On May 15, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A.US) disclosed its US stock holdings as per the 13F filing deadline. The first full quarter under Greg Abel's leadership following his official succession from Warren Buffett saw a notably concentrated adjustment to the portfolio, a rarity in recent years. Abel's strategy was not a radical overhaul of the core holdings but rather a focused cleanup of smaller, peripheral positions while directing significant new capital towards Alphabet (GOOGL.US) and Delta Air Lines (DAL). While last quarter's focus was on Berkshire's purchase of The New York Times, this quarter presented several key developments.
First, Berkshire exited 16 stock positions entirely. The total number of holdings dropped from 42 to 29, marking the most aggressive single-quarter reduction in over a decade. The divested stocks included Visa (V.US), Mastercard (MA.US), Amazon.com (AMZN.US), and UnitedHealth (UNH.US). A Wall Street Journal report on April 17 cited sources indicating these sales were part of Abel's liquidation of a portfolio previously managed by Todd Combs.
Second, Berkshire re-entered the airline sector. The purchase of 39.81 million shares of Delta Air Lines, valued at $2.647 billion, represents a significant commitment. This marks Berkshire's return to airline stocks after a six-year hiatus. In April 2020, Buffett famously exited all "big four" airline holdings during the pandemic, stating "the world has changed for airlines." This move carries a sense of historical reversal. However, from a business structure perspective, this return to Delta may not be a simple negation of Buffett's 2020 assessment but rather appears to be the new management's re-evaluation of the restructured airline industry, particularly the Delta model.
Third, Berkshire made a substantial addition to its Alphabet position. In Q1, Berkshire increased its holdings of Alphabet Class A shares and initiated a position in Alphabet Class C shares, with the total estimated addition reaching approximately $11.5 billion. This was the largest purchase for the quarter by size. From its initial $4 billion position established in Q3 2025 to $16.6 billion by the end of Q1 2026, Alphabet rose from the 10th largest holding to the 7th largest in the US portfolio.
Fourth, core holdings remained completely unchanged. As noted in Abel's February shareholder letter, positions in Apple (AAPL.US), American Express (AXP.US), and Coca-Cola (KO.US) were untouched. In fact, seven of the top ten holdings saw no change in share count.
The overall portfolio value decreased from $274.2 billion at year-end to $263.1 billion at the end of March, a 4.04% decline. The top ten holdings constituted 90.72% of the 29-stock portfolio. While the turnover rate by number of stocks was 42.22%, the turnover by market value was only 5.82%, indicating that the activity was largely concentrated among smaller positions. Q1 saw $24.1 billion in stock sales and $15.9 billion in purchases, resulting in a net sale of $8.2 billion. This marks the 14th consecutive quarter of net equity sales for Berkshire, a trend spanning three and a half years across the leadership transition from Buffett to Abel.
However, Berkshire observer Kingswell, in a detailed analysis of the Q1 10-Q (noting that 13F reflects an end-of-quarter snapshot while the 10-Q's buy/sell figures represent overall equity security transaction cash flow), offered another perspective: the liquidation of the Combs portfolio likely accounted for the majority of Q1 sales. Excluding this one-time divestment, Abel's Q1 activity was closer to that of a net buyer.
**Alphabet: Rising from 10th to 7th Largest Holding** Berkshire first bought Alphabet in Q3 2025, acquiring approximately $4 billion worth, or 17.85 million Class A shares. During Alphabet's strong rally in Q4, Berkshire patiently held steady. In Q1 2026, Berkshire increased its Class A holdings by 36.40 million shares to 54.25 million shares (valued at $15.6 billion) and initiated a position of 3.59 million Class C shares (valued at ~$1 billion). The combined position of ~$16.6 billion (5.93% Class A, 0.39% Class C) rose from 10th place at year-end to 7th. By size, this was Berkshire's largest purchase of the quarter, over four times the size of the new Delta position ($2.647 billion).
Attributing this move solely to Berkshire "embracing the AI wave" underestimates the firm's value-investing foundation. Berkshire's exposure to the AI ecosystem is highly specific: Apple (21.99%) and Alphabet (5.93%). The former holds positions in end-user devices and software moats, while the latter is positioned in search advertising, cloud computing, and AI infrastructure investment, representing one of the few platform companies globally with both distribution channels and compute/model capabilities. Alphabet's full-year 2025 revenue surpassed $400 billion for the first time, with annual operating cash flow of $164.7 billion. This cash flow foundation aligns more closely with Berkshire's traditional investment language. At the May 2 shareholder meeting, Abel stated, "AI has to benefit our business. We're not doing AI for AI's sake. We will deploy it in a small, focused way that creates value."
**Delta Air Lines: A Six-Year "Boomerang"** The appearance of Delta Air Lines in Berkshire's Q1 holdings surprised the market. Berkshire initiated a position of 39.81 million shares, valued at $2.647 billion, representing 1.01% of the portfolio and approximately 6.1% of Delta's total shares.
This move carries a "historical boomerang" significance within Berkshire's own investment history. In May 2020, amid the pandemic, Buffett announced at the annual meeting the sale of all holdings in the "big four" airlines—American, Delta, Southwest, and United—with a combined book value over $4 billion, stating the world had changed for airlines. The roots trace back to 1989 with an unhappy experience investing in USAir preferred stock, leading Buffett to cite airlines as a cautionary tale in subsequent letters. His 2016 re-entry surprised the market, and the 2020 exit was widely seen as "the end of the airline story." When asked at that meeting if he regretted selling, Buffett said it was "the right decision at the time."
Now, Delta is back in the latest 13F. Examining Delta's stock price over the past six years adds context. Pre-pandemic in early 2020, Delta traded around $60. By early April 2020, when Buffett sold, it had fallen to around $22, nearly two-thirds off its high, and hit a pandemic low of $18-$20. Delta recovered艰难ly within a $20-$50 range, only surpassing $50 again in 2024. 2025 saw a strong rally, with a 61% gain over the past 12 months. On February 6, 2026, Delta hit an all-time intraday high of $76.39. Based on the Q1-end valuation, Berkshire's average cost for this Delta position is approximately $66.5 per share, notably higher than the price range during the April 2020 sale.
While this appears to be a "buyback at a higher price," it's important to note Delta's strategic shifts in recent years, strengthening premium cabin offerings, loyalty programs, co-branded credit cards (e.g., with American Express, generating $8.2 billion in 2025), cargo, and maintenance revenue streams. In Q4 2025, Delta's premium product ticket revenue surpassed main cabin revenue for the first time. In essence, Berkshire may be buying back a different airline than the one Buffett sold in 2020, which was heavily impacted by pandemic and oil price shocks.
**The 16 Exits: Abel's Portfolio Pruning** Berkshire's Q1 13F shows a reduction from 42 to 29 holdings, with 16 stocks completely exited across sectors: * Payments & Finance: Visa, Mastercard, Aon (AON) * Internet & Retail: Amazon.com * Healthcare: UnitedHealth * Beverages: Diageo (DEO) * Telecom & Media: Charter Communications (CHTR), Liberty Media Formula One (FWONA), Atlanta Braves Holdings (BATRA), Liberty Latin America (LILA), Lamar Advertising (LAMR) * Industrials & Materials: HEICO (HEI), Allegion (ALLE), Pool Corp (POOL)
As the April 17 Wall Street Journal report suggested, Abel sold a batch of stocks managed by former investment manager Todd Combs and does not plan to seek a replacement. Combs left Berkshire at the end of 2025 for a new strategic investment role at JPMorgan, formally ending the over-a-decade-long "dual portfolio manager" structure (Combs & Ted Weschler). Berkshire has never publicly disclosed which stocks each managed. Market consensus has long attributed Visa, Mastercard, Amazon.com, and UnitedHealth to Combs. A CNBC analysis on April 20 noted that Visa and Mastercard were major holdings for Combs at his former firm, Castle Point Capital, before joining Berkshire; Amazon.com was a position he led in establishing in 2019 and had already been reduced by nearly 80% in Q4 2025. All four were fully exited in Q1.
The other exited positions, including HEICO, Pool Corp, Aon, Allegion, Diageo, Charter, Liberty Media F1, Braves Holdings, Liberty Latin America, and Lamar Advertising, were not publicly attributed to a specific manager. Their commonality is their small size within the portfolio, each representing less than 1% of the portfolio's value over the past year.
Kingswell's May 11 analysis of the Q1 10-Q stated: "If recent media reports about Berkshire liquidating the portfolio left by Combs are accurate, that alone could explain the bulk of Q1 sales. Stripping out that one-time sale, Berkshire was actually a fairly significant net buyer in Q1."
Chevron (CVX) was reduced by 35.17%, from 130 million to 84.38 million shares. Like Bank of America (BAC, reduced by 0.71%), it is not part of the core list highlighted in Abel's shareholder letter.
**Core Holdings Untouched** The core US holdings highlighted in Abel's 2025 shareholder letter—Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody's (MCO), plus the five Japanese trading houses (Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo)—remained completely unchanged in the Q1 13F. Abel wrote, "A large portion of our portfolio is concentrated in a handful of American companies... These are businesses we understand well, think highly of their management, and expect to compound over decades. This concentrated approach will continue, with little movement in these holdings unless we see a fundamental change in their long-term economic prospects." He noted that these nine positions, including the Japanese trading houses, totaled over $200 billion, about two-thirds of Berkshire's equity portfolio.
At the May 2 shareholder meeting, the 95-year-old Buffett, seated in the audience for the first time, emotionally recounted the Apple investment story. "We spent about $35 billion buying Apple stock. We essentially gave that money to Apple's management to make Berkshire look good, without us having to do much. That's our favorite way to operate." Ten years later, including dividends, realized gains, and unrealized appreciation, that $35 billion pre-tax has grown to $185 billion. Buffett stated, "Now, our largest holding is still Apple."
Apple has announced Tim Cook will step down as CEO on September 1, succeeded by hardware engineering head John Ternus; Cook will remain on Apple's board. Coca-Cola has also completed its CEO transition, with Henrique Braun succeeding James Quincey. At the meeting, Abel said he plans to sit down with both incoming CEOs. "We know the quality of these companies," Abel said. "The boards are excellent, and they have undoubtedly thought deeply about selecting the right person. Time will tell. The fact is, we are excited about the incoming leaders and very supportive of what the previous two leaders did to make these companies great."
**Share Repurchases Restarted, Primarily on March 4** On the morning of March 5, Abel appeared on CNBC for his first television interview as CEO. Becky Quick's first question addressed Berkshire's start to 2026—the stock's flat performance over the past year, nearly $400 billion in cash, and market anticipation for action. Abel stated Berkshire had restarted share repurchases on March 3, ending a nearly two-year pause, coinciding with Berkshire's SEC filings (Form 4 and 8-K). He also disclosed he would use his entire 2026 after-tax salary to buy Berkshire stock, approximately $15.3 million. "First, it's crucial that everyone sees we are completely aligned with shareholders, partners, and owners," Abel said. "Second, as CEO, after taking over from Buffett, I completely believe in Berkshire. I inherited a company with an incredible foundation."
Berkshire's repurchase discipline, outlined in Abel's first letter, is to buy back shares only when the price is below a conservatively estimated intrinsic value. Q1 10-Q data shows repurchases of $235 million, with $225 million (about 97%) concentrated on a single day, March 4—the day after the restart. A point of curiosity is that repurchases largely halted afterward despite the stock price continuing to decline, with no activity in the first two weeks of April either.
**Buffett's "Small Purchase" in the 13F?** Buffett, who collaborated with Stephen Curry to revive the charity lunch auction (which concluded on May 14 for $9,000,100), was asked in a CNBC interview if he had made any new investments lately. "I made one very small purchase recently," he said, without specifying. A small clue may lie in the Q1 13F. The smallest new initiation was Macy's (M): 3.04 million shares, valued at $55 million, representing 0.02% of the portfolio—1/48th the size of the Delta initiation and less than 1/200th of the Alphabet addition. This tiny, traditionally retail-focused investment seems a plausible candidate. Additionally, Berkshire added about 10 million shares to its New York Times (NYT) position initiated in Q4 2025, bringing the holding value to over $1.2 billion, also characteristic of Buffett's style.
In the same interview, Buffett commented on Apple, "I sold too early." He suggested that if the price became sufficiently attractive, Berkshire could potentially make a major purchase of Apple again. "But the market isn't likely to give us that kind of opportunity right now."
Comments