The trillion-dollar club is largely the preserve of tech titans such as Apple and Nvidia, with Meta Platforms rejoining that level this year. But Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is knocking on the door.
Berkshire Hathaway had a $933.77 billion market cap as of Feb. 27. BRKB stock has been a strong performer in 2024, up 14.65% so far.
On Saturday, Berkshire reported operating profit rose 28% in the fourth quarter vs. a year earlier, buoyed by insurance underwriting and investment income.
Berkshire stock has fallen 2% so far this week, reversing a record high Monday morning.
Warren Buffett is known in large part for his investments. Apple is by far Berkshire Hathaway's biggest stock holding. The iPhone giant was a huge portfolio winner for years, but AAPL stock is down 5% in 2024 and little changed from January 2022.
Berkshire Hathaway stock hasn't outperformed the S&P 500 by any significant extent since late 2008, but the relative strength line has trended higher in 2024 and since mid-2020. On a weekly chart, the RS line is right at record highs.
Warren Buffett owns 16.45% of Berkshire Hathaway, with a voting share of just over 30%.
The Next $1 Trillion Stocks?
| Company | Ticker | Market cap, in billions |
|---|---|---|
| Berkshire Hathaway | BRKB | $933.77 |
| Eli Lilly | LLY | $726.88 |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing | TSM | $666.85 |
| Tesla | TSLA | $636.10 |
| Broadcom | AVGO | $606.82 |
| Novo Nordisk | NVO | $547.21 |
| JPMorgan Chase | JPM | $528.40 |
| Visa | V | $527.22 |
After Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, no other company is especially close to a $1 trillion valuation.
Eli Lilly had a $726.88 billion market cap as of Feb. 26. LLY stock is up 31.2% in 2024 as of Feb. 27, behind only Nvidia and Meta Platforms in the S&P 500. Next to the AI revolution led by Nvidia and other tech giants, weight-loss drugs from Eli Lilly, Denmark Novo Nordisk and others in the future have the potential to massive transform society.
Lilly also has promising treatments for Alzheimer's and more.
Taiwan Semiconductor boasts a $666.85 billion valuation. TSM stock is up nearly 24% in 2024 as of Feb. 27, part of a massive run since early November. The world's largest chip foundry, Taiwan Semi makes semiconductors for Nvidia, Apple and many others.
Tesla has a $636.1 billion valuation, but it's going the wrong way. TSLA stock is down almost 20% so far this year. While the EV giant doubled in 2023, it's more than 50% off its late 2021 peak, when Tesla stock briefly boasted a $1 trillion valuation. Tesla earnings tumbled in 2023. Analysts predict a slight decline in 2024, but the risks seem weighted to the downside amid waning global EV demand.
Broadcom has a market cap of $606.82 billion. Shares are up 16.2% in 2024, just besting Berkshire Hathaway. The chip giant also has major software holdings, including the recently acquired virtualization software maker VMware. Broadcom earnings growth has been somewhat sluggish, and is expected to fall slightly in fiscal 2024, but bounce back in 2025.
Novo Nordisk and Dow financial giants JPMorgan Chase and Visa have market caps above $500 billion. Two more Dow Jones components, Walmart and UnitedHealth, are modestly below $500 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan and Visa are the top three components in the Financial Select SPDR ETF.
Please follow Ed Carson on Threads at @edcarson1971, X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson and Bluesky at @edcarson.bsky.social for stock market updates and more.
