Advertisement
Canada markets closed
  • S&P/TSX

    21,714.54
    -297.08 (-1.35%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,035.69
    -80.48 (-1.57%)
     
  • DOW

    37,815.92
    -570.17 (-1.49%)
     
  • CAD/USD

    0.7257
    -0.0004 (-0.06%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    81.26
    -0.67 (-0.82%)
     
  • Bitcoin CAD

    83,356.88
    -4,716.20 (-5.35%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    1,299.50
    -39.56 (-2.95%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,302.10
    -0.80 (-0.03%)
     
  • RUSSELL 2000

    1,973.91
    -42.12 (-2.09%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.6860
    +0.0720 (+1.56%)
     
  • NASDAQ futures

    17,506.00
    -65.25 (-0.37%)
     
  • VOLATILITY

    15.65
    +0.98 (+6.68%)
     
  • FTSE

    8,144.13
    -2.90 (-0.04%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    38,145.04
    -260.62 (-0.68%)
     
  • CAD/EUR

    0.6804
    +0.0002 (+0.03%)
     

3 Stocks Warren Buffett Owns That Should Be on Your List, Too

close-up photo of investor Warren Buffett
Image source: The Motley Fool

Written by Aditya Raghunath at The Motley Fool Canada

Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest investor of all time. Also known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett has an enviable track record of identifying quality stocks that beat the broader markets across market cycles.

Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns several stocks in multiple sectors that are positioned to deliver inflation-beating returns. Here are three stocks Warren Buffett owns that should be on your shopping list, too.

VeriSign stock

Valued at US$18 billion by market cap, VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN)provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, enabling internet navigation for global enterprises. Down 28% from all-time highs, VeriSign stock has returned 268% to shareholders in the past decade.

ADVERTISEMENT

VeriSign reported revenue of US$380 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, up 3% year over year. Its operating income stood at US$256 million in the December quarter, higher than US$245 million in the year-ago period.

The tech company ended Q4 with 172.7 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, indicating a yearly decline of 1.2 million registrations. In Q4, VeriSign processed nine million new domain name registrations, down from 9.7 million in the prior year quarter.

Analysts tracking VRSN expect adjusted earnings at US$7.92 per share, indicating a year-over-year improvement of almost 10%. Priced at 25.8 times forward earnings, VRSN stock trades at a discount of 23% to consensus price target estimates.

Mastercard stock

Valued at a market cap of US$429 billion, Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is among the largest fintech companies in the world. Mastercard is a payments processing company that has returned over 500% to shareholders in the past decade, easily outpacing the broader markets.

Today, there are close to three billion Mastercard-powered cards in circulation that are accepted at millions of merchant locations globally, allowing the company to benefit from powerful network effects and a wide competitive moat. Moreover, Mastercard’s widening profit margins have allowed it to expand earnings at an annual rate of 15% annually in the last five years.

Analysts expect its earnings growth to accelerate to almost 20% in the next five years, making it one of the fastest-growing stocks on the S&P 500 index.

Despite its outsized gains, Mastercard stock is priced at a 10% discount, given consensus price target estimates.

Nu Holdings stock

The final Warren Buffett stock on my list is Nu Holdings (NYSE:NU), which has already returned 135% in the last 12 months. Nu Holdings is a Brazil-based company that has gained massive traction in multiple Latin American markets.

Nu is a digital bank with a widening presence in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. It ended 2023 with 93.9 million members, an increase of 19 million year over year. This stellar growth in the user base allowed Nu to report revenue of US$8 billion in Q4 of 2023, up 62% compared to the same period in 2022.

Unlike several other fintech companies, Nu reports consistent profits. In Q4, its net income more than tripled to US$360 million, indicating a margin of 23%. Priced at 26.7 times forward earnings, Nu Holdings stock is really cheap and is positioned to deliver market-beating returns in 2024 and beyond.

The post 3 Stocks Warren Buffett Owns That Should Be on Your List, Too appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

Should you invest $1,000 in Verisign right now?

Before you buy stock in Verisign, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Verisign wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could potentially produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider MercadoLibre, which we first recommended on January 8, 2014 ... if you invested $1,000 in the “eBay of Latin America” at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $15,578.55!*

Stock Advisor Canada provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month – one from Canada and one from the U.S. The Stock Advisor Canada service has outperformed the return of S&P/TSX Composite Index by 32 percentage points since 2013*.

See the 10 stocks * Returns as of 3/20/24

More reading

Fool contributor Aditya Raghunath has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Mastercard, Nu Holdings, and VeriSign. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

2024