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Buffett, not Abel, appears to still be in control of stock decisions.
Warren Buffett and Greg Abel inspect Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.
David A. Grogen | CNBC
Andrew Barry of Barron’s argues that Abel has no involvement in stock calls, and that even at his 96th birthday, Warren Buffett “still likes to make big investment decisions involving Berkshire’s more than $350 billion stock portfolio and let Berkshire holders know he’s still in the game.”
Although Buffett speaks frequently with Abel and is careful not to do anything that the two don’t approve of, Buffett revealed in a CNBC interview last month that he had “started” investing in Berkshire’s Alphabet.
This stock first appeared in the portfolio in the third quarter of last year.
Bloomberg News reported that Berkshire’s purchase of $10 billion in Alphabet stock directly from the company in the second quarter came after Abel gave “expedited approval” to the deal in response to a “weekend confidential call” to Berkshire from Goldman Sachs, which is coordinating Alphabet’s huge stock offering.
Perhaps Mr. Buffett also gave the OK.
Barry believes this will be the second-largest purchase of the second quarter. delta airlinesby portfolio manager Ted Weschler.
He said Abel “has no formal portfolio management experience and does not appear to have made any notable stock-picking decisions,” while running many of Berkshire’s operating companies and finding new ones to acquire.
Mr. Abel has been spending some of Berkshire’s cash on the $6.8 billion acquisition of Taylor Morrison Home, which did not close until after the second quarter.
The race for third place in Berkshire’s portfolio is close.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Alphabet stake increased by about $17 billion in the second quarter, replacing Google’s parent company as the company’s third-largest holding in its stock portfolio. coca cola into that slot.
As of the end of the quarter, June 30, Alphabet stock had a market capitalization of $37.77 billion, $5.26 billion more than Coca-Cola’s $32.51 billion.
But since then, Alphabet stock has fallen 3.5%, while Coca-Cola has risen 12.1%.
As a result, as of the close of trading on Friday, the gap with Alphabet was just $20 million.
For two days, July 30th and August 20th, Coca-Cola narrowly outperformed Alphabet at the close.
Court of Appeals rejects real estate brokerage fee settlement proposal
A federal appeals court in St. Louis has upheld a 2024 settlement of an antitrust class action lawsuit against Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary HomeServices of America and the National Association of Realtors, Reuters reports.
HomeServices Inc. has agreed to pay $250 million of a more than $1 billion settlement to resolve claims that long-standing rules for splitting real estate commissions kept fees artificially high.
As part of the settlement, NAR agreed to revise these rules.
But some plaintiffs believe they went to court to block the deal because they made the change on short notice.
This week’s ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the lower court’s approval of the settlement.
A newly built single-family home with a for sale sign on August 20, 2026, in a small coastal development in Encinitas, California, USA.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Some opposition lawyers told Reuters they may ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the case. “Everyone got very little to settle down with. There’s something wrong there.”
The settlement comes after a jury trial in 2023 found the defendants liable for $1.78 billion in damages. Under U.S. antitrust laws, the award could have been tripled.
HomeServices CEO Chris Kelly reportedly said this week’s court victory brings “additional certainty” to the company, its agents and customers.
The unit’s parent company, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, still faces another proposed antitrust class action lawsuit over real estate commissions after a judge ruled last April that the company is ineligible for a settlement with HomeServices.
When BHE was targeted two years ago, a lawyer for the plaintiffs told the New York Times: “Berkshire Hathaway is the leader of the pack. It’s much bigger than NAR. If you want to change corporate America, you have to knock them down. And that’s exactly what they’re doing here.”
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
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CNBC’s Buffett Archive Highlights
“We look at what the market says is utility” (1994)
Audience: How do you consider the utility of a product when considering an acquisition?
Warren Buffett: Well, obviously we value what the market says is utility. And, just as an example, the market is voting very heavily for Dexter Shoe.
I don’t know how many pairs of shoes they produced around 1958, but every year people basically vote on the usefulness of the product.
Approximately 750 million 8-ounce servings of Coca-Cola’s various products are consumed around the world every day. And some believe that its usefulness is very high. I can’t get through the day without some. However, some people may have a different opinion.
But by nature, people are thirsty, and if this is a way to deal with thirst better than other methods, and if you prefer it to other methods, then I would appreciate the usefulness of this product. But I think it’s difficult to argue with the market about that.
So one might think that listening to a rock concert isn’t all that useful. Others may think it’s amazing.
Therefore, we conclude that: I don’t think any product that has been available to the public for a long time will come to the independent decision that it has some great utility but is never popularly supported.
berkshire stock watch
BRK.A stock price: $743,500.00
BRK.B stock price: $495.82
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 12.47
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,061,294,568,527
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 21, 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.)
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I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.
— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor
