- Buffett's Wealth and Fame Hasn't Helped 'Warren' As a Name
- CNBC VIDEO: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' at Columbia University
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: Curbing Fed's Independence Could Lead to 'Mischief'
- Warren Buffett to Co-Chair Goldman Sachs Program to Help Small Businesses
- Warren Buffett: 'Reasonable Return is Good Enough' for Long-Haul Railroad Ride
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Almost Doubles Wal-Mart Holdings During Summer
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Portfolio Snapshot Coming Later Today
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab To Swedish Firm Falls Apart
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- Buyers Look For Bargains At Luxury Condo Auction
- FDIC Fund Falls into The Red, Bair Urges Lending
- Revised GDP Reading Puts Growth at 2.8%; Inflation Tame
- Weak Dollar Is Golden for Mining Companies
- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- 10 Holiday Cocktail Recipes from Top Mixologists
- Silicon Valley and Hollywood Now Fast Friends
- Markets Can Rise 5-10% in the Near-Term: Strategist
- Busch: The Debt-Interest Rate Paradox
- The Lloyd's Prayer, Leggo My Eggo, Plate Hate & Your Emails
- Buy These 'Competitively Positioned' Stocks: Portfolio Manager
- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- 'Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What'
- On Assignment: Europe & Asia
- The L.A. Extravaganza: A Test for Auto Shows
- $42 Billion US Bond Auction Receives Strong Demand
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab Unit Falls Apart
- Consumer Confidence Improves but Still Shaky
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- FDIC Fund Falls into The Red, Bair Urges Lending
- Ron Paul's Plan to Audit Fed a 'Serious Attack': Mishkin
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- Holiday Guide to This Season's Smartphones
- Price War Brews Between Amazon and Wal-Mart
Warren Buffett Watch
![]() |
AP Apple makes iPhones and also makes the list of stocks that fit some of Warren Buffett's investment criteria, as compiled by Standard and Poor's in its twice-yearly stock screen. |
In an article about the screen posted early this morning, Business Week (the magazine is owned by McGraw-Hill, which also owns Standard and Poor's) says S&P Portfolio Services analyst David Braverman compiles a screen that "picks companies using criteria similar to those that fit the legendary investor's growth-oriented style."
The screen looks for:
- Owner earnings (cash flow minus capital expenditures) above $50 million
- Net margins of at least 15% for the past 12 months
- At least 15% return on equity in the previous quarter and in each of the past three years
- Retained earnings that have grown less than market capitalization over five years
- Projected cash flow per share above current stock price over next five years
- Market value at or above $500 million
The criteria are based on Robert Hagstrom's book The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor.
As one Business Week reader points out in his on-line comment attached to the article, the screen does not include some important, but hard-to-quantify Buffett requirements, like trust-worthy, competent management and 'durable competitive advantage.' (During a video tour of his Omaha headquarters last November, Buffett showed our Becky Quick a particularly telling example of Why 'Durable Competitive Advantage' Matters.)
With that caveat, here are the results of the S&P "Buffett" screen as listed by Business Week. It notes "the presence of a number of European and Asian names" including China Mobile, the company with the largest market value in the list. (Remember that during his October trip to Asia, Buffett wasn't too enthusiastic about Chinese stocks because the market had been "too hot."
- 3M
[MMM Loading... ()
] - Alcon
[ACL Loading... ()
] - Altera
[ALTR Loading... ()
] - Altria Group
[MO Loading... ()
] - Aluminum Corp. of China
[ACH Loading... ()
] - America Movil
[AMX Loading... ()
] - Apollo Group
[APOL Loading... ()
] - Apple
[AAPL Loading... ()
] - Aracruz Celulose
[ARA Loading... ()
] - Autodesk
[ADSK Loading... ()
] - Bard (C.R.)
[BCR Loading... ()
] - Becton Dickinson
[BDX Loading... ()
] - BG Group
[BRGYY Loading... ()
] - British American Tobacco
[BTI Loading... ()
] - Brown-Forman
[BFB Loading... ()
] - China Mobile
[CHL Loading... ()
] - Cisco Systems
[CSCO Loading... ()
] - Coach
[COH Loading... ()
] - Coca-Cola
[KO Loading... ()
] - Diageo
[DEO Loading... ()
] - Equifax
[EFX Loading... ()
] - Franklin Resources
[BEN Loading... ()
] - Freeport-McMoRan Copper
[FCX Loading... ()
] - Garmin
[GRMN Loading... ()
] - GlaxoSmithKline
[GSK Loading... ()
] - Grupo Televisa
[TV Loading... ()
] - Infosys Technologies
[INFY Loading... ()
] - Intl. Game Technology
[IGT Loading... ()
] - Johnson & Johnson
[JNJ Loading... ()
] - Microsoft
[MSFT Loading... ()
] - Mobile Telesystems
[MBT Loading... ()
] - National Semiconductor
[NSM Loading... ()
] - Novo-Nordisk
[NVO Loading... ()
] - Occidental Petroleum
[OXY Loading... ()
] - Oracle
[ORCL Loading... ()
] - Overseas Shipholding Group
[OSG Loading... ()
] - Paychex
[PAYX Loading... ()
] - PepsiCo
[PEP Loading... ()
] - Philippine Long Distance
[PHI Loading... ()
] - Portugal Telecom
[PT Loading... ()
] - Price (T. Rowe) Group
[TROW Loading... ()
] - Qualcomm
[QCOM Loading... ()
] - Qwest Communications
[Q Loading... ()
] - Rio Tinto Group
[RTP Loading... ()
] - Roche Holdings
[RHHBY Loading... ()
] - Rockwell Automation
[ROK Loading... ()
] - SAP
[SAP Loading... ()
] - Sasol
[SSL Loading... ()
] - Schlumberger
[SLB Loading... ()
] - Sigma-Aldrich
[SIAL Loading... ()
] - Stryker
[SYK Loading... ()
] - Swisscom
[SCMWY Loading... ()
] - Taiwan Semiconductor
[TSM Loading... ()
] - TD AmeriTrade
[AMTD Loading... ()
] - Telefonica
[TEF Loading... ()
] - Telefonos De Mexico
[TMX Loading... ()
] - Turkcell
[TKC Loading... ()
] - Vimpel Communications
[VIP Loading... ()
] - Votorantim Celulose
[VCP Loading... ()
] - Wipro
[WIT Loading... ()
]
To me, the list looks a bit heavy on the tech names to really fit Buffett's style. But whether Warren would actually buy Apple or not, the screen does pretty well. Business Week says from 1995 through last month, the stocks selected twice a year by the screen were up almost 15 percent a year. That's almost double the S&P's annualized return of just over 8 percent.
Final disclaimer from Biz Week: "It should be noted that these are not necessarily stocks that Buffett has bought or personally plans to buy. The list reflects only the criteria that Buffett has emphasized in the past."
Berkshire's current price: [US;BRK.A
Loading...
()
]
Questions? Comments? Email me at










