10 Best Warren Buffett Stocks with Upside Potential

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With the AI bubble seeming to pop, many people are turning back to legendary old-school investors like Warren Buffett, who has sat through many crashes. Redditors were already calling Berkshire Hathaway a way to protect a portfolio ahead of an AI bubble pop. See why Redditors picked Berkshire. Billionaire Howard Marks has also warned about the AI boom, and we looked at his 10 non-AI stock picks. See Marks’ non-AI stock picks.

So what would Buffett do today? He could go all in on AI, pile into non-AI stocks, or sit still and ride it out. His recent comments point to the third path, with one AI exception.

At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in May, Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick that the market is not an ideal place to put cash to work, with Berkshire holding close to $400 billion. He said Berkshire picks its spots and sometimes does nothing for long stretches, and that only about five of his 60 years in the business were really juicy. He also said he understands fewer businesses than he did 10 years ago and will not try to beat younger investors who grew up with new technology. He compared the market to a church with a casino attached and called one-day options gambling. The best time to buy, he said, is when nobody answers their phones during a collapse. His only AI comment in that interview was about deep fakes, which he called scary.

In July, Buffett told CNBC that he started Berkshire’s bet on Alphabet, a sign he supports the company’s big AI spending. He said he was wrong to overlook Alphabet earlier, and that it is more likely to be a winner than 90% or 95% of what Wall Street sells, Bloomberg reported. He did not go all in. He said he likes at least four or five other Berkshire businesses better. Under CEO Greg Abel, Berkshire has started putting some of its cash to work, including about $10 billion into Alphabet in the second quarter. We looked at whether its capital allocation can keep compounding. See how Berkshire is using its cash.

Buffett stepped down as CEO at the end of 2025, and he said Abel makes no decision he does not approve of. We have tracked Buffett’s buys and sells for years. See which 17 stocks he bought and sold in 2023. The stocks he built the portfolio around are still there, and we ranked five of them in our list of the best stocks to buy according to Warren Buffett. See our 5 best Buffett stocks. This time, we went through Berkshire’s latest 13F filing to find the ones with the most upside, according to analyst price targets.

See the full list of the 10 best Warren Buffett stocks with upside potential by clicking the image below:

Methodology

We looked at the stocks in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio, using its 13F filing for the second quarter of 2026. We only included stocks that Berkshire held while Warren Buffett was CEO. Buffett stepped down at the end of 2025. We skipped stocks that Berkshire did not build up in a big way under Buffett. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an example. Berkshire opened its position in the third quarter of 2025, when Buffett was still CEO, but it added to the stake heavily only after Abel took over. The idea is to stay close to Buffett’s original stock-picking philosophy.

For each stock, we compared the share price on October 28, 2026, with the average 12-month analyst price target. The gap between the two is the upside potential. The list runs from the smallest upside to the largest. We ran a similar list last October. See last year’s picks with the strongest upside.

#10 Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)

Stock Price as of October 28: $271.79

Average 12-Month Analyst Price Target: $292.73

Upside Potential: 7.70%

Nucor is one of America’s largest steel producers, supplying steel products for construction, manufacturing and infrastructure projects. Berkshire Hathaway held approximately 1.9 million shares of Nucor worth $413.8 million at the end of the second quarter of 2026. The company reduced its position during the quarter. Nucor’s earnings remain sensitive to steel prices and industrial demand. Nucor ranks 14th on our list of the 14 best Warren Buffett dividend stocks, and its board approved a new share buyback program in February. See the full dividend stock list.

Tariffs on imported steel hold up US steel prices. In the third quarter, finished steel imports were 13% lower than a year earlier, and Nucor reported 32% revenue growth. Volumes sold rose 11% from a year earlier because new mills started up. Bulls expect more of this in 2027. Nucor is finishing a new sheet mill in West Virginia that starts up in early 2027. Demand also comes from utilities upgrading the power grid, data centers and factories moving to the US. Management expects 2027 contracts with fewer discounts and lower capital spending, which helps free cash flow.

#9 Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY)

Stock Price as of October 28: $62.86

Average 12-Month Analyst Price Target: $70.40

Upside Potential: 12.00%

Occidental Petroleum is a major oil and natural gas producer with operations concentrated in the United States and the Middle East. Berkshire Hathaway held approximately 264.9 million shares worth $12.87 billion at the end of June 2026, making Occidental one of its largest equity investments. The stock’s performance remains closely tied to energy prices. Occidental ranks third on our list of the 5 best value stocks to buy in 2026 according to Warren Buffett, and CEO Vicki Hollub announced in May that she would retire on June 1. Read the full value stock analysis.

Roth Capital recently upgraded Occidental to Buy from Neutral. The firm called it one of the better ways to profit from higher oil prices among oil producers. Occidental has no oil hedges for 2027 and beyond, so shareholders get the full benefit when oil prices rise. The company uses most of its free cash flow to pay down debt, and Roth expects it to reach its debt target soon. Occidental also plans to raise free cash flow through 2030 by cutting spending and costs, even if oil production stays flat. Goldman Sachs also upgraded the stock to Buy, citing debt reduction and dividend growth potential.

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