By Andrew Bary
Berkshire Hathaway may be de-emphasizing its smaller stock picks under CEO Greg Abel and the selloff Monday in Domino's Pizza would support such a pullback.
Berkshire owned just under 10% of Domino's -- some 3.35 million shares -- at year-end. The stock fell nearly 9% Monday to $335.51 and hit a new 52-week low earlier in the session after the company reported results for the March that missed the consensus estimate on both revenue and earnings.
Berkshire bought most of its stake in late 2024 at what Barron's estimates is a price of between $400 and $450 and added to the holding in the fourth quarter of 2025. Berkshire likely is losing money on the stake, which is now worth about $1.1 billion.
Berkshire's equity portfolio totals about $300 billion and it includes large holdings like Apple (nearly $60 billion), American Express ($50 billion), Coca-Cola ($30 billion) and Moody's ($11 billion) that were assembled by Chairman Warren Buffett. These are what Barron's calls the "untouchables" -- stocks that are likely to be held for a long time.
There also are many smaller holdings, most of which likely were accumulated by Berkshire managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who together ran about 10% of the portfolio with Buffett handling the rest before Buffett stepped down as CEO at year-end 2025. These aren't forever stocks.
Combs left Berkshire for an investment role at JPMorgan Chase in December ahead of the CEO transition when Greg Abel succeeded Buffett, who remains chairman.
There are more than a dozen smaller holdings under $3 billion at Berkshire.
Domino's isn't the only loser among Berkshire's smaller investments under $3 billion. Others include Constellation Brands, Pool and Sirius XM Holdings, Barron's estimates.
What suggests that Abel may scale back the smaller purchases? He didn't replace Combs after he left for JP Morgan and liquidated the Combs holdings, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. The Combs holdings could have totaled nearly $15 billion.
Some of the smaller holdings aren't around any longer at Berkshire, but it's difficult to know which ones since Berkshire doesn't say which investments were made by either Combs or Weschler.
More should be known in mid May when Berkshire reports its individual U.S.-listed equity holdings in a quarterly 13-F report.
Another sign that Abel is reining in the smaller investments is that Weschler got little added authority this year. He's managing about 6% of the equity portfolio, up from about 5% when Buffett oversaw it. Buffett originally envisioned having Combs and Weschler run the entire portfolio under the supervision of his successor as CEO. Abel now oversees all but the small portion run by Weschler.
Buffett hasn't commented on Combs and Weschler's investment performance since 2019, when he said both were slightly behind the S&P 500 index since joining Berkshire about 15 years ago. That has led to speculation that their portfolios were behind the S&P 500.
Abel wrote in his annual shareholder letter in late February that "equity investments are fundamental to our capital allocation activities" and that responsibility ultimately resides with him. Abel also wrote that Berkshire is unlikely to touch some of its larger holdings like Apple, American Express and Coke.
Berkshire owns about $2 billion of liquor maker Constellation Brands, a 7% stake. It bought that interest in recent years at what Barron's estimates is a price around $175 a share. The stock is now at $155.
Pool, a provider of pool supplies, is another loser. Berkshire's 8% stake was largely purchased in 2025 at what we estimate is about $350 a share and it now trades at $225. Domino's, Constellation and Pool are former favorites of growth-stock investors, but their growth has slowed.
Sirius XM Holdings, the satellite radio company, probably is down 50% or more from Berkshire's cost. It now holds just over $3 billion of the stock, a 37% stake.
Other smaller Berkshire investments like Kroger and Aon are higher, but likely are behind the S&P 500 since they were purchased.
Berkshire has a winner in its new holding in the New York Times, initiated in the fourth quarter of 2025, but it's not material given that the holding totals just $400 million.
Berkshire's investment in Alphabet also has scored. That holding of about 18 million shares probably is up 50% to more than $6 billion since it was taken in the third quarter of last year. It's not clear if that was a Buffett investment or one by Weschler or Combs. Visa and Mastercard stocks are longtime winners for Berkshire and both likely were held by Weschler or Combs.
Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2026 18:08 ET (22:08 GMT)
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