It’s hard to call Warren Buffett anything other than the king of investing. The “Oracle of Omaha” company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B 0.27%) saw its actions exceed the S&P500 by more than 931% since 1998. Buffett and the late Charlie Munger achieved this epic run by focusing on quality and value. Here are three investment options from Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio that I believe are good long-term options for any investor.

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

Sometimes the simplest ways are the best. Everyone should have a S&P500-targeted index fund in their portfolio, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO 0.43%) fits the bill. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) like this one focuses on tracking the movements of the S&P 500. This Vanguard fund is a simple and easy way to get broader exposure to the market’s large-cap stocks.

By simply investing in the market through an instrument like this, investors have passively seen their stock prices almost double over the past five years. This is perhaps the simplest and most straightforward investment strategy available. Even the best hedge fund managers often struggle to outperform the S&P 500, and an ETF like this should be in every reasonable investor’s portfolio.

Moody’s

My thesis for Moody’s Corp. (AGC 0.51%) is simple. The bond ratings industry isn’t going away anytime soon, and Moody’s is pretty much at the top of the food chain. It’s outperformed the S&P 500 by 22% over the past five years, and by a much wider margin over the long term, which makes Moody’s just logical. The credit rating giant has had a strong 2024 so far, with revenue up 22% year-over-year and diluted earnings per share up 32% year-to-date. year until the third quarter.

For the full year, Moody’s expects diluted earnings of between $10.85 and $11.05 per share. Going on the conservative side of these forecasts, the stock is certainly a bit expensive, at over 40 times forward earnings, but when you have such a stable and integral business, it’s hard to overlook this stock.

American Express

American Express (AXP 0.97%) tends to offer a credit card for the high-income consumer. This means the business is likely to continue operating even as we see weaker consumption trends more generally.

Besides this niche advantage – but perhaps because of it – I like American Express for its strong annual growth rates and strong guidance for the remainder of 2024. It’s a stable stock. You may not see the wild performance of something like Nvidiabut it’s a company that has beaten the S&P 500 by nearly 28% over the past five years.

We’ve had three years of double-digit revenue growth, and that’s continued through 2024. The financial services company announced its 10th consecutive quarter of record revenue growth, hitting $16.6 billion in revenue in the third quarter, an increase of 8% year-on-year. year. Financial trends are so positive that American Express raised its full-year forecast to $13.75 to $14.05 in earnings per share, up from previous forecasts of $13.30 to $13.80. Conservatively, this would have the effect of trading the shares forward. multiple price/profit of just under 20 times the winnings. According to YCharts, that’s just a bit above the five-year average.

I think this is one to buy and hold. The use of credit is not a fad that is disappearing. This makes companies like American Express very attractive to long-term investors, and I suspect it’s also why Berkshire Hathaway has invested over $40 billion in them.