)

Capital Group Dividend Growers ETF (NYSEARCA:CGDG) is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund that buys large and mid-cap companies whose management teams have a recent track record of increasing cash dividends.

Around 104 holdings make up the portfolio. Companies that grow their dividends aggressively are generally performing well, too.

On that note, it isn’t a surprise that CGDG stock is up 16.14% year-to-date. This is before the 2.6% dividend yield.

The expense ratio is 0.47%, or $47 per $10,000.

Franklin International Low Volatility High Dividend Index ETF (LVHI)

Franklin International Low Volatility High Dividend Index ETF (BATS:LVHI) has a self-explanatory name. It tracks the QS International Low Volatility High Dividend Hedged Index. It owns 186 stocks in developed markets outside the U.S. and uses currency forwards so the portfolio’s cash flows are hedged back to the U.S. dollar.

The fund looks for the highest-yielding stocks that also have low price and earnings volatility, then caps any single name at 2.5% and any country at 15%. It also caps sectors at 25% and regions at 50%.

And in the end, the ETF does exactly what it says. The volatility has been exceptionally low over the past few years. In addition, LVHI has outperformed the market, up 13.15% year-to-date. That too, without the dividends.

The trailing 12-month yield is 5.07%. The expense ratio is 0.40%, or $40 per $10,000.

NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (QQQI)

Options-driven dividend ETFs have been hugely popular in 2025. They can continue delivering significant gains for the coming years as the market continues its “irrational exuberance”. Hence, it’s a good idea not to miss out and get in on the action… even a dinky stake could boost your returns.

NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (NASDAQ:QQQI) fund that delivers the same large-cap growth exposure as the Nasdaq-100 Index while overlaying a flexible call-option program to generate high, tax-advantaged monthly distributions. You forgo some upside and take the downside risk head-on, and you get a 13.8% dividend yield. Dividends are distributed monthly.

QQQI’s yield turns $87,000 into $1,000 in monthly income. Your usual ETF with a 3% yield needs 400k to do the same. You’re going to get paid as long as the Nasdaq keeps rallying.

It’s a deal worth taking since Wall Street seems set on keeping the tech rally going. At some point, the Nasdaq rally will end. It could be next year or next decade. More likely than not, you will have squeezed more money out of QQQI by then.

The expense ratio is 0.68%, or $68 per $10,000.

The post Retirement-Ready: 5 Dividend ETFs for Growth, Stability, and Income appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

At various stages of life, we can have different financial goals and this will mean owning different exchange traded funds (ETFs). To that end, when we’re at or near retirement, it’s a good time to consider ETFs that provide consistent income and pay frequently.

Three funds that check all the right boxes are the Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF (NYSEARCA:DIVO), the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPHD), and the iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF (NASDAQ:PFF). These ETFs send you a virtual check every month in the form of cash distributions, and they’re all diversified funds that require no stock picking.

Since you’ll get paid cash on a monthly basis, you’ll be able to boost your retirement income potential by reinvesting the dividends. Furthermore, for extra diversification, you could buy two or even all three of these ETFs. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at DIVO, SPHD, and PFF right now.

DIVO: Less Volatility With High-Quality Names

Some folks say that volatility brings opportunity, but when you’re a retirement investor, you’re probably looking to reduce your drawdowns. As it turns out, the Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF is ideal for retirees seeking to mitigate their risk.

How does the DIVO ETF reduce risk? First of all, it only imposes a 0.56% expense ratio (i.e., annual management fees that are automatically deducted from the share price). That’s a reasonable price to pay for the management of this diversified fund.

Speaking of diversification, the Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF includes 36 stocks in its holdings. A retiree probably doesn’t want to spend a lot of time picking out individual stocks, so buying DIVO can make this task unnecessary.

Most importantly, the Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF attempts to reduce share-price volatility by investing in reliable, high-quality names. You’ll surely recognize many of the stocks in DIVO’s holdings, such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Home Depot (NYSE:HD), and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS).

With a distribution rate (i.e., expected annual yield) of 4.82%, reasonable management fees, and monthly cash payouts, the Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF is a great pick for retirement investors. Yet, you might want to diversify your portfolio beyond the 36 stocks contained within the DIVO ETF. To achieve this, you might consider adding the next two funds, SPHD and PFF.

SPHD: S&P 500 Exposure With Lower Fees

Next up, we’re featuring the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF, which basically sums up the fund in its name. It invests in some stocks from the famous S&P 500 large-cap index, with a focus on high dividend yield and reduced share-price volatility.

Like the other ETFs on this list, the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF will pay you cash distributions on a monthly basis. Currently, SPHD’s distribution rate is 4.41%, so this fund can help you grow your retirement portfolio over time.

Regarding the management expenses, the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF deducts an expense ratio of 0.3%, which is comparatively low. That way, your account won’t get hit too hard by the fund’s annual fees.

On the topic of diversification, the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF includes 51 stocks in its holdings list. You can rest assured with SPHD when you’re invested in well-known S&P 500 stocks like Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), Realty Income Corp. (NYSE:O), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and Altria Group (NYSE:MO).

Between DIVO and SPHD, you’ll get plenty of exposure to top-tier large-cap stocks. To expand even further and achieve a perfect retirement ETF trifecta, we can explore the ins and outs of the PFF ETF.

PFF: Hundreds of Stocks in One Fund

Now it’s time to take diversification to a whole other level. Impressively, the iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF has a 449-member holdings list.

The idea behind the PFF ETF is to provide exposure to “U.S. preferred stocks, which have characteristics of bonds (pay a fixed dividend) and stocks (represent ownership in a company).” The lengthy holdings list of the iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF includes blue-chip names like Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), AT&T (NYSE:T), Ford (NYSE:F), and Allstate (NYSE:ALL).

The iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF charges an annualized expense ratio of 0.45%, which isn’t out of line. You should get that back and more in the form of monthly payouts as PFF features an eye-catching 6.5% annual yield.

Truly, you’ll get “preferred” treatment as an owner of the iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF. Yet, you don’t have to rely on only one fund for monthly retirement income. Instead, you can combine PFF with DIVO and SPHD to get the benefits of all three low-fee, risk-reduced funds featuring a slew of established large-cap stocks.

The post DIVO, SPHD & PFF: 3 Monthly Dividend ETFs Perfect for Retirement Income appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If Fundstrat’s Tom Lee isn’t consistently Wall Street’s biggest bull, he’s certainly one of the most vocal. Either way, the man’s track record has been nothing short of respectable. And while time will tell if he’s right to stay bullish on the broad stock (and especially the small caps), I do think that he’s a market strategist who’s worth listening to closely whenever he has another call to make.

Even if you’re not the biggest fan of Tom Lee or market strategist calls, I do think that the man’s “Granny Shots” investment strategy is worth exploring, especially after the recent inflow of capital. Indeed, given Tom Lee’s recent calls, he’s become somewhat of a Wall Street rockstar of sorts, at least in the investment world.

In any case, here are three stocks within the Tom Lee-run Fundstrat Granny Shots U.S. Large Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:GRNY) that I find the most enticing and even fairly cheap in today’s “fairly highly priced” stock market.

Oracle

Few saw Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) stock melting up on the back of the AI revolution as it did in the past year. Tom Lee is one of the folks who saw the opportunity to be had in the legacy tech company that’s grown hotter than most members of the Magnificent Seven.

While it may be a bit too late to be chasing shares of Oracle if you missed the latest post-quarter move, I do think there’s no rush to hit the sell button for current holders. With ORCL shares moving higher in Thursday’s after-hours session following the U.S. TikTok stake news, perhaps Larry Ellison and company have enough new developments to keep the growth engine humming well into the year’s end.

Either way, Oracle is a premier AI infrastructure stock to stash away for the long haul. Though I would prefer to buy on a pullback closer to $260 per share, rather than loading up after the post-earnings spike. Given the pick-up in market volatility following Jerome Powell’s comments, it might not take long before there’s a better entry point into the shares.

Tesla

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is a Magnificent Seven laggard that’s rewarded shareholders for their patience over the past six months, gaining around 56% in the timespan. Just like that, Elon Musk’s empire is close to making new highs again, thanks in part to high hopes for Tesla’s autonomous driving and robotics projects.

Indeed, Wall Street analysts have been sounding more upbeat as well, not just with robotaxis and the longer-term potential of Optimus and its like, but with Tesla’s ability to make up ground in the Chinese market as well as the future launch of a cheaper Model 2.

There are some seriously impressive catalysts in place to propel TSLA stock towards a breakout. And that makes Tesla a top-tier Granny Shots stock to stick with.

American Express

Finally, we have a non-tech name with American Express (NYSE:AXP), a credit card company that checks a lot of the thematic boxes that Tom Lee and his team look for. Over the past two years, shares of AXP have gained more than 125%. The premier credit card firm is really starting to gain momentum with younger users, like those in the Millennial and Gen Z generations. With price hikes on its Platinum card and an even bigger boost to the perks, I think American Express will have very few issues in retaining users.

At the end of the day, American Express is a premier name in the credit card industry and, if anything, it’s poised to gain even more users after the price hike in its Platinum Card, which now costs a whopping $895 per year, but offers $3,500 worth of benefits.

Indeed, for generations that value experiences (think fine dining, luxury hotels, massages, and more), I’d argue that the slightly higher price of admission is worth paying for if it means getting so much more in return. With a growing dividend and a lot of secular tailwinds behind it, I find AXP stock to be a generational winner that’s still going for cheap (23.9 times trailing price-to-earnings).

The post 3 Tom Lee ‘Granny Shots’ Stocks That Could Score Investors Serious Points appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

If any investor has stood the test of time, it is Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock-star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual investors’ meeting at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) draws thousands of loyal fans who are also. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Buffett announced that he would be stepping down as chief executive of the investment giant at the end of the year. While he will remain as board chair and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the CEO position at the end of the year.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with this quote: “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever.” So it is not surprising to report that for all of the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, just five top companies make up almost 70% of the fund’s total holdings. While much more concentrated than most portfolio managers would ever consider, the strategy has worked for Berkshire Hathaway investors for years. It is likely to continue doing so in the future. We reviewed the holdings, looking for companies that posted the best second-quarter results, and four of Buffett’s favorite dividend stocks were the hands-down winners. All are rated Buy at the top Wall Street firms we cover on Wall Street.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

There are few investors with the results and reputation that Mr. Buffett has garnered over the last 50 years. While investing has evolved over the past half-century, buying good companies with products and services recognized worldwide, while paying dividends, will always remain a timeless approach. With a 15-year track record of covering Mr. Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway at 24/7 Wall St., we must keep our readers abreast of the financial powerhouse’s latest news. Many of our readers either own the shares or are considering a purchase, so it’s good to keep them updated regularly.

American Express

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards. This stock has been strong and pays a 0.92% dividend. American Express is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

The company reported earnings per share (EPS) of $4.08, surpassing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86, representing a 5.7% surprise. Adjusted EPS, excluding a prior-year gain, rose 17% year-over-year, with record-high revenue of $17.9 billion, up 9% from the previous year.

It offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations. Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS)
• Commercial Services (CS)
• International Card Services (ICS)
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS)

USCS offers travel and lifestyle services, as well as banking and non-card financing products.

CS offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.

ICS provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.

GMNS operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a $275 target price.

Bank of America

While Buffett has trimmed his Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) position over the past two years, this quality financial giant is a solid long-term holding. It is a bank holding company and a financial holding company that pays a 2.07% dividend. The company posted Q2 earnings on July 16, 2025, with an EPS of $0.89, surpassing estimates by $0.03. Results were mixed, but the earnings beat reflects solid performance in a challenging environment.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM)
• Global Banking
• Global Markets

Consumer Banking segment offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.

The GWIM comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products.

Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.

The Global Banking segment offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.

The Global Markets segment offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

Oppenheimer has a Buy rating and a $57 target price on the stock.

Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. This company remains a top long-time holding of Buffett, as he owns a massive 400 million shares. The stock is up a solid 11% in 2025 and also comes with a reliable 2.93% dividend. The world’s largest beverage company offers consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

The legacy giant reported earnings on July 22, 2025, with an adjusted EPS of $0.87, beating estimates by $0.03. Revenue grew 0.8% year-over-year to $12.5 billion, though it slightly missed estimates by $80 million.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Coca-Cola Light
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke
• Cherry Coke
• Fanta Orange
• Fanta Zero Orange
• Fanta Zero Sugar
• Fanta Apple
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Simply Orange
• Simply Apple
• Simply Grapefruit
• Fresca
• Schweppes
• Dasani
• Fuze Tea
• Glacéau Smartwater
• Glacéau Vitaminwater
• Gold Peak
• Ice Dew
• Powerade
• Topo Chico
• Minute Maid

Globally, it is the number one provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, juices, and juice drinks. Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of over 1.9 billion servings per day.

Remember that the company owns 16% of Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver strong financial results.

UBS has a Buy rating and a target price of $84.

Kroger

This American retail company operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) is a consistently solid and conservative investment with a 1.89% dividend. The grocery chain giant also operates combination food and drug stores, marketplace stores, and price-impact warehouses.

• Natural food and organic sections
• Pharmacies
• General Merchandise
• Pet centers
• Fresh seafood and organic produce

Multi-department stores offer:

• Apparel
• Home fashion and furnishings
• Outdoor living
• Electronics
• Automotive products
• Toys

The company’s marketplace stores offer:

• Full-service grocery, pharmacy, health, and beauty care
• Perishable goods, as well as general merchandise, including apparel, home goods, and toys
• Price-impact warehouse stores sell groceries, health and beauty care products, meat, dairy, baked goods, and fresh produce

The company also manufactures and processes food products in its supermarkets and online, and it sells fuel through 1,613 fuel centers.

 Jefferies has a Buy rating with an $83 target price.

Five Safe High-Yield Dividend Kings That Every Retiree Should Own

The post 4 of Warren Buffett’s Favorite Dividend Stocks Posted Incredible Q2 Results appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

The Buzz Around Google Cloud’s Latest Blockchain Bet

In the ever-evolving world of blockchain technology, Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google has thrown its hat into the ring with the launch of the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL). 

Announced back in March, GCUL is a permissioned layer-1 blockchain tailored for institutional finance, promising seamless integration with Google’s vast cloud ecosystem.

