Bram Berkowitz, The Motley Fool

Sun, May 25, 2025, 12:47 PM5 min read

• Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has been generating market-beating returns for decades.

• Buffett is disciplined in how he invests, and he looks for companies built for the long haul.

• He also favors companies that have established strong competitive moats.

• 10 stocks we like better than Coca-Cola ›

Since taking control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, Warren Buffett has delivered incredible returns for its shareholders. He did that by acquiring a diverse group of strong businesses in the insurance, railroad, energy, and mortgage sectors, among others. Berkshire also owns and manages an equities portfolio through which Buffett and his team invest the firm's capital in a select group of stocks. Today, that portfolio alone is valued at more than $278 billion. Although the Oracle of Omaha is set to step down as Berkshire's CEO at the end of the year, there will always be some holdings in the portfolio that are true Buffett stocks, and these are two no-brainer Buffett stocks to buy right now.

Buffett is a disciplined investor: When he buys a stock, it happens after serious due diligence, and he prefers to hold those picks for the long haul. This means investing in companies that can navigate an entire business cycle -- the good and the bad. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) certainly falls into this category, and it's a stock that Berkshire has owned since 1988. It may not have the same upside as a high-flying artificial intelligence stock, but it will serve investors well in a tough environment.

This year, despite a difficult macroeconomic environment in which most segments of the market have struggled at one point or another, Coca-Cola is up by more than 15%. It's a leader among consumer staple stocks, which tend to fare well during recessionary environments because consumers use their products regularly in their daily lives, and generally won't stop buying them even if their finances are pinched.

Coca-Cola has also convinced investors that it can survive the effects of high tariffs. After delivering solid first-quarter earnings results, the company essentially reiterated its full-year guidance for 5% to 6% organic revenue growth. Coca-Cola is not immune from tariffs -- particularly the 25% tariff on aluminum. But it has flexibility because it can pass higher costs on to consumers to some degree, and could also shift more of its output to plastic packaging if aluminum prices stay high.

Coca-Cola also pays a dividend that, at current share prices, yields 2.8%, and it has raised that dividend annually for 63 straight years. The company expects to generate $9.5 billion of free cash flow this year, which will more than cover its projected dividend payments.