Picking through the proverbial haystacks to find the needles smart-money investors are targeting is a difficult task to do on one’s own. It’s impossible to implement the amount of research that goes into the modeling and investing discussions hedge funds and family offices have at their disposal to come to the same conclusions. At a certain point, some investors may be compelled to simply look at the most recent purchases made by top billionaire investors, and look to implement some similar positions (if not the same positions) in their own portfolios in an attempt to beat the market.

Of course, each individual investor will choose their respective champions they want to follow into battle. But in this article, I’m going to highlight three stocks which have recently been purchased by top-tier money managers I respect as ones that are worth buying moving forward.

Here goes.

Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

Until someone shows me concrete evidence to the contrary, Warren Buffett will go down as the best investor of all time in my books. The Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) CEO has produced market-beating returns for decades, and while these returns have slowed somewhat as Berkshire has grown larger, the company’s most recent picks are among its most compelling, considering the fact that Buffett and his team have been sitting on their hands for quite some time looking for opportunities.

One of the conglomerate’s most recent portfolio additions is to Berkshire’s Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) position, in which the Oracle of Omaha and his team decided to add to his position once again this past quarter. That’s now a trend, with the Oracle of Omaha appearing to continue to want to accumulate shares any time this stock drops below a specific predetermined level (which I’m not privy to, of course).

I’m of the view that Occidental should provide long-term upside for investors who want additional exposure to the energy sector. This has been a space Buffett has been in and out of over the years, but it does appear to be the case that, at least for now, Occidental will remain one of Buffett’s preferred ways to play this space. Hence, it’s one of mine.

Amazon (AMZN)

I’m not surprised to see a tremendous amount of buying activity behind Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) this past quarter from a swath of hedge fund managers including so-called “Tiger Cubs” hedge funds, which refers to a prominent group of hedge fund managers who have spun off from Tiger Management and now focus on managing their own portfolios.

Amazon remains one of the only stocks that’s a broad consensus buy among this group, suggesting that Amazon is becoming more mainstream among big money managers than investors may think. Amazon remains a retail investor favorite, and comes along with a premium valuation that suggests most investors of all sizes are intrigued by Amazon’s growth prospects (I’m one such investor). But with better value opportunities out there, at least in the Magnificent 7 group, the fact that we’ve seen so much buying activity from billionaire investors is bullish for smaller investors wondering if the water is safe.

In my view, Amazon’s positioning in the cloud and data center sector, as well as its core e-commerce business and other AI initiatives, position the company for consistent double-digit growth for the foreseeable future. For long-term investors looking for that kind of upside, it’s probably worth paying for quality right now.

Maplebear (CART)

The last entrant on this list, but by far the least, is Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART), formerly Instacart.

The company’s focus is on providing online grocery shopping services to millions of customers across North America, though the company does have a growing international footprint. A relatively new company, Maplebear is one player in the e-commerce space I’ve long thought has been overlooked. That’s despite some relatively strong performance since going public last year, in which the stock is up more than 14% over this time frame.

Like the other names on this list, Maplebear has seen some strong buying this 13-F filing season, with Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital making a major bet on the online retailer. Other hedge funds have followed into this trade, particularly those that are tilted toward more early-stage growth companies.

That’s notable because I’d put Maplebear more in the semi-mature bucket at this point. But with plenty of growth runway ahead and a market capitalization of just $12 billion, I can see why this is a compelling investment opportunity in the minds of smart money investor right now.

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