Some pundits are calling GCUL an “XRP killer,” suggesting it could replace Ripple’s native token, XRP (CRYPTO:XRP). Because GCUL’s permissioned model dodges volatility while delivering enterprise-grade scalability, it offers a “credibly neutral” stance —  it has no ties to specific tokens or vendors — that should appeal to risk-averse banks wary of XRP regulatory baggage from past SEC battles. 

And because it’s backed by Google’s trillion-dollar muscle and partnerships like CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) for testing wholesale payments, GCUL seems poised to siphon institutional adoption and and potentially overshadow public ledgers like XRP.

Yet, this narrative just might be overlooking some key nuances in the blockchain battlefield. XRP is not down for the count; it’s not even bloodied. Let’s dive a little deeper to see why XRP will still thrive.

Permissioned Power Meets Big Tech Muscle

Google Cloud Universal Ledger enables Python-based smart contracts, automates compliance like KYC checks, and supports real-time asset tokenization and settlements — think tokenized bonds or 24/7 trading without legacy system delays like SWIFT.

Diving deeper, GCUL stands out for its laser focus on institutional needs. Unlike public blockchains, it’s permissioned, meaning only vetted participants join — ideal for banks handling sensitive data. It leverages Google’s infrastructure for ironclad security and uptime, automating workflows that plague traditional finance. 

For instance, GCUL’s integration with CME Group has piloted tokenized futures settlements, slashing reconciliation times from days to minutes. Its neutrality is a game-changer: no forced adoption of rival stablecoins, just a flexible ledger for wholesale payments and real-world assets (RWA). Python smart contracts also lower the entry barrier for developers, making GCUL more approachable than XRP’s custom coding environment. 

However, centralized governance by Google raises monopoly fears, and without a native token, liquidity incentives are absent. Additionally, GCUL’s closed ecosystem limits interoperability with public chains, potentially isolating it from broader DeFi trends.

XRP’s Enduring Edge

XRP, on the other hand, shines where GCUL stumbles. Its transaction prowess is unmatched: settlements in three to five seconds at fractions of a cent, with some estimates suggested XRP handled $1.3 trillion in the second quarter via RippleNet — far outpacing GCUL’s early pilots (others dispute the amount). This speed stems from a consensus protocol that’s energy-efficient and decentralized, avoiding proof-of-work pitfalls. 

XRP’s liquidity is also a powerhouse of opportunity. As a tradable asset, it serves as collateral for arbitrage and bridges fiat gaps in emerging markets. Ripple’s launch of an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain in June enhances this capability, enabling DeFi apps and RWA tokenization, such as U.S. Treasuries, via Ondo Finance. Interoperability via Axelar connects XRP to over 60 chains, fostering a vibrant ecosystem.

XRP’s regulatory clarity since resolving its SEC battles further positions it for broader adoption. Partnerships with Santander (NYSE:SAN) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) underscore its utility, while GCUL’s permissioned walls limit it to elite circles. XRP’s open network thrives in emerging markets, where access to fast, cheap transactions is critical. Unlike GCUL’s enterprise focus, XRP democratizes finance for all.

Key Takeaways

GCUL’s arrival doesn’t spell doom for XRP; it highlights blockchain’s multipolar future. While GCUL excels in controlled institutional environments, XRP’s open, liquid model captures the dynamic global payments sector. 

The two can coexist — GCUL for tokenized assets in regulated silos, XRP for swift, borderless flows. Investors should view this as evolution, not an extinction-level event. XRP’s proven track record, expanding utilities, and global reach ensure its leadership endures. 

As the blockchain matures, diversity drives innovation, but XRP remains an industry frontrunner.

The post Is Google Cloud Universal Ledger an XRP Killer? Not So Fast! appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Many investors focus on the dividend yield, but not much on the dividend growth. This is a mistake, as dividend growth is a key factor that matters a lot in the long run. A dividend growth stock can significantly outperform a dividend stock that pays a static yield. If a 2% yield grows at a 10% CAGR over 10 years, it becomes 5.19%. Yield can then snowball more in future decades.

Also, stocks with dividend growth tend to have faster-growing businesses. You may immediately go for a tech stock like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), but I wouldn’t recommend that. The aim is to buy and hold these stocks for decades, and it is a big gamble to assume that tech companies will retain their dominance. The tech scene has changed drastically in the last 20 years; no one knows what may happen in the next 20 years.

Thus, it’s better to go for companies with more established roots and a history of growing their dividends and businesses faster than the market. Here are three to look into:

Aflac (AFL)

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) is a supplemental insurance company covering out-of-pocket costs that primary insurance companies don’t. The biggest plus is that Aflac gives you cash directly, meaning you decide where you get to spend the insurance money. Japan and the U.S. are two of Aflac’s biggest markets, and both are growing. 60% of revenue comes from Japan, where the insured population is highly loyal to the company.

