(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis about Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday night.)
Berkshire adds $17 billion in Alphabet stock in second quarter
About 60% of the 48.1 million shares added in the quarter were purchased directly by Berkshire from Alphabet in a $10 billion private placement sale announced by the companies in early June.
This suggests that Berkshire bought approximately $7 billion of Alphabet stock on the open market.
Alphabet is by far the biggest addition this quarter, but Berkshire also added significantly to its bet. delta airlinesits position increased by 44%, or approximately $1.6 billion.
The company’s 57.3 million shares are currently valued at $5.1 billion.
Delta Air Lines returned to Berkshire’s portfolio for the first time in the first quarter. The company and three other airline stocks were sold at a loss by Warren Buffett in the first quarter of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and air travel plummeted.
After years of unsuccessful airline investments, Buffett suggested in a letter to shareholders in 2007 that “if a visionary capitalist had been at Kitty Hawk, he would have shot down Orville and done his successors a huge favor.”
Other Berkshire Macy’s Its holdings increased by 142%, but due to its relatively small size, the increase was only about $100 million.
And in the same quarter, Berkshire announced it would acquire Taylor Morrison Home for $6.80, adding about $280 million to its stake in the homebuilder. lenner.
Still selling financial products
Berkshire has been selling financial assets in recent quarters, and that trend continues.
it cropped it Ally Financial Reduce stock by 7%, capital one Owned 58%.
bank of america Although it was a slight decrease of 5.9%, due to the size of the holding, the value of the stock decreased by approximately $1.7 billion, the largest decrease in the quarter.
Berkshire reduced its stake in BofA by 53% after eight consecutive quarters of sales.
The entire portfolio as of June 30th is as follows.
‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry’s big fears ‘come true’
Michael Burley isn’t happy with the way Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel pared down the company’s huge cash pile in the second quarter.
In a post on Substack on Sunday, Barry wrote of his “biggest concern” that Warren Buffett’s successor won’t have the legendary investor’s “patience for big pitches.”
Now, he writes, “I believe this fear has come true.”
As a result, he says, “Berkshire does not continue to be an attractive investment.”
Mr. Barry, whose bets on the housing market in the face of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis were immortalized in Michael Lewis’ 2010 book The Big Short and the 2015 film, acknowledged that “not a lot of that pile of cash is being spent,” and that the roughly $360 billion that remains is a lot of money.
But he is concerned that Abel’s “first steps seem more like a framework-building move than an investment.”
Burley clarified in the comment section that he is not advocating shorting Berkshire.
A key element of Mr. Buffett’s investment strategy over the years has been to develop enough discipline to wait for extremely lucrative opportunities, much like baseball legend Ted Williams waits for the “fat ball” that seems easy to hit.
But as Mr. Buffett told the New York Times in 2007, he could wait even longer than Mr. Williams.
“The good thing about investing is you don’t have to swing when you pitch. You can watch the pitch go above your belly button or an inch below, and you don’t even have to swing. The umpire doesn’t call it. You can wait for the pitch you want.”
In the “archive” clip below, Buffett and Charlie Munger discuss how they’ve been able to remain patient, unlike many professional money managers.
Stock prices fall despite resumption of share buybacks
Some Wall Street investors may share Berry’s concerns.
both class Berkshire shares fell more than 3% this week after the company’s second-quarter spending, which included its largest share buyback in two years.
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
Some links may require a subscription.
CNBC’s Buffett Archive Highlights
Berkshire’s discipline is similar to “Ted Williams waiting for a big pitch” (2003)
Charlie Munger: We have a simple, old-fashioned discipline that Warren likens to Ted Williams waiting for a fat pitch.
I don’t know about Warren, but if you said to me, “Charlie, you can get a job managing money just like anyone else, where you’re evaluated on metrics and a consultant selects a consultant who will vet you to a committee.”
I think that I am shackled. And the system itself was holding me back from providing value.
Warren, what do you think about that?
Warren Buffett: Yeah, we don’t.
Charlie Munger: — Chores?
Warren Buffett: — Try it. We don’t do that. Actually, we didn’t do that.
One of them is, you know, when we first formed the partnership on May 5, 1956, I distributed to the seven limited partners what I called the “ground rules.”
And, you know, I said, “Here’s what I can do, and here’s what I can’t do. And there are some things I don’t know if I can do, maybe.” It was pretty short.
But the idea of trying to do something you know you can’t do, that you know you can’t do, is bound to cause problems.
I mean, if someone tells me I have to do a seven-foot high jump, now I can go down to four feet—(laughter)—look, between now and sunset, if I don’t do that, I’m going to get shot, I’m going to go buy a bulletproof vest. (laughs)
Charlie Munger: Well, typical money management systems require people to pretend they can do things they can’t do, or pretend they like things when they really don’t.
I think that’s a terrible way to spend your life, but the pay is very good. (laughs)
berkshire stock watch
BRK.A stock price: $755,570.01
BRK.B stock price: $504.03
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 12.67
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,078,750,128,699
Berkshire Cash as of June 30: $365.5 billion (down 8.0% from March 31)
Excluding railroad cash and outstanding Treasury bills: $359.2 billion (down 3.8% from March 31)
Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its own stock in the second quarter of 2026.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise noted)
Berkshire’s Top Stock Holdings – August 14, 2026
Berkshire’s top U.S. and Japanese listed stocks by market capitalization, based on the latest closing prices.
Holdings are as of June 30, 2026, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s August 14, 2026 13F filing. However, the following cases are excluded.
A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Question or comment
If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)
If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet, you can sign up here.
I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.
— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor
