Warren Buffett’s Long Term Investing: The Coca-Cola Company (KO), American Express Company (AXP), and More

Berkshire Hathaway has also included The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) as one of its top stock picks with the most recent filing reporting a position of about 53 million shares. Procter & Gamble is another company which is currently stable in terms of its financials, though with a valuation which incorporates some future improvements in earnings per share; for example, the forward P/E is 18. It is a potential defensive play with a beta of 0.3 and a dividend yield of 3%. Pershing Square, managed by billionaire Bill Ackman, is another major shareholder of Procter & Gamble (research more stocks Ackman likes).

Over the past couple years the holding company has increased what had already been a significant position in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) to a total of about 49 million shares. In its most recent quarter sales and net income were up only 1% compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year, in what had been a troubling quarter for other big-box stores as well. The beta is low here as well (at 0.3) as would be expected for a discount retailer. Phil Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management owned a little less than 3 million shares of Wal-Mart according to that hedge fund’s most recent filing.

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