4 Things Investors Should Do When Warren Buffett Steps Down
- - - 4 Things Investors Should Do When Warren Buffett Steps Down
Karen DoyleJuly 6, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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Legendary investor and "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett recently announced he will step down as CEO of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, at the end of 2025. Buffett has led the company for 60 years, guiding it from a struggling textile company to a huge — and hugely successful — conglomerate.
Buffett built his company by relentless adherence to some basic investing principles. When he steps down, investors should continue to abide by his wisdom.
Here are four things investors should continue to do when Warren Buffett steps down.
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Buy What You Know
Buffett is known for resisting the tendency to follow trends. For years, he didn't invest in tech stocks because he said he didn't understand them, although he has since bought Apple and other tech stocks. At the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in 2019, Buffett referred to his "circle of competence," and indicated that he primarily invested in companies within that hypothetical circle.
Investors can continue to benefit from this philosophy by buying stock in companies they understand. A good place to start is by buying the stock of companies whose products you personally use. If a company solves a problem in a unique way, fulfilling a need that may otherwise go unfulfilled, it can often be a good investment.
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Buy Good Companies at Good Prices
Buffett is a value investor, meaning he buys companies he feels are undervalued relative to others in their sector, and holds onto them until the market catches up. Finding a good company is fairly easy. You look for companies that are well-respected in the marketplace, that innovate and that are fair to their employees. But how do you know if a company's stock is available at a good price?
Value investors like Buffett look at a number of fundamental metrics to determine if a company is a good value, but one of the most important is the price to earnings ratio, often called the P/E ratio. This is the relationship between the price of the company's stock compared to its earnings per share over the past 12 months. It's the amount an investor will pay for a dollar of earnings. If a company's P/E ratio is low compared to its competitors, it may be a good value, since investors are paying higher prices for similar companies.
Buy and Hold
Buffett is famous for saying, "Our favorite holding period is forever." He will buy stocks and hold them for a long time, years or even decades. Analysts carefully watch which stocks he buys and which ones he sells as they know he is nothing if not patient.
Investors can follow Buffett's path by holding on to their investments despite ups and downs. As long as the trajectory is generally up, and the fundamentals remain strong, holding on is a good philosophy.
Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy, and Greedy When Others Are Fearful
Perhaps the most well-known of Buffett's truisms, his philosophy of buying when others are selling and selling or holding when others are buying may be one of his most effective tools. It may also be the hardest to follow.
Buffett has been a hugely successful investor by sticking with this philosophy, so it's hard to argue with its efficacy. But emotionally, it can be difficult to watch stocks drop and think of buying, or to hold your positions as they decline. It can also be difficult to refrain from buying when the market is on a tear. But Buffett's consistent success, decade after decade, is hard to argue with.
At year end, Buffett will hand the reins over to Greg Abel, the 62-year-old current vice chairman of non-insurance operations at Berkshire Hathaway. Abel follows Buffett's philosophy closely, and it's likely the company will continue to flourish under his leadership. By continuing to adhere to Buffett's principles, your portfolio may flourish too.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 4 Things Investors Should Do When Warren Buffett Steps Down
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