Warren Buffett is consistently one of the wealthiest people in the world, coming in with a net worth of $87.1 billion in 2018. This makes him the third-richest person in the world. Buffett keeps his net worth predominantly in Berkshire Hathaway and Berkshire Hathaway stock, the investment company he founded. Berkshire Hathaway acts as his investment vehicle and invests in such things as equities, real estate and renewable energy.

However, Buffett came from modest beginnings, which has shaped the way he views money management. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930, and the town has been his home ever since. Working as an investment salesman, he had a knack for investing and eventually built Berkshire Hathaway into the company it is today. He still lives in the home he purchased in 1958 for $31,500.

Berkshire Hathaway

The majority of Warren Buffet’s wealth is tied up in Berkshire Hathaway’s investment portfolio. Reports from 2004 through 2018 show Buffett’s stock stake as high as 350,000 Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway and 2,050,640 Class B shares. In recent years Buffett has been gifting a considerable amount of his shares to charity. His most recent 13-D filings show his stake in class A shares at 270,644 shares and his class B shares at 183,285. As of October 10, 2018, BRK.A traded at $319,100 and BRK.B traded at $213.10.

Buffett's net worth was a mere $1 million when he was 30, consisting largely of Berkshire Hathaway stock. Through smart institutional investments, he increased the company's stock from $7.60 in the 1960s to today's level. This exponential increase in share price is the main driver of Buffett's increase in net worth over the past decades.

Equity Portfolio

In addition to acting as the president of Berkshire Hathaway and being one of its largest shareholders, Buffett uses the company as his main investment vehicle, conducting many of his equity sales and purchases as business transactions. This portfolio makes up the lion's share of his equity investments.

The investor is well-known for his income and value approaches to investing, and his portfolio reflects his ideology. As of June 30, 2018, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway portfolio had a value of $195.62 billion. The portfolio’s greatest weights were in Apple, Wells Fargo and Kraft Heinz. Combined, these three companies totaled 47% of the equity holdings.

As a percentage of equity investments, Berkshire Hathaway is most heavily invested in the financial sector at 41%, followed by 25% in technology and 20% in consumer defensive. Other sectors in the portfolio include industrials, consumer cyclical, health care, energy, communication services, basic materials and real estate.

Financials

As of June 30, 2018, Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio is substantially in financials at 41%. Berkshire has 12 financial holdings at the following portfolio weights:

  • Wells Fargo & Co   12.81%
  • Bank of America Corporation 9.79%
  • American Express Co             7.60%
  • US Bancorp            2.57%
  • Moody's Corporation              2.15%
  • Bank of New York Mellon Corp              1.79%
  • Goldman Sachs Group Inc     1.49%
  • Visa Inc   0.72%
  • Mastercard Inc        0.50%
  • M&T Bank Corp      0.47%
  • Synchrony Financial               0.35%
  • Torchmark Corp     0.26%

Subsidiary Companies

In addition to equities, Berkshire Hathaway is also well known as a holding company. The company has 63 subsidiaries with a focus on insurance and real estates.