Margins and buybacks are its strong suit. Aflac has reduced its outstanding share count from 918.8 million in 2013 to 549.96 million in 2024. The pace of buybacks has been even more aggressive in recent years as Aflac has made strides to increase its margins.

Investors are recognizing the strong execution here and are willing to pay more for it. AFL stock is up 185.75% over the past five years, and it gets you a 2.19% dividend yield for holding it. Aflac is six years from being a Dividend King, with 44 consecutive years of dividend increases on record. AFL’s dividends have grown by 17.39% over the past 12 months and at a 15% CAGR over 5 years.

Trane Technologies (TT)

Trane Technologies (NYSE:TT) is a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning company, and these companies have done exceedingly well in recent years. This company has a 150-year history, so there’s plenty of staying power here. The HVAC industry will continue to see strong tailwinds because these systems are the standard for new homes. New residences and commercial buildings also need recurring servicing, and Trane also benefits here. That’s not to mention harsher summers and winters, making HVAC essential.

This demand has led to TT stock surging by 252.87% over the past five years, with revenue increasing from $12.45 billion in 2020 to $19.84 billion in 2024. 2025 full-year revenue is estimated at $21.6 billion, up 8.86% year-over-year. The bottom line metrics are increasing even faster, expected to increase by 16.74% in 2025.

TT stock has a modest dividend yield of 0.89%. Dividends have grown 11.95% over the past 12 months and at a 10.92% CAGR over the past five years.

American Express (AXP)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) specializes in payment cards and has trounced Visa (NYSE:V) and Mastercard’s (NYSE:MA) gains. This company specifically targets individuals with high net worth, thereby giving it more pricing power. I expect the outperformance to continue over the coming decade, as Gen Z is more drawn to Amex.

AXP stock is up 218.89% over the past five years and has nearly doubled its revenue from 2020 to 2024 ($31.36 billion to $60.76 billion). Net income has more than tripled within that timeframe.

Interest rates will likely be cut more this year, which can cause pressure on American Express’ lending segment. A lower interest rate will also spur transactions by its customer base, which can partially offset the lending slowdown.

Nevertheless, the future is bright. AXP will be here to stay for decades into the future, perhaps rivaling Visa and Mastercard’s size. Gen Z Amex spending rose 40% year-over-year in Q2, a growth rate that is 4x higher than their Millennial counterparts!

AXP stock yields exactly 1% as of this writing. 1-year dividend growth is at 16.92%, with the 5-year CAGR at 12.06%.

The post 3 Dividend Growth Stocks That Can Double Your Income appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Buffett’s Mastery of Market Missteps

Warren Buffett has built a fortune by targeting companies with stellar fundamentals that the market has unjustly overlooked. His approach thrives on identifying businesses with enduring competitive edges, consistent cash flows, and temporarily depressed stock prices. By buying when others are selling, Buffett turns fear into long-term gains. His iconic investments in Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are prime examples. 

His disciplined, patient strategy has made millionaires of those who follow his lead. Recently, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B) made a bold stock purchase that may just transform a modest investment into millions.

A Stock Under Siege

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is a healthcare insurance behemoth that has endured a brutal year. Its stock plummeted 50% after it was battered by regulatory scrutiny, escalating medical costs, and a high-profile cyberattack that shook investor confidence. 

Concerns over Medicare Advantage profitability and rising claim expenses have fueled the sell-off, painting the insurer as a company in crisis. Yet, this dramatic decline masks a critical truth: UNH’s core business remains remarkably strong. 

The market’s overreaction has driven its stock price to levels that scream opportunity for value investors like Buffett, who thrive on buying quality companies when they’re out of favor. UNH’s current valuation is a classic setup for those willing to look beyond short-term noise.

UNH’s Unshakable Fundamentals

Despite its stock price collapse, UNH’s financial foundation is rock-solid. In 2024, the company reported revenues surpassing $400 billion, driven by its dominant health insurance operations and its fast-growing Optum division, which provides healthcare services and technology. 

UNH’s revenue growth remains robust, up 13% in the second quarter, reflecting its ability to navigate industry challenges. As an insurance giant, UNH benefits from a powerful cash flow model: it collects premiums upfront, creating a “float” that can be invested before claims are paid. 

This float, often amounting to billions of dollars, allows UNH to generate additional returns, functioning much like a built-in investment fund. This financial flexibility, paired with disciplined management, makes UNH a standout in the healthcare sector, even amidst its current troubles. 

Buffett’s Insurance Obsession

Warren Buffett has long favored insurance and financial stocks, and for good reason. Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership of GEICO illustrates why: insurance companies generate massive premium revenue that is not immediately spent on claims. This cash can be invested elsewhere, compounding wealth over time — a cornerstone of Berkshire’s success beyond Buffett’s investing genius. 

