Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has more than tripled its money on 5 stocks in its portfolio. Here are its biggest winners.

• Warren Buffett highlighted five superb investments in his annual letter.
• Berkshire Hathaway owns stakes in Apple, Coca-Cola, BYD, Moody's, and American Express.
• Buffett's company has more than tripled its money on all five stocks.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

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Warren Buffett shone a spotlight on five of his best investments in his annual letter on Saturday.

The billionaire investor listed the 15 most valuable holdings in Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio as of December 31. A third of them have at least tripled in value since he bought them, and two are worth more than 20 times what he paid for them.

Moreover, the top five bets have ballooned in value by more than $170 billion in total. To keep things simple, we're only looking at the difference between Berkshire's stated cost base and market value for each investment, ignoring dividend payments and any changes to the size of the holdings.

Buffett's big five

Apple topped the list in terms of market value, given Berkshire's 5.4% stake in the iPhone maker was worth $120 billion at the end of 2020. Buffett and his team spent $31 billion to amass the stake, meaning they scored an almost 290% gain in less than five years.

Surprisingly, Berkshire notched its biggest percentage gain on Moody's. Buffett's conglomerate spent under $250 million for a 13% stake in the credit-ratings group. Those shares were worth $7.2 billion at the end of December - a 2,800% gain.

Berkshire's bet on BYD wasn't far behind. The conglomerate invested about $230 million for 8.2% of the Chinese electric-vehicle company in 2008. Its stake ballooned in value by 2,440% to $5.9 billion at the end of last year.

Buffett also racked up an almost 1,600% gain on his beloved Coca-Cola. The investor and his team spent $1.3 billion to secure a 9.3% stake in the beverage group, which was worth nearly $22 billion as of December.

Finally, Buffett's wager on American Express has also paid off handsomely. The Berkshire chief shelled out $1.3 billion for a nearly 19% stake in the financial-services group. The value of the position soared by about 1,300% to over $18 billion by the end of 2020.

Berkshire has also made a fortune on other stocks. For example, its Bank of America stake more than doubled in value to $31 billion, while its Charter position nearly quadrupled to north of $3.4 billion, Buffett's letter shows.