One of Wall Street’s trillion-dollar companies, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA)(NYSE: BRKB), finds itself in uncharted territory. On Dec. 31, its longtime boss, billionaire Warren Buffett, retired as CEO and handed the baton to Greg Abel. Although the Oracle of Omaha remains chairman of the board, the company’s day-to-day operations and the oversight of its 48-stock investment portfolio fall to Abel.
Since Buffett and Abel share similar investment philosophies — a focus on the long-term and an insatiable desire to get a good deal — this leadership transition should be seamless.
Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Abel completed his first quarter as CEO by purchasing $234 million of Warren Buffett’s favorite stock.
Collectively, $78 billion has been spent to buy Buffett’s No. 1 stock
When investors want to keep tabs on which stocks Wall Street’s brightest money managers are buying and selling, they can reference Form 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is a required quarterly filing for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management.
However, not all of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment activity is reflected in its quarterly 13F. To get the complete story of what Buffett (and now Abel) has been up to, investors will need to peruse Berkshire’s quarterly operating results. On the final page before the executive certifications, investors can find a detailed purchasing history of Buffett’s No. 1 stock… shares of his own company, Berkshire Hathaway.
In March, Abel green-lit the repurchase of 33 Class A shares (BRKA) and 431,462 Class B shares (BRKB). The roughly $234 million spent on buybacks in March increased the aggregate total used to repurchase Berkshire Hathaway stock to $78 billion since mid-July 2018. It also marked the first buyback activity for Berkshire since May 2024.
The now-retired Oracle of Omaha and his understudy went 21 months without repurchasing a single share for one reason: valuation.
Although Buffett bent and broke some of his unwritten investing rules over six decades, he was unwavering when it came to value. Buffett’s and Abel’s willingness to wait for valuations to come into their wheelhouse is precisely why Berkshire’s cash balance (including U.S. Treasury bonds) reached an all-time high of $397 billion in the first quarter. Not even Buffett’s No. 1 stock is exempt from this desire to nab a bargain.
