10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire Warren Buffett

6. Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY)

Portion of portfolio: 4.88%

Value of holdings: $13,053,055,436  

The Oracle of Omaha has been purchasing holdings in the Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY), an energy company and one of the largest oil and gas producers in the United States in recent years, with the latest purchase bringing his stake in the company up to 28.2%.

Buffett grew his stake in Occidental Petroleum by 4% sequentially to 264,178,414 shares, according to a regulatory SEC filing, making the stock his sixth biggest holding.

The company generated $4.9 billion of free cash flow in 2024 with $1.4 billion generated in the fourth quarter only, paid about $800 million of common dividends and achieved its near-term debt repayment target of $4.5 billion seven months ahead of schedule. The oil and gas producer raised its quarterly dividend by 9.1% to $0.24 per share in February. For 2025, the company announced $1.2 billion of divestiture proceeds utilized for debt reduction, the company’s president-CEO Vicki A. Hollub said in her fourth-quarter earnings call.

That said, on March 21, Occidental wrapped up the sale of a significant mineral and royalty position spanning approximately 250,000 net royalty acres (NRA) in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in Colorado, to Elk Range Royalties for $905 million, according to Reuters. The assets are being developed by top operators such as Chevron and Civitas, who together are behind more than half of the wells being drilled in 2024.

Hollub said in March that U.S. oil production will peak between 2027 and 2030 relying on the U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to boost fossil fuel production and reduce prices for consumers.

In the meantime, Occidental’s $12 billion acquisition of CrownRock in 2024 has grown its domestic well inventory, adding 1,700 new well locations and 170,000 barrels of oil per day. The company has also boosted its carbon capture business via the acquisition of Carbon Engineering in 2023 and the development of the Stratos DAC plant in Texas, capturing 500,000 metric tons of CO2 annually. It plans 100 more DAC plants by 2035.

However, Jim Cramer believes there might be better companies out there even though Occidental is one of Warren Buffett’s top portfolio holdings.

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer said, “A lot of people always want Occidental because it’s Buffett’s company, it’s not as well run as Coterra. It’s not as well run as Chevron. Which has really lagged.”

Year-to-date the company’s stock lost 18.32% in its value, trading at $40.36 per share on April 24 at the time of writing.