Warren Buffett's Holdings as on September 30, 2008

• American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) 151,610,700 shares
• Anheuser Busch Cos. Inc. (NYSE: BUD) taken to 13,845,000 shares, from under under 15 million last quarter and from over 35 million in March
• Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) 5,000,000 shares; DOWN from 9.1 million shares in June Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) 63,785,418 shares (although higher now)
• Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) 18,444,100; DOWN from 21.3 million shares in June
• Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) 200,000,000 shares (same)
• Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) 12 million shares (same)
• Comdisco Holdings (NASDAQ: CDCO) over 1.5 million shares
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) 59,688,000 in one unit, but about 83.9 million total; position was known about generally last quarter, but the size had been kept confidential.
• Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) 5.254 million shares (same)
• Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) 3.447 million shares (same)
• General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE) 7.777 million shares (same Sept., but now more)
• GlaxoSmithkline (NYSE: GSK) 1.51 million shares (same)
• Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) 3.7 Million shares; Down from 4,181,000 in June
• Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) 5,636,600 shares (same)
• Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) 3,372,200 shares (same)
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) listed as almost 62 million (roughly same)
• Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) about 148 million shares
• Lowes Companies (NYSE: LOW) 6.5 million shares; Down from 7 million in June
• M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) 6.71 million shares (same)
• Moody's (NYSE: MCO) 48 million shares (same)
• Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) 7.641 million shares (same)
• Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) 1.933 million shares (same)
• NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) 5,000,000 shares; UP from 3.238 million in June
• Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) more than 105.8 million shares (same)
• Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares (same)
• Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares (same)
• Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) 2.82 million
• US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) over 72.9 million; looks UP from June
• USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares (same)
• Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 8.9 million shares (same)
• United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares (same)
• WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares (same)
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares (looks same)
• Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares (same)
• Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) roughly 290.4 million shares (looks same, but likely larger now)
• Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 4.7773 million shares (same)
• Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares (same)

Source: http://www.247wallst.com/

What's Warren Buffett Betting On?

Warren Buffett the Oracle of Omaha bets on these companies even as the world reshapes amidst a severe economic crisis:

1. American Express

2. Bank of America

3. Carmax

4. Coca Cola

5. Conoco

6. GE

7. Goldman Sachs

8. Home Depot

9. Lowe's

10. Wal-Mart

What do Buffett and Jhunjhunwala have in common?

"Marching Behind" is a very common phenomenon in global markets, especially when the person leading the lot is a generally accepted expert in investing or has been tagged as a "Guru" for investments. The two best examples of such market drivers are Warren Bufett in the US and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala in India.

I am not at all trying to question the fact that these two are experts in their own environment. I very well acknowledge that they think unlike common investors and that's what sets them apart. Both of them have a lot of things in common. Amongst these are their knack of picking up value buys and having a contrarian approach to investing. Both value stocks based on operational cash flows and do not take net profits into account superficially.

Best of all, they both invest with an assumption that the stock markets might close tomorrow and not open for ten years. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala for instance, floats no more than 5% of his net worth for active trading at any given point of time.

There is so much these two have been teaching the world and so much more to come in days ahead...

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