Warren Buffett’s 5 Most Profitable Investments of All Time

4. United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44     

United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is a Georgia-based shipping company founded in 1907. It is placed fourth on our list of Warren Buffett’s most profitable investments of all time. The stock has returned more than 102% to investors over the course of the past twelve months. Buffett first bought a stake in the shipping firm in 2006 when he invested more than $113 million to buy over 1.4 million shares. Buffett has since trimmed his stake in the company and it now represents just 0.004% of the Berkshire portfolio. 

However, United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is on the most profitable investment list because the stock of the company has rallied over the past year. This means that the shares have returned more than 323% to investors since Buffett first bought stake in the firm. Buffett has held on to the stock over the years in anticipation of such a rally and it remains to be seen whether he will maintain his small stake in the shipping firm in the coming months or cash out.

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Washington-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is a leading shareholder in United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) with 2.8 million shares worth more than $476 million.

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“The portfolio’s quality bias and valuation discipline have generated compelling returns over time with typically strong relative results in more challenging environments as it did through the first three quarters of 2020. However, that same quality bias tends to create a more challenging relative performance environment for the Strategy during periods of sharp economic acceleration, which tend to benefit stocks that are more commodity linked or of lower quality. This has been the case during the vaccine- and stimulus-driven rally experienced late last year and during the most recent quarter. Sectors that lagged in the quarter included industrials, United Parcel Service also lagged in the quarter after previously generating strong returns over extended periods.”