Is Chevron Corp (CVX) the Best Stock to Buy According to Billionaire Warren Buffett?

We recently published a list of 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire Warren Buffett. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) stands against other best stocks to buy according to billionaire Warren Buffett.

Known and admired for his success, wealth and philanthropy, Warren Buffett is still at the helm of his diversified holding company. From a struggling New England textile company in the 1960s, Buffett has grown Berkshire to a firm boasting a range of businesses from Geico insurance to BNSF Railway, an equity portfolio exceeding $267 billion, and a cash reserve of $334.20 billion at the end of 2024.

Given his success on the investment horizon – a result of decades of strong returns – it doesn’t come as a surprise that Buffett is often touted as one of the greatest investors of all time.  In an attempt to mirror his trading activity, many investors search for what stocks is Warren Buffett buying today.

READ ALSO: Warren Buffett’s Portfolio: 15 Longest Held Stocks and 10 Stocks Warren Buffett and Insiders Are Crazy About.

The Oracle of Omaha focuses on companies with strong economic moats and undervalued assets, applying his well-known investment strategy – long-term value investing. Buffett is not that fond of diversification, as he is investing in businesses instead of stocks, picking those he understands.

While diversification as a risk mitigation technique is popular among those who are at the start of their investing journey, Buffett believes diversification could limit knowledge. He also doesn’t consider money the greatest investment tool, given his statement that “the best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it’s not taxed at all.”

Despite the strong market performance throughout much of 2024, Buffett appears to have taken a more cautious approach. With overinflated valuations due to high interest rates and deteriorating economic conditions in mind, he opted to sell off substantial stakes in companies whose valuations have become too high.

Buffett is also not fond of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports that sent shockwaves through global stock markets, even though his company’s Class B shares dipped 1.4% only on April 3, outperforming the broader market.

In the fourth quarter, Buffett’s 13F portfolio was comprised of a total of 38 security holdings and was worth roughly $267 billion, slightly up from $266 billion in the third quarter. Given that Buffett doesn’t like to diversify much, his top ten holdings account for nearly 90% of his 13F portfolio.

Our Methodology

To make the list of Warren Buffett’s top portfolio holdings we reviewed Berkshire’s fourth-quarter 2024 portfolio and ranked the list according to the hedge fund’s stake value in each firm. If there was an overlap, we prioritized the holding that was worth more money. We have also assessed the number of shares acquired by Berkshire Hathaway and hedge fund sentiment toward each stock from Insider Monkey’s database of hedge investor letters.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

That said, please see if there are overlaps between our compilation of the 10 longest-held stocks by The Oracle of Omaha wrapped up in November, and a new list of Warren Buffett’s top portfolio holdings.

Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX)

Portion of portfolio: 6.43%

Value of holdings: $17,179,549,745

Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) is an American multinational energy corporation with exploration, production and refining operations worldwide, predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The company currently sits as the fifth-largest portfolio holding in Berkshire’s portfolio of publicly-held stocks.

Buffett kept his investment in Chevron Corporation during the quarter holding 118,610,534 of its shares.

The company, which is one of the best Warren Buffett stocks to buy according to analysts, maintained a strong financial position in fiscal 2024, generating $31.5 billion in operating cash flow and $15 billion in free cash flow. The company returned nearly $12 billion to shareholders through dividends and repurchased over $15 billion in shares. Chevron’s revenue jumped by 10.7% year-over-year to $52.23 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, beating market expectations by over $3.8 billion due to increasing its worldwide and US production by 7% and 19% respectively to record levels in 2024.

Chevron acquired approximately 4.99% of Hess Corp’s common shares this year, demonstrating its confidence in finalizing the planned acquisition of Hess, according to a March regulatory filing by the oil giant. The company agreed in October 2023 to buy Hess in an all-stock deal valued at $53 billion thus gaining a substantial stake in Guyana’s oil-rich Stabroek block, reported Reuters.

However, Exxon Mobil and CNOOC, which are partners with Hess in Guyana, have taken the matter to court. The case is scheduled for a review by a three-judge arbitration panel in May.

Chevron is also exploring the acquisition of Phillips 66’s stake in their chemicals JV, CPChem, with CEO Mike Wirth seeing strong demand growth in chemicals due to global middle-class expansion and the need for energy-efficient plastics.

The oil giant recently revealed plans to cut up to 20% of its workforce in an attempt to streamline operations and position itself for “long-term competitiveness,” Chevron Corporation Vice Chairman Mark Nelson said. The move is in line with Chevron’s previously announced wider cost-cutting effort “of $2 to $3 billion in targeted structural cost reductions by the end of 2026, with some residual impact in 2027 and beyond.”

Year-to-date the company’s stock lost 4.06% in its value, closing at $138.96 per share on April 24 at the time of writing.

Overall, CVX ranks 5th on our list of best stocks to buy according to billionaire Warren Buffett. While we acknowledge the potential of CVX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CVX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.