Investors with huge portfolios can afford to focus on a stock's valuation without thinking about the price of one share. Warren Buffett is in that group. After all, the portfolio he manages for Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on a cash position of $277 billion.
However, many investors have limited cash to put to work. Share prices matter to them quite a bit.
The good news is that there are plenty of great stocks to buy if you're on a budget. Several of them can be found in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Here are my picks for the best Buffett stocks to buy with $500 right now.
1. Amazon
Until a couple of years ago, buying only one share of Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN) would have been impossible for investors with only $500. However, the company's 20-for-1 stock split in June 2022 made it much more affordable. Today, you can get a share for around $188.
Most Americans probably know Amazon best for its e-commerce business. The company is the 800-pound gorilla in this market, delivering millions of products across the world every day.
I expect its e-commerce business to continue growing. However, it's not the main reason to buy the stock, in my opinion. That honor belongs to Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud services business.
AWS is already the market leader among cloud services providers. It contributed roughly 16.5% of Amazon's total net sales in the second quarter of 2024 and nearly 70% of its operating income. With the massive tailwind generated by artificial intelligence (AI), I think the shift of spending to the cloud will accelerate over the next decade.
2. Lennar
Homebuilder Lennar(NYSE: LEN) is only a tiny position in Berkshire Hathaway's massive portfolio. However, Buffett has wisely (in my view) held on to the stock. Lennar won't break your budget, either, with its share price of around $187.
Why buy Lennar stock? One reason is valuation (and I'm not talking about share price here). It trades at 12.8 times trailing-12-month earnings, which is well below the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF's earnings multiple of 18.2.
Another great reason, though, is its strong growth prospects. A June 2024 report from Zillow said that the U.S. needs another 4.5 million homes. As one of the largest homebuilders in the country, Lennar should profit by helping address this housing shortage.
Lower interest rates should also help Lennar. The Federal Reserve's rate cut will likely provide an incentive for more Americans to buy new homes.
3. Occidental Petroleum
Buying one share each of Amazon and Lennar would leave you with roughly $125 remaining from your initial $500. That's enough to pick up two shares of Occidental Petroleum(NYSE: OXY) at around $52 each and still have some money left over.
Occidental is without question one of Buffett's favorite stocks. How do we know this for sure? For one thing, he has been aggressively buying the oil stock since 2022. It now ranks as the sixth-largest position in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio. The legendary investor also wrote to Berkshire shareholders earlier this year that it is one of a handful of stocks he plans to own "indefinitely."
If you're the type of investor who likes to "bet on the jockey," you'll probably find Occidental attractive. Buffett praised the company's CEO, Vicki Hollub, in the Berkshire shareholder letter, saying that she knows "how to separate oil from rock, and that's an uncommon talent, valuable to her shareholders and to her country."
And that brings us to arguably the main reason to buy the stock: The demand for oil and gas isn't going away. In his latest letter to shareholders, Buffett applauded Occidental for its "leadership in carbon-capture initiatives." I think that these carbon-capture and storage initiatives could be a game changer for the company in the future.
Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?
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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keith Speights has positions in Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Lennar, and Zillow Group. The Motley Fool recommends Occidental Petroleum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