UNH operates on a similar model, leveraging its float to fuel investments while maintaining a diversified revenue stream. Buffett’s recent stake in UNH aligns with his love for businesses with predictable earnings, scalable operations, and resilience against short-term setbacks. 

UnitedHealth’s market leadership, combined with its discounted price, makes it a textbook Buffett pick, offering investors a chance to own a world-class company at a steep discount.

The Path to Recovery

UNH’s challenges are real but not fatal. The cyberattack, while disruptive, has been addressed with robust security upgrades, and regulatory pressures are part of the cyclical nature of healthcare. 

Meanwhile, UNH’s Optum division continues to expand, capturing market share in data analytics and care delivery. Its ability to innovate and adapt positions it for long-term growth. 

The stock’s 50% drop has created a rare entry point for investors, as its price-to-earnings ratio of 12 now sits significantly below its five-year average of 21. Buffett’s purchase signals confidence in UNH’s ability to rebound, as its core business remains a cash-generating machine. 

For investors with a long-term horizon, this misalignment between price and value is a golden opportunity to bet on a proven performer. 

Key Takeaway: A Millionaire-Maker in Disguise

UNH stock’s steep discount belies its enduring strengths: robust revenue growth, a lucrative float, and a dominant position in healthcare. Since Buffett’s purchase was revealed, the stock has climbed 14%, yet it remains undervalued relative to its intrinsic value. 

For investors who share Buffett’s patience, UNH offers a rare chance to buy a fundamentally sound company at a bargain. Holding this stock for decades could mirror the success of Buffett’s greatest investments, potentially turning a disciplined stake into millionaire-making returns. 

In a market swayed by short-term fears, UNH’s current price is a gift for those who see its long-term potential as a stock that could define wealth-building for a generation. 

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If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal fans who are investors. They were stunned at this year’s meeting when Mr. Buffett announced that he is stepping down at the end of the year as CEO of the investment giant. While he will remain Chairman of the Board and continue to have a voice in the day-to-day operations, his pre-announced successor, Greg Abel, will assume the CEO position at the end of the year. 

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

• Many S&P 500 companies are reporting excellent second-quarter earnings results
• Some of Warren Buffett’s top holdings are also posting stellar numbers
• Berkshire Hathaway has sold off some since the announcement of Buffett stepping down
• Are Warren Buffett dividend stocks a good idea for you? Why not contact a financial advisor in your town for a complete portfolio review? Click here to get started finding one today. (Sponsored)

Second-quarter earnings season is in full swing, and not surprisingly, many of the top U.S. stocks, especially in the technology arena, are posting some outstanding results. We decided to screen our Warren Buffett dividend stock research database, looking for companies that pay big and dependable dividends that also beat Wall Street’s second-quarter earnings expectations. Four of our favorite companies came up, and all are Berkshire Hathaway home runs you can buy now and hold forever.  All make sense for growth and income investors.

Why do we cover Warren Buffett’s stocks?

There are few investors with the results and the reputation Mr. Buffett has garnered over the last 50 years, and while investing has changed over the previous half-century, buying good companies with products and services that are known worldwide while paying dividends will always stay in style. 

American Express

American Express Company is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation specializing in payment cards.  American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

This stock has been strong, reporting an EPS of $4.08, exceeding analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86. This represents a 5.7% surprise over the Wall Street estimates. Excluding a prior-year gain from a sale, the adjusted EPS rose 17% compared to the previous year. The company’s revenue surged to $17.9 billion, a record high and a 9% increase year-over-year  American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) is a globally integrated payments company that deals with card-issuing, merchant-acquiring, and card network businesses.

It offers products and services to customers worldwide, including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Consumer Services (USCS)
• Commercial Services (CS)
• International Card Services (ICS)
• Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS)

USCS offers travel and lifestyle services and banking and non-card financing products.

CS offers payment, expense management, banking, and non-card financing products.

ICS provides services to international customers, including travel and lifestyle services, and manages certain international joint ventures and its loyalty coalition business.

GMNS operates a payments network that processes and settles card transactions, acquires merchants, and provides multichannel marketing programs, capabilities, services, and data analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 151,610,700 shares, 21.6 % of American Express’s float, and 15.5% of the portfolio.

Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz is North America’s third-largest food and beverage company and the fifth-largest globally. Even in bad times, everybody has to eat, and this company always stands to benefit while paying a tremendous dividend.

The company reported adjusted EPS of $0.69, which was higher than the Wall Street analyst consensus estimate of $0.64. This represents a 7.81% positive surprise compared to the consensus estimate on the street. The company also reported revenue of $6.35 billion, exceeding the analyst consensus estimate of $6.25 billion. 

