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35% of Warren Buffett’s $309 Billion Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Is Invested in These 5 Financial Stocks. Here’s the Best of the Bunch for 2026. | The Motley Fool

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35% of Warren Buffett’s 9 Billion Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Is Invested in These 5 Financial Stocks. Here’s the Best of the Bunch for 2026. | The Motley Fool

All of these financial stocks should be great long-term picks, but one appears to be the best choice for 2026.

I still think of Berkshire Hathaway‘s (BRK.A 0.72%) (BRK.B 1.14%) portfolio as Warren Buffett’s portfolio. The legendary investor’s decision to pass the baton as CEO to Greg Abel hasn’t changed my view in the slightest. After all, Buffett is still Berkshire’s board chairman and its largest shareholder.

Even with Buffett no longer the official public face of Berkshire Hathaway, his fingerprints remain all over the conglomerate’s holdings. For example, a whopping 35% of Berkshire’s $309 billion portfolio is invested in five financial stocks that Buffett likes.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Berkshire’s top five financial stocks

It probably won’t come as a surprise that American Express (AXP 1.72%) ranks as Berkshire’s largest financial services holding, accounting for 17.3% of the company’s portfolio as of its latest 13-F filing. AmEx is one of Buffett’s longest-held positions. He included it among several stocks that he told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 2024 that he expected the conglomerate to “maintain indefinitely.”

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Sure, Buffett is not as big a fan of bank stocks as he once was. However, Bank of America (BAC 1.34%) is Berkshire’s second-largest financial stock position and third-largest holding overall. It comprises 9.6% of the company’s portfolio.

Bank of America Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-1.34%) $-0.70

Current Price

$51.74

Moody’s (MCO 1.26%) has two core businesses. It provides risk management services to institutional investors. The company is also one of the largest credit ratings agencies. I suspect that Buffett finds both units appealing. Moody’s ranks as Berkshire’s sixth-largest holding, accounting for 4.1% of its portfolio.

Chubb (CB +0.00%) is one of Buffett’s more significant new positions over the last couple of years. The “Oracle of Omaha” no doubt thoroughly understands Chubb’s property and casualty insurance business. Chubb is among Berkshire’s top 10 holdings and makes up 3.1% of its portfolio.

Visa (V 0.06%) is another financial stock that seems to be a logical fit for Buffett. The credit card processing giant accounts for roughly 0.9% of Berkshire’s portfolio.

How they compare

None of these stocks stands out as head and shoulders above the pack in performance over the last 12 months. American Express, Bank of America, and Chubb are running neck and neck.

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But while Visa has delivered the lowest gains over the last 12 months, it’s Wall Street’s favorite over the next 12 months. The consensus price target for the stock reflects a potential upside of over 20%. Bank of America doesn’t lag far behind Visa, though, with a price target that’s nearly 20% above its current share price.

Visa Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-0.06%) $-0.18

Current Price

$326.18

Bank of America is the clear winner when it comes to dividends. The company’s forward dividend yield of 2.1% is well above the yields of the other top four financial stocks in Berkshire’s portfolio.

What about valuation? Chubb comes out on top on one metric. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio is 11.3, below the 12.1 forward earnings multiple of second-place Bank of America. However, Bank of America is the winner on valuation with growth factored in. Its price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio, which includes analysts’ earnings growth projections over the next five years, is 1.0, well below the PEG ratios of the other four stocks.

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Chubb Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-0.00%) $-0.01

Current Price

$300.91

The best of the bunch for 2026

My view is that all of Berkshire’s top five financial stocks are solid long-term picks. I don’t think investors would go wrong buying any of them. But which is the best of the bunch for 2026?

Bank of America appears to be the most attractive overall. It ranked either first or second in each of the categories used to compare the five stocks. If the market declines significantly, though, Chubb would likely hold up better than BofA. Still, I’ll go with BofA as the best of these five Buffett stocks for the new year.

Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Keith Speights has positions in Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Moody’s, and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

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Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.

The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.

This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.

She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.

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Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.

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UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

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UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.

The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”

The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.

Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.

The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted.   Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.

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The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.

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Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

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Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.

The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.

The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.

Audit contract details

Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.

“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.

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Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.

“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.

New finance director position

The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.

“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.

Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.

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Closed session

The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.

Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.

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