🏆 What the best investors in the world own

40 Stocks you should know

Thanks to the internet, we have the opportunity to learn from the best investors in the world.

Are you looking for investment inspiration?

Here’s what the best investors in the world have in their portfolio today.

Source: CLSA

Warren Buffett

Does this man still need an introduction?

Since Warren Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, Berkshire compounded at roughly 20% per year.

This means an investment of $10.000 would be worth more than $800 million (!) today.

Top 5 positions of Berkshire Hathaway:

1. Apple (38.9%)

2. Bank of America (11.2%)

3. Chevron (9.8%)

4. Coca-Cola (8.5%)

5. American Express (7.5%)

Source: Genuine Impact

Terry Smith

Terry Smith is probably the best quality investor in the world.

Since Fundsmith launched in 2010, the fund compounded at a phenomenal CAGR of 15.6%.

Terry’s investment mantra is very simple:

1. Buy good companies

2. Don’t overpay

3. Do nothing.

Top 5 positions of Terry Smith:

1. Microsoft (8.9%)

2. Novo Nordisk (6.3%)

3. L’Oréal (5.8%)

4. Philip Morris (5.7%)

5. LVMH (5.1%)

Li Lu

Li Lu is often mentioned as the Chinese Warren Buffett.

Li Lu’s investment strategy is very straightforward: find undervalued securities and back up the truck.

Since 1998, Li Lu returned around 30% per year (!) to shareholders with his investment vehicle Himalaya Capital Management.

Charlie Munger (left) and Li Lu (right)

Top 5 positions of Li Lu in the United States:

1. Micron (29.8%)

2. Alphabet (25.6%)

3. Bank of America (25.1%)

4. Berkshire Hathaway (14.4%)

5. Apple (5.1%)

Bill Gates

Did you know that Bill Gates has his own investment foundation?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is the second largest charitable foundation in the world.

Over the past 10 years, Bill Gates’ foundation created 160% in shareholder value (CAGR of 10%).

Top 5 positions of Bill Gates:

1. Microsoft (26.4%)

2. Berkshire Hathaway (21.4%)

3. Canadian National Railway (18.3%)

4. Waste Management (15.5%)

5. Caterpillar (4.9%)

Howard Marks

Howard Marks is the founder of Oaktree Capital Management, the largest investor in distressed securities in the world.

The Memo by Howards Marks is a must read for every investor.

Warren Buffett mentioned multiple times that he drops everything he’s doing when Howard Marks publishes a new letter.

Top 5 positions of Howard Marks

1. Torm PLC (20.3%)

2. Chesapeake Energy (10.8%)

3. Vistra (7.8%)

4. Star Bulk Carriers (6.6%)

5. Sitio Royalties (4.9%)

Bill Ackman

Bill Ackman is an activist investor. His personal wealth is equal to roughly $3.3 billion.

Ackman looks for large companies with great potential, but with financial problems which he tries to solve.

Over the past 18 years, Ackman has generated a 17.1% annualized return compared to 10.2% for the S&P 500.

Top 5 positions of Bill Ackman:

1. Lowe’s (23.5%)

2. Restaurant Brands International (17.8%)

3. Chipotle (17.5%)

4. Hilton Worldwide (14.4%)

5. Howard Hughes Corp (13.8%)

AKO Capital

AKO Capital is run by Patrick Hargreaves and Torkell Eide, the authors of the excellent book Quality Investing (I can highly recommend this book).

With its funds, AKO Capital focuses on quality companies only.

Top 5 positions of AKO Capital

1. Booking Holdings (12.1%)

2. Accenture (8.3%)

3. Visa (7.5%)

4. Intercontinental Exchange (7.2%)

5. Alcon (6.2%)

Chuck Akre

Via its 3-legged stool, Chuck Akre wants to invest in compounding machines.

You can do this in 3 easy steps:

1. Buy quality businesses

2. With an integer management

3. And plenty of reinvestment opportunities

Since the start of Chuck’s fund in 2010, he returned 13.8% per year to shareholders.

Top 5 positions of Chuck Akre:

1. Mastercard (14.4%)

2. Moody’s (12.0%)

3. American Tower (10.8%)

4. Visa (8.4%)

5. Constellation Software (8.1%)

Quality matters

Most investors mentioned in this list were quality investors.

But does it help to focus on quality companies?

The answer is YES.

Since 2011, our investable universe (Compounding Quality) increased with 1100% (!) compared to 184% for the MSCI World.

Currently, we are not sharing our investable universe, but we might do in the future.

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About the author

Compounding Quality is a professional investor which manages a worldwide equity fund with more than $150 million in Assets Under Management. We have read over 500 investment books and spend more than 50 hours per week researching stocks.