Investing

Warren Buffett Collects a Massive $4.79 Billion in Income from 6 Top Stocks

Lee Jackson

Published: February 23, 2024 7:50 am

If any investor has stood the test of time, it’s Warren Buffett, and with good reason. For years, the “Oracle of Omaha” has had a rock star-like presence in the investing world, and his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting draws thousands of loyal fans who are investors.

Known for his long buy-and-hold strategies and his massive portfolio of public and private holdings, he remains one of the preeminent investors in the entire world, and with interest rates edging higher once again, it makes sense to add dividend-paying stocks that will rally when rates ultimately do get cut at some point this year.

While Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t pay shareholders dividends, Warren Buffett has many dividend-paying stocks in his portfolio. Six top companies generate a stunning $4.79 billion passive income for the investment giant every year out of the incredible $6 billion the entire portfolio generates.

Apple

Source: Nikada / Getty Images

It’s almost hard to comprehend that the legacy technology giant makes up 45% of the Berkshire Hataway portfolio with 905,560,000 shares and holds nearly 6% of Apple’s stock even after selling 10 million shares. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide.

The company offers:

• The iPhone, a line of smartphones
• Mac, a line of personal computers
• iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets
• Wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod

Apple also provides AppleCare support and cloud services and operates various platforms, including the App Store, allowing customers to discover and download applications and digital content, such as books, music, video, games, and podcasts.

In addition, the company offers various services, such as:

• Apple Arcade, a game subscription service
• Apple Fitness+, a personalized fitness service
• Apple Music, which gives users a curated listening experience with on-demand radio stations
• Apple News+, a subscription news and magazine service
• Apple TV+, which offers exclusive original content
• Apple Card, a co-branded credit card
• Apple Pay, a cashless payment service

Apple Investors are paid a modest 0.52% dividend, and the stock generates $869,337,600 in passive dividend income yearly. 

Bank of America

Source: robwilson39 / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

The company will posted strong fourth-quarter results and pays a solid 2.81% dividend. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is a ubiquitous presence in the United States, providing:

• Various banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small and middle market businesses, institutional investors, corporations, and governments in the United States and internationally
• operating 5,100 banking centers, 16,300 ATMs, call centers, and online and mobile banking platforms.

Bank of America has expanded into several new US markets, with scale globally positioning them ideally to benefit from accelerating loan growth over the next two years.  Moreover, unlike smaller peers, scale allows the bank to substantially increase investment over the next few years without notably jeopardizing returns, driving further market share gains.

Warren Buffett owns 1,032 852,006 bank shares, 13% of the float, and 9.5% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. Each year, the stock generates $991,537,926 in dividend income.

Chevron

Source: jewhyte / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

This integrated giant is safer for investors looking to get positioned in the energy sector, pays a rich 4.04% dividend and Buffett added 16 million shares in the first quarter. Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) engages in integrated energy and chemicals operations worldwide through its subsidiaries.

The company operates in two segments:

• Upstream
• Downstream

The Upstream segment is involved in the following:

• Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas;
• Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
• Transportation of crude oil through pipelines
• Transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as operating a gas-to-liquids plant

The Downstream segment engages in:

• Refining crude oil into petroleum product
• Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
• Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
• Transporting crude oil and advanced products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
• Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives

Chevron announced in the fall that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hess in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, or $171 per share based on Chevron’s closing price on October 20, 2023. Under the terms of the agreement, Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. The transaction’s total enterprise value, including debt, is $60 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway owns 6.8% of Chevron’s outstanding stock with 126,093,326 shares, and the energy giant makes up 5.1% of the portfolio. Each year the stock generates $776,734,888 in dividend income. 

The Coca-Cola Company

Source: Daxus / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images

This company remains a top Warren Buffet holding as he owns a massive 400 million shares, 9.3% of the float and 6.4% of the portfolio. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering consumers more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable brands, the Company’s portfolio features 20 billion-dollar brands, including:

• Diet Coke
• Fanta
• Sprite
• Coca-Cola Zero
• Vitaminwater
• Powerade
• Minute Maid
• Simply
• Georgia
• Del Valle

Globally, they are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juice drinks.

Through the world’s most extensive beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the company’s beverages at a rate of more than 1.9 billion servings a day. It’s also important to remember that the company owns almost 20% % of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), which continues to deliver big numbers.

Investors are paid a very dependable 3.06% dividend. The company generates a whopping $736,000,000 in annual dividend income. 

Kraft Heinz

Source: Gustavo Caballero / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

Even in bad times, this company generally performs well and shareholders are paid a very rich 4.60% dividend. The Kraft Heinz Company (NYSE: KHC) was formed via the 2015 merger of H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group.

The company is a leading global food company with $25 billion of estimated annual revenues generated by well known brands such as Kraft, Heinz, Oscar Meyer and Maxwell House.

Kraft Heinz is the third largest food and beverage manufacturer in North America and derives 76% of revenues from that market.and 24% from International.

The Company’s additional brands include:

• ABC
• Capri Sun
• Classico
• Jell-O
• Kool-Aid
• Lunchables
• Ore-Ida
• Oscar Mayer
• Philadelphia
• Planters
• Plasmon
• Quero
• Weight Watchers
• Smart Ones
• Velveeta

Each year the company generates $521,015,709 in passive dividend income.

Occidental Petroleum

Source: Funtay / iStock via Getty Images

Over the last two years, Berkshire Hathaway has been buying the shares in a big, which now amount to a massive 248,018,128 that pay a decent 1.45% dividend. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) together with its subsidiaries, is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

It operates through three segments:

• Oil and Gas
• Chemical
• Midstream and Marketing

The company’s Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas.

Its Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including:

• Chlorine
• Caustic soda
• Chlorinated organics
• Potassium chemicals
• Ethylene dichloride
• Chlorinated isocyanurates
• Sodium silicates, and calcium chloride
• Vinyls comprising vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride, and ethylene

The Midstream and Marketing segment gathers, processes, transports, stores, purchases, and markets oil, condensate, NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide, and power. This segment also trades around its assets consisting of transportation and storage capacity; and invests in entities.

Mr. Buffett has loaded the boat on Occidental Petroleum which pays Berkshire Hathaway a reported $897,455,953 in annual dividends. $218,255,953 from the common stock and $679,200,000 from Occidental preferred stock which yields 8%.