Are Billionaire Investor Warren Buffett’s Top 5 Stock Picks a Buy in August?

Quick Read

• CVX trades at a 13 forward P/E with 16% analyst upside, while BAC posted 34% EPS growth year over year and carries zero sell ratings.

• AXP is Buffett’s lone top-five holding in the red this year, yet Q1 delivered 18% EPS growth with management reaffirming full-year double-digit guidance.

• AAPL trades above its analyst consensus target of $316 after surging 59% in a year, making it a Hold until a pullback near $302.

• Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Warren Buffett’s latest 13F filing, disclosing holdings as of March 31, and filed May 15, still concentrates Berkshire Hathaway’s public-equity firepower in just five names. Every one of them has moved this year, and the gap between what Buffett paid and where these tickers trade in July 2026 is the entire question. Skip this read and you are guessing at what the world’s most famous allocator is quietly compounding into. Here is the buy/hold/sell tape on all five, ranked for pacing, not size.

1. Chevron (The Surprise at the Top of the Line of Fire)

Start with the name most retail investors forget is even in the portfolio. Chevron(NYSE:CVX) is Buffett’s energy anchor, and it just delivered the kind of quarter that vindicates a contrarian oil bet: an adjusted EPS blowout against a headline revenue miss, masking the fact that production is ripping higher post-Hess.

In Q1 2026, Chevron posted adjusted EPS of $1.41 versus the expected 97 cents, a 45.56% beat, on worldwide production of 3,858 MBOED, up 15%, with U.S. output above 2 million barrels per day for the third straight quarter. Analysts have not chased the move: consensus target sits at $213.91 against a share price of $195.19 on Aug. 3, and the stock is already up more than 25% year to date.

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Read: Buy. A 3.65% dividend yield, a 13 forward P/E and 18 Buy or Strong Buy ratings versus one Sell rating makes this the cheapest conviction pick on Buffett’s sheet. The obvious heavyweight is next.

2. Apple (The Position That Bankrolled the Berkshire Decade)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains the largest common-stock holding on the 13F, and the tape has finally caught up to the thesis Buffett locked in years ago. The iPhone 17 supercycle plus Services at record levels has re-rated the multiple hard.

Q2 2026 landed at revenue of $111.18 billion, up 16.6% year over year, with EPS of $2.01 beating the $1.94 estimate by 3.61%, powered by iPhone revenue of $56.99 billion and Services at a record $30.98 billion. The board reloaded with a fresh $100 billion buyback authorization and a 4% dividend hike to 27 cents per share. Shares have surged more than 50% over the past year to $305.24 on Aug. 3.

Read: Hold. The fundamentals are pristine, but with the analyst consensus target at $315.79, the stock is trading above the Street. Buffett has been trimming for a reason. Fresh money buyers should wait for a pullback toward the 50-day moving average of $301.66. Next up: the bank that just posted one of its cleanest quarters in years.

3. Bank of America (The Rate-Cycle Beneficiary Buffett Won’t Fully Let Go)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has been the subject of endless “is Buffett selling?” chatter, yet it remains a top-five 13F position, and Q2 2026 explained why he is holding the core.

The bank delivered Q2 2026 revenue of $31.56 billion beating by 2.55% and EPS of $1.21 versus $1.12 estimated, a 7.74% beat, with EPS up 34% year over year. Global Markets revenue jumped 34% to $8.02 billion, equities sales and trading rocketed 70% to $3.62 billion, and investment banking fees rose 50% to $2.14 billion. Credit stayed pristine: net charge-off ratio improved to 0.47% from 0.55%, and the bank returned $8 billion to shareholders in the quarter. CEO Brian Moynihan called it “one of our strongest quarters to date”.

Read: Buy. At a 14 trailing P/E and 1.565 price-to-book, with the Street target at $67.26 against an Aug. 3 share price around $62.07 and zero Sell ratings on 24 analysts, BAC is the cleanest risk/reward in the megabank complex. The next name is quieter, more defensive, and just went ex-CEO.

4. Coca-Cola (The Dividend Fortress in a Leadership Transition)

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is the position Buffett has famously never sold a share of, and Q1 2026 explained the loyalty: pricing power intact, volumes accelerating in emerging markets, and margins expanding under new CEO Henrique Braun.

Q1 2026 delivered revenue of $12.47 billion, up 12.1% year over year, beating by 1.97%, with EPS of 86 cents versus the expected 81 cents, a 5.87% beat. Underneath: organic revenue growth of 10%, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume up 13% across all segments and operating margin expanded to 35% from 32.9%. Full-year guidance calls for organic revenue growth of 4% to 5% and comparable EPS growth of 8% to 9% off the 2025 base of $3, with roughly $12.2 billion in free cash flow.

Read: Hold, buying dips. At a 27 trailing P/E with a 2.44% dividend yield, KO is not cheap after ripping nearly 26% year to date, but the analyst target of $87.10 leaves upside from the $86.84 share price on Aug. 3. But the stock has pulled back around 3% since July 29, providing the exact window income buyers wait for. Now comes the payoff.

5. American Express (The Longest Conviction Trade in the Book)

American Express (NYSE:AXP) is the punchline. Buffett has owned it since the 1963 Salad Oil Scandal, and it is the only top-five holding sitting in the red year to date, which is precisely why it belongs at the top of the shopping list right now.

Q1 2026 delivered revenue of $18.91 billion beating by 1.61%, EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 expected, a 7.24% beat, and net income of $2.97 billion, up 15%. Billed business hit $428 billion, up 10% from $387.4 billion, with Card Member spending growing 9% FX-adjusted, the highest quarterly growth in three years. Management reaffirmed FY 2026 guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30–$17.90, and CEO Stephen Squeri called it a “very strong start to the year…10 percent FX-adjusted revenue growth and 18 percent EPS growth.”

Read: Buy. AXP trades at a 22 trailing P/E and just 20 forward earnings, is down 8.09% year to date to $342.57 on Aug.3, and the stock carries an analyst target of $374.94. Every prior time Buffett’s oldest conviction pick has stalled while its fundamentals accelerated, the reversion has been sharp. This is the setup.

The Threads Pulled Together

Two clear buys (CVX and BAC), one high-conviction laggard payoff (AXP) and two holds where fundamentals are pristine but valuations are ahead of themselves (AAPL and KO). The pattern in Buffett’s own trading, trimming Apple, holding banks, adding energy, points to the same conclusion: The money in the 13F is rotating toward the names that have not run yet. The window on AXP and CVX narrows every session the rest of the market keeps grinding higher.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

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