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Berkshire nearly doubles its stake in struggling homebuilder
Berkshire Hathaway has nearly doubled its stake in Lennar, the nation’s second-largest home builder, since early July, increasing its bet on a long-term recovery in the struggling U.S. housing market.
A sign seen at The Collection at Morristown, a housing development by Lennar Corporation, in Morristown, New Jersey, USA, on November 13, 2021.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
As of late Friday, Berkshire reported holding approximately 25.4 million shares. Ren 549,000 more class B A total of 25.9 million super voting shares are now worth $2.1 billion.
This represents 10.9% of Lennar’s approximately 238 million outstanding shares in both classes.
This is also a 93% increase from the 13.4 million shares Berkshire held as of June 30, according to Berkshire’s second-quarter SEC 13F portfolio snapshot filed in mid-August.
Despite the large increase, it’s still a small-to-medium position by Berkshire standards, and appears to be the work of portfolio manager Ted Weschler.
For most stocks in the portfolio, we’ll have to wait until mid-November for the next 13F to find out whether Berkshire will be buying or selling during the third quarter, which ends this Wednesday.
However, in this case, Berkshire was required to promptly disclose that its stake reached 10% on September 21st, based on SEC rules that define holders of more than the trigger as “insiders” who may “change or influence the management or policies of the company.”
The rule also requires that additional transactions must be disclosed within two business days.
Berkshire reported Monday that it bought $212.4 million worth of Lennar stock between Sept. 17 and Sept. 21.
Separate filings after Friday’s closing bell revealed that an additional $136.4 million in purchases were made on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
LEN YTD Chart
Lennar stock rose as much as 6.8% in Tuesday trading after its initial filing the night before, and held on for most of it, rising 5.2% over four days.
Berkshire stock fell 9.2% by Friday’s close, making it a buy in the third quarter. It has fallen 20.1% since the beginning of the year.
Last week, Lennar’s quarterly profit fell short of Wall Street expectations, with sales down 8%.
The outlook for the current quarter was also disappointing, with the CEO telling analysts that home prices are falling, with 30-year mortgages at 7% and fewer qualified buyers.
CNBC.com quotes CFRA research analyst Kathy Seifert as saying this is a “classic Berkshire value play.”
He noted that Berkshire has a “pretty significant presence” in housing following CEO Greg Abel’s $6.8 billion acquisition of Taylor Morrison Homes announced in June. He plans to combine the business with Berkshire’s Clayton Homes.
Earlier this month, Abell told CNBC in an interview that he doesn’t expect an “immediate recovery” for U.S. homebuilders, but that he expects Taylor Morrison will be a “very strong force” in five to 10 years because “the American dream is here to stay.”
The company’s other home and home improvement subsidiaries include Shaw Industries, Johns Manville, and Benjamin Moore.
Construction workers work at the Lennar housing complex called Junipers on June 18, 2024 in San Diego, California.
Mike Blake | Reuters
In Barron’s, Andrew Barry suggested that Berkshire “maybe wants to buy all of Lennar,” potentially for about $25 billion, but against Chairman and CEO Stuart Miller’s 70% ownership of the company’s controlling Class B stock.
“Part of the problem may be that the Millers believe Lennar stock is undervalued, trading below book value at less than half of its 2024 high of about $200, and they may not be interested in selling it at a premium to its currently depressed price.”
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Before the parade, Gecko will headline a 10-week promotional tour that will stop in 12 cities from San Francisco to New York.
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
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berkshire stock watch
BRK.B vs SPX 1 year
BRK.A stock price: $758,505.68
BRK.B stock price: $505.48
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 12.71
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,082,225,722,347
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.
Berkshire’s Top Stock Holdings – September 25, 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
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to alex.crippen@cnbc.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
