Warren Buffett’s High-Upside Picks Include General Motors Company (GM) & National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NOV)

Berkshire reported a position of 25 million shares in General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), unchanged from the beginning of the year. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) trades at 11 times trailing earnings. Many market players, including a large share of analysts and apparently Berkshire’s team as well, believe that automakers are set for high growth as U.S. consumers replace an aging auto fleet and economic conditions in other markets improve. However, recent reports show lower revenue and earnings at General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) than a year ago. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) made our list of the most popular stocks among hedge funds in Q1 2013 (check out the full top ten list).

Buffett was buying shares of $29 billion market cap oilfield equipment and services company National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) between January and March. At that valuation the stock carries trailing and forward P/Es of 12 and 10, respectively, and analysts are looking for enough growth to give it a Peg ratio of 0.9. While revenue was up strongly in the first quarter of 2013, however, net income fell by over 20% and so we’d have to investigate it more closely before buying. Viking Global, managed by billionaire and Tiger Cub Andreas Halvorsen, initiated a position of 2.7 million shares during Q1 (find more of Halvorsen’s stock picks).

A new position in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio for 2013 was its 6.5 million shares of Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE:CBI), a $6.3 billion market cap company which provides infrastructure engineering services primarily to energy customers. The business stands to benefit from increased production of natural gas, and so while its trailing earnings multiple is fairly high at 21 analysts believe that it is actually undervalued- that same valuation is only 12 times forward earnings estimates. Billionaire David Shaw’s hedge fund D.E. Shaw owned 1.6 million shares of Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE:CBI) as of the beginning of April (see D.E. Shaw’s favorite stocks).

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.