Berkshire Hathaway has disclosed its latest share portfolio ahead of Warren Buffett’s departure as CEO after 60 years of leadership. Documents released on Friday reveal that the company made a $4.3 billion investment in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, while further reducing its stake in Apple.
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as of September 30, Berkshire holds 17.85 million Alphabet shares, making Alphabet one of the company’s ten largest stock holdings. At the same time, Berkshire cut its Apple holdings from 280 million shares to 238.2 million shares in the third quarter. Although the company has sold nearly two-thirds of the more than 900 million Apple shares it once owned, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest stock position, valued at $60.7 billion.
The move into Alphabet surprised some observers, given Buffett’s usual value-investing approach and his historical avoidance of tech stocks (he had previously described Apple more as a consumer products company than a tech firm). Interestingly, in Berkshire’s 2019 annual shareholder meeting, both Buffett and his late partner Charlie Munger expressed regret at not investing in Google earlier.
Overall, Berkshire purchased $6.4 billion worth of stock and sold $12.5 billion during the July–September period, marking the company’s 12th consecutive quarter of net stock sales. Amid these sales, Berkshire’s cash reserves reached a record $381.7 billion. Other portfolio changes included selling 6% of its Bank of America shares, exiting DR Horton entirely, and increasing stakes in Chubb Insurance and Domino’s Pizza.
Buffett is set to hand over the management of the $1.1 trillion conglomerate to Greg Abel on January 1. Analysts note that Berkshire’s growing cash reserves reflect a cautious stance amid high company valuations.
