No. of Recommendations: 23
Apologies for the clickbait. It was purely intentional, I assure you! 😊
A post on a recent thread made me interested to see which “sin stocks” Berkshire has owned throughout the years. So, I went looking through the annual letters (1977-2025) on Berkshire’s website, as well as Berkshire’ year-end forms 13F (and amendments, if any) that it filed with the SEC, available on the SEC’s EDGAR site (1998-2025). I didn’t check all four quarterly 13F filings for each year—only the December 31 reports. It appears that Berkshire does not generally shy away from sin stocks, although Buffett and Munger have expressed disdain for some businesses such as tobacco manufacturers (But teaser: There’s one in the list below). And they seem to have stayed away from gambling and a few other areas. I broke Berkshire’s sinful stockholdings into two buckets, depending on how much people tend to agree on their sinfulness:
***Most People Consider These Areas Sinful***
Let’s start with stockholdings having at least something to do with industries that for many years have been tossed by most into the sin bucket—those promoting vice, addiction, or moral controversy (e.g., adult / sex-related, alcohol, cannabis, defense/weapons, gambling, tobacco, etc.):
Adult / Sex-Related
• N/A
Alcohol
• 1991-1993 Guinness PLC
• 2004-2007 Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc.
• 2023-2025 Diageo PLC
• 2024-2025 Constellation Brands Inc.
Cannabis
• N/A
Defense/Weapons
• 1984 Northwest Industries
• 1986 Lear Siegler, Inc.
• 1992-1993, 1998-2000, 2011-2012 General Dynamics Corp.
• 2006-2016 General Electric Co.
• 2012-2015 Precision Castparts Corp.
• 2024-2025 HEICO Corp.
Gambling
• N/A
Tobacco
• 1980-1983 R. J. Reynolds Industries
***Some People Consider These Areas Sinful***
Now, let’s consider stockholdings having at least something to do with industries only more recently tossed by some into the sin bucket (e.g., exploiting vulnerable populations, fossil fuel energy, junk food / highly processed food / sugary beverages, etc.):
Exploiting Vulnerable Populations
• N/A [I stuck DaVita down below into the “Other” category because different people may have different reasons for disliking it.]
Fossil Fuel Energy
• 1979 Amerada Hess
• 1981, 1999-2002 GATX Corporation
• 1984, 2009-2010, 2013 Exxon Corporation; ExxonMobil Corp.
• 2002-2006 PetroChina Company Limited
• 2005-2013 ConocoPhillips
• 2008 Constellation Energy Group, Inc.
• 2008-2009 NRG Energy, Inc.
• 2012-2014 National Oilwell Varco Inc.
• 2012-2019 Phillips 66
• 2013-2015, 2018-2020 Suncor Energy Inc.
• 2014-2015 NOW Inc.
• 2015 Kinder Morgan Inc.
• 2020-2025 Chevron Corporation
• 2020-2025 Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo [Although all five Japanese companies are conglomerates, they each have some operations in this sin category.]
• 2019, 2022-2025 Occidental Petroleum
Junk Food / Highly Processed Food / Sugary Beverages
• 1979-1984 General Foods, Inc.
• 1985 Beatrice Companies, Inc.
• 1988-2025 The Coca-Cola Company
• 1996 McDonald’s Corporation
• 2003 Cadbury Schweppes & PLC
• 2004 Dean Foods Co.
• 2007-2025 Kraft Foods Inc; Kraft Foods Group; Kraft Heinz Co.
• 2009 Nestle
• 2012 Archer Daniels Midland Co.
• 2012-2022 Mondelez Intl. Inc.
• 2014-2019 Restaurant Brands Intl. Inc.
• 2024-2025 Domino’s Pizza Inc.
Other [A catchall for companies that some may find objectionable.]
• 2011-2025 DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.; DaVita Inc.
• 2016-2017 Monsanto Co.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Why leave out the bankers and banks?
As hard as Buffett has tried his life's journey proves how hard it is to avoid, lowlife's, con artists, and despicable human beings.
Sad.