The Kraft Heinz Company (NYSE: KHC) was formed via the merger of H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group and manufactures and markets food and beverage products worldwide through its eight consumer-driven product platforms:

• Taste Elevation
• Easy Ready Meals
• Hydration
• Meats
• Cheeses,
• Substantial Snacking
• Desserts
• Coffee and other grocery products

The Company has two reportable segments defined by geographic region: North America and International Developed Markets.

Its other segments, consisting of West and East Emerging Markets (WEEM) and Asia Emerging Markets (AEM), are combined and disclosed as Emerging Markets. It manufactures its products from a wide variety of raw materials.

Kraft Heinz brands include:

• Kraft,
• Oscar Mayer
• Heinz
• Philadelphia
• Lunchables
• Velveeta
• Ore-Ida
• Capri Sun
• Maxwell House
• Kool-Aid
• Jell-O,
• Golden Circle
• Wattie’s
• Plasmon
• ABC
• Master
• Quero
• Pudliszki, among others

The Company’s products are sold through its sales organizations and independent brokers, agents, and distributors.

Kroger

Kroger is an American retail company that operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. This leading grocery chain giant is a consistently solid and conservative investment. The Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) is a retailer in the United States. It operates combination food and drug stores, multi-department stores, marketplace stores, and price-impact warehouses.

While Kroger’s adjusted earnings per share of $0.93 were a penny ahead of the Wall Street consencus, total sales of $33.912 million fell just of the estimated $34.069 million. Investors should be aware that despite missing revenue expectations, Kroger’s net income for the quarter rose to $466 million, a significant improvement from the $180 million net loss reported in the same quarter last year. This recovery was primarily attributed to the impact of a $1.4 billion opioid settlement charge in the previous year. 

Its combination of food and drug stores offers:

• Natural food and organic sections
• Pharmacies
• General Merchandise
• Pet centers
• Fresh seafood and organic produce

Multi-department stores offer:

• Apparel
• Home fashion and furnishings
• Outdoor living
• Electronics
• Automotive products
• Toys

The company’s marketplace stores offer:

• Full-service grocery, pharmacy, health, and beauty care
• Perishable goods, as well as general merchandise, including apparel, home goods, and toys
• Price-impact warehouse stores sell groceries, health and beauty care products, meat, dairy, baked goods, and fresh produce.

The company also manufactures and processes food products in its supermarkets and online; it sells fuel through 1,613 fuel centers.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 50,000,00 shares, which is 7.6 % of the Kroger float, and 1.2% of the portfolio.

Visa

The American consumer keeps spending and it showed up in the company’s earnings for the second quarter.  Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company. It facilitates global commerce and money movement across more than 200 countries and territories among a global set of consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities through technologies.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.76, surpassing the Wall Street consensus Estimate of $2.68 per share. That was an earnings surprise of 2.99%. Visa also reported net revenues of $9.6 billion, which slightly exceeding the anticipated $9.55 billion and beating the consensus estimate by 0.3%. This strong performance was driven by increases in payments volume, cross-border volume, and processed transactions. 

The company operates through the Payment Services segment. It provides transaction processing services (primarily authorization, clearing and settlement) to its financial institution and merchant clients through VisaNet, its proprietary advanced transaction processing network.

It offers a range of Visa-branded payment products that its clients, including nearly 14,500 financial institutions, use to develop and offer payment solutions or services, including credit, debit, prepaid and cash access programs for individual, business and government account holders. It also provides value-added services to its clients, including issuing solutions, acceptance solutions, risk and identity solutions, open banking solutions and advisory services.

Berkshire Hathaway owns a small position for 8,297,460 shares, which is 0.4 % of the Visa float, and 1% of the portfolio.

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Warren Buffett’s Legacy at Berkshire Hathaway

For over six decades, Warren Buffett has transformed Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B) from a struggling textile company into a global investment powerhouse. 

Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett’s value investing philosophy of focusing on undervalued companies with strong fundamentals has delivered annualized returns of approximately 20% since 1965, far outpacing the S&P 500. 

His disciplined approach, emphasizing long-term growth and intrinsic value, has made Berkshire a conglomerate with diverse holdings, from insurance giant Geico to stakes in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). 

The annual shareholders’ meeting in Omaha has become a pilgrimage for investors worldwide, drawing thousands to hear Buffett’s timeless wisdom on markets, business, and life. These gatherings, often dubbed the “Woodstock for Capitalists,” underscore his cult-like following. 

However, at this year’s meeting, Buffett announced he would step back from daily investment decisions by the end of the year, handing the reins to successor Greg Abel. While Abel is expected to uphold Buffett’s principles, his lack of a proven track record in stock selection has introduced uncertainty, which has contributed to a 10% decline in Berkshire’s stock from its recent high.

Greg Abel’s Leadership: Continuity or Change?

Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman and Buffett’s designated successor, has been with the company for over two decades, overseeing its non-insurance businesses like energy and railroads. Known for operational expertise, Abel has earned Buffett’s trust, with the latter praising his business acumen and alignment with Berkshire’s culture. 

