Berkshire pares financial holdings, exits Constellation Brands and Nucor
Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha, Neb.-based conglomerate that Warren Buffett ran for decades, filed its quarterly Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday afternoon. The filing reflects stockholdings as of June 30.
Berkshire added to its Alphabet position during the second quarter, bringing its total holding to roughly 106 million shares valued at approximately $38 billion. Alphabet is now one of Berkshire’s five largest stock investments, alongside American Express, Apple, Bank of America and Coca-Cola.
In June, Berkshire agreed to buy $10 billion in Alphabet stock after Alphabet said it planned to issue $80 billion in equity to fund investments in data centers and computing capacity needed to train and run AI models. In May, Chief Executive Greg Abel said at Berkshire’s annual meeting that some of the conglomerate’s subsidiaries, including BNSF Railway, were exploring opportunities to use AI.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Alphabet purchases help address a common question among Berkshire shareholders about whether Warren Buffett’s company would find a bigger way into the AI trade that has taken the markets by storm in recent years.
Berkshire opened a position in D.R. Horton, which it previously owned before shedding its holding completely last year, while adding to its stake in Lennar. The homebuilder additions follow Berkshire’s completion of a $6.8 billion purchase of Taylor Morrison in July.
Berkshire added to its positions in Macy’s and the New York Times during the quarter. The conglomerate pared its stakes in financial companies, including Bank of America, Capital One and Ally Financial. Berkshire also sold shares of steel manufacturer Nucor, Kroger and kidney-care company DaVita, and exited Constellation Brands.
Some analysts said they do not expect Berkshire to plow cash into stocks while the market is near a record high, and that the conglomerate’s roughly $4.5 billion in buybacks of its own shares during the second quarter is keeping shareholders satisfied for now.
“The jury is still out,” said Steven Check, president of Check Capital Management, which owns some Berkshire stock. “None of us want to see Greg spending the money for the sake of spending the money.”
Berkshire liquidated most of the roughly 15 positions during the first quarter that were managed by Todd Combs, an investment manager who decamped for JPMorgan Chase, Buffett told The Wall Street Journal in May. Buffett added that it is possible the conglomerate retained some of Combs’s stocks, and it is unclear whether Berkshire ended June with any of those holdings.
Institutional investors managing at least $100 million in U.S. stocks and certain other equities must disclose their holdings at the end of each quarter in Form 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 13Fs provide an outdated look at stock portfolios because investors have 45 days to submit the filings.
Berkshire Class A shares have gained 0.1% this year, short of the S&P 500 index’s 14% gain.