3 Warren Buffett Stocks to Hold Forever

The end of an era is almost upon us. After 55 years at the helm, at the end of this year, Warren Buffett will be stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) CEO and chief stock-picker.

And when he goes, many members of the investment community could find themselves at a loss. Although Berkshire isn't just a mutual fund, plenty of investors took Buffett's lead by copying Berkshire's trades; now the conglomerate's stock picks won't necessarily be Buffett-approved holdings. So, if you want to know for sure that you're following in his footsteps, you'd better act soon.

To this end, here's a rundown of three names currently in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio that you not only know the Oracle of Omaha likes well enough to own them, but each of which could safely be bought and held forever.

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1. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) isn't just one of Berkshire's longest-held positions at 19 years. It's also become the conglomerate's third-biggest holding, currently worth $28 billion. That's 10% of Berkshire's entire publicly traded portfolio.

It's not hard to see why Buffett's been such a long-term fan of the beverage giant, either. Not only is it the biggest and best-known name in the business, but it's a dividend machine! In addition to paying a dividend like clockwork for decades, The Coca-Cola Company has raised its per-share dividend payment for 63 consecutive years (and counting). This year, Berkshire's 400 million shares of KO will provide Buffett and his lieutenants with more than $200 million in cash. Never even mind the near-200% gain this stock's price alone has produced since Buffett first bought it back in late 2006.

It's also a great "forever" stock for two other reasons. One of these is simply that the world will always need something to drink. With brands like Gold Peak tea, Powerade sports drinks, Minute Maid juices, Dasani water, and, of course, its namesake cola, The Coca-Cola Company has something to offer everyone.

And the other reason this name's got staying power worth buying into? Its sheer size (read "deep pockets") -- the drinks giant can afford to outspend its competitors. For perspective, Coca-Cola spent more than $5 billion on advertising last year alone.

No, it may not be fair. Investors don't want a fair fight, however. They want the companies they own to have an unfair advantage over their competition.

2. Amazon

Yes, Berkshire Hathaway holds a stake in Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). It's not a big stake, mind you -- just 10 million shares currently worth about $2.2 billion. That's less than 1% of the conglomerate's total stock holdings.

Still, the fact that he's willing to let Berkshire hold any Amazon at all is noteworthy just because Buffett has typically eschewed such flashy technology stocks, explaining that he doesn't always fully understand their business models. And to be sure, the pick was likely encouraged by Todd Combs and/or Ted Weschler, who help oversee the conglomerate's equity holdings.

The pick also makes much more sense to Buffett now, however, than it would have several years ago.

While Amazon may have been something of an unknown in its infancy (when the internet itself was still young and evolving, and when Buffett was forming his previous opinion on most technology stocks), even he would have to agree that uncertainty no longer applies. E-commerce is clearly here to stay, and Amazon clearly leads at least the U.S. e-commerce market; it isn't doing too badly overseas either. All told, despite its already-massive size, this company's product sales are up more than 8% through the first three quarters of this year. This growth rate accelerated last quarter, too, despite the lethargic economy here and abroad.

Amazon isn't just e-commerce anymore, either. Although it only accounts for a minority of its revenue, its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services, contributes roughly 60% of the company's total operating income. And the cloud computing industry is here to stay as well. Indeed, Straits Research expects the worldwide cloud computing industry to grow from less than $1 trillion this year to nearly $3.7 trillion per year by 2033.

What makes this name such a great forever holding, however, is that -- not unlike Berkshire Hathaway itself -- Amazon has proven that it's willing and able to adapt to an ever-changing marketplace of opportunities.

3. Alphabet

Finally, add Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) to your list of Warren Buffett stocks to buy and hold forever for yourself.

There are actually several clear parallels between Berkshire's positions in Amazon and Alphabet. Both are holdings that wouldn't have likely even been considered as potential picks a few years ago, for instance, yet both businesses have clearly solidified in the meantime. Both companies are also flexible; Amazon added cloud computing to its repertoire several years ago and is now turning its online shopping platform into an advertising medium, while Alphabet has moved well beyond its Google search engine with profit centers like YouTube and its own cloud computing service. Berkshire doesn't exactly have a huge stake in either outfit, only holding 17.8 million shares currently worth about $5.5 billion. That's less than 2% of the conglomerate's total stock holdings.

It's also a pretty safe bet that this position is the result of prodding from Todd Combs or Ted Weschler.

Whatever the case, Buffett's pseudo-endorsement of Alphabet serves as a green light of sorts for you, plugging you into the company that still handles 90% of the world's web searches (according to Statcounter).

That's not the chief reason Alphabet is such a great long-term bet, though. The biggest and best bullish argument here is a more philosophical one. That's Alphabet's willingness and ability to build or buy a business, anything that allows it to expand its digital ecosystem.

YouTube is one example; Google acquired it back in 2006. Alphabet's chat-based artificial intelligence platform Gemini is another example, as is 2004's launch of Gmail and 2005's acquisition of mobile operating system Android, which Statcounter says is installed on 72% of the world's mobile devices.

Meanwhile, Alphabet's "Other Bets" arm is home to developing self-driving taxi service Waymo and life-science outfit Verily.

Some of these projects pan out. Others don't. There's a reason, however, that Alphabet has only failed to produce year-over-year quarterly revenue growth once in the past 10 years. That's the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 -- and that was a short-lived headwind. Its profit growth has been almost as persistent. There's no end in sight to this growth streak, either. There's just too much worldwide dependence on Alphabet's offerings.

James Brumley has positions in Alphabet and Coca-Cola. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.