Analysts expect Abel to maintain Buffett’s value investing framework, focusing on acquiring quality businesses at reasonable prices and holding them for the long term. Berkshire’s diversified portfolio spans insurance, utilities, and consumer goods, providing a stable foundation that generates consistent cash flows for Abel to deploy.

The company’s massive $347.7 billion cash pile offers flexibility for acquisitions or stock buybacks, a strategy Buffett has leaned into recently. However, Abel lacks Buffett’s storied history of market-beating stock picks, such as early investments in American Express (NYSE:AXP) or Coke. 

This gap fuels investor skepticism, as Berkshire’s outperformance has historically relied on Buffett’s uncanny ability to identify winners. The stock’s recent 10% drop reflects this uncertainty, as markets are pricing in the risk of a less charismatic and less proven leader.

Weighing the Risks and Rewards

For investors eyeing Berkshire Hathaway, the transition to Abel presents both opportunity and risk. On one hand, Berkshire’s diversified revenue streams and fortress-like balance sheet make it a resilient investment. Its insurance operations, like Geico, generate float — premiums collected before claims are paid — that Abel can invest. 

The company’s stakes in blue-chip firms like Apple, which is still Berkshire’s largest position accounting for nearly 22% of the portfolio, provide stability. Yet, Abel’s ability to replicate Buffett’s stock-picking prowess remains untested. While he may excel in managing operations, the high-stakes world of capital allocation requires intuition and timing that Buffett mastered over decades. A misstep in a major acquisition or a market misjudgment could damage Berkshire’s reputation for outperformance.

Additionally, the stock’s current valuation, trading at a price-to-book ratio of around 1.5, is not a bargain compared to historical levels, suggesting limited margin of safety for new investors. The market’s cautious outlook, as reflected in the 10% pullback, underscores these concerns.

Key Takeaways

For existing Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, the stock remains a hold. The company’s diversified portfolio, robust cash reserves, and entrenched market positions provide a buffer against leadership transitions. Abel’s operational track record and commitment to Buffett’s philosophy suggest continuity, but his lack of proven stock-picking success introduces risk. 

For new investors, caution is warranted. The stock’s current price doesn’t scream undervaluation, and Abel’s untested investment acumen adds uncertainty. Waiting for clarity on his performance — perhaps through a successful major acquisition or consistent market outperformance — would provide a better entry point. 

Until then, new investors should hold off, while existing shareholders can stay the course and rely on Berkshire’s structural strengths.

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This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) closed at a new all-time high Thursday, 577.18, and seems to be aiming for a repeat Friday, rising 0.2% in premarket trading. With most of the week’s macroeconomic and tariffs news now in the rear view mirror, it’s earnings that are driving the gains today.

Earnings

Financial stocks that are also S&P 500 component companies are doing well this morning.

Charles Shwab (NYSE: SCHW) reported $1.14 per share in its Q2 report, a nickel better than expected, and revenues beat expectations as well.

American Express (NYSE: AXP) earned $4.08 per share, $0.21 more than analysts predicted, and again, revenues were stronger than expected.

Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) reported $0.60 per share, $0.04 better than expected. And you guessed it, revenue also beat expectations.

Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq: HBAN) beat by a penny with $0.34 per share earned in Q2.

Elsewhere in the market, the news was also good. S&P component company 3M (NYSE: MMM) reported a $2.16 per share profit, $0.15 better than analysts had forecast, with $6.3 billion in revenue — well ahead of the $6.1 billion prediction.

Oh, and last night we saw Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) report. Revenues were only a hair better than predicted at $11.08 billion, but Netflix had a huge $7.19 per share profit that was $0.12 better than expected.

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American Express (NYSE: AXP) just released earnings and beat on the top and bottom line. Shares are up about 1% shortly after their earnings release. 

We’ll be following along Wall Street’s reaction and offering analysis of the company’s Q2 earnings in this live blog. 

What Did American Express Report?

American Express reported record second-quarter revenue of $17.9 billion, marking a 9% increase year-over-year. The company achieved an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $4.08, which is a 17% increase when excluding the previous year’s gain from the sale of Accertify.

Despite a slight decline in net income to $2.9 billion from $3.0 billion the previous year, card member spending reached a quarterly high, increasing by 7%. The company reaffirmed its full-year 2025 guidance, expecting revenue growth between 8% and 10% and EPS between $15.00 and $15.50. CEO Stephen J. Squeri highlighted the strong demand for premium products and robust credit performance. American Express plans to refresh its U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum Cards, aiming to maintain its leadership in the premium space.

The Numbers That Matter

Here’s the revenue and EPS figures for American Express relative to Wall Street expectations in Q2:

• Revenue: $17.9 billion (versus expectations of $17.7 billion) 
• EPS: $4.08 (versus expectations of $3.88 per share) 

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