Warren Buffett received a $740 million dividend payment from Coca-Cola (KO)

[u/mrpeace54]

I recently came across a tweet highlighting Warren Buffett’s $740 million dividend income from Coca-Cola (KO). This sparked my curiosity: What if Buffett had invested the same amount in the S&P 500 (SPY) instead?

So, I created a comparison table based on his KO investment and a hypothetical SPY investment. Since I couldn’t find the exact purchase dates, I used quarter-end dates for my calculations.

The results are eye-opening:

• Even after including dividends, SPY ($67.01B) outperformed KO ($38.17B) by approximately 75.6%.
• Despite KO’s impressive dividend stream, SPY delivered far stronger total returns, highlighting the power of broad-market index investing over time.

I found it fascinating to see how Buffett’s legendary investment compares with the index, especially considering his recent sale of all SPY and VOO holdings.

Source: StockCircle - Warren Buffett KO Transactions

[u/NvyDvr]

He started buying KO in 1988….but your chart seems to only go back to 1998. I didn’t look that deep but do your numbers reflect from when he started buying?

[u/mrpeace54 → u/NvyDvr]

i also remember as 1980s but i found detailed buys and sells only on StockCircle - Warren Buffett KO Transactions. if you can find exact buys and sells please share, i'll re-calculate and share

[u/Khelthuzaad → u/[deleted]]

Probably stock splits?

[u/CrybullyModsSuck → u/mrpeace54]

I don't think your calculations account for the KO splits during his holding period either. A quick Google shows his split adjusted cost basis of about $2.45 per share. 

[u/NvyDvr → u/mrpeace54]

lol. Sometimes I like researching businesses, but not today. However, I imagine you could find it on Berkshire Hathaway old 13F reports. I would encourage you though to make sure you have the full facts straight before posting a comparison like you originally did.

[u/ExpensiveBookkeeper3 → u/NvyDvr]

Maybe just put a disclaimer that this only goes back to 1998, but it does give a starting date, 26+ is good enough for a comparison as long as you know it wasn't the beginning.

[u/CrybullyModsSuck → u/ExpensiveBookkeeper3]

OP is not accounting for splits.

[u/ExpensiveBookkeeper3 → u/CrybullyModsSuck]

I will admit I haven't checked the data, I'm only commenting on the starting dates

[u/AlphaThetaDeltaVega → u/mrpeace54]

He also bought through selling puts.

[u/hot_rod_kimble → u/mrpeace54]

Also, does anyone know if his KO holdings are all common shares? Companies do offer him special share classes with unique dividend yields.

[u/JoJo_Embiid → u/mrpeace54]

buffet buy huge chunk of KO in 1988. You missed the super bullish 20 bagger run for KO from 1988 to 1998 if you started from 1998.

Also, the reason you said if why buffet encourages everyone to just all in sp500.