Berkshire’s New CEO Made Changes To Equity Holdings In Q1

Catenaa, Saturday, May 16, 2026- Berkshire Hathaway’s equity portfolio got one of its biggest renovations ever during Greg Abel’s first three months as the company’s CEO, according to a new SEC filing.

Two new names, Delta Air Lines and Macy’s, have been added to the list, along with increases for four holdings.

Google’s parent, Alphabet, got the biggest boost as Berkshire increased its shareholding by 224% in the first quarter.

Given its size, the increase is almost certainly an Abel move that was either endorsed or possibly even suggested by Warren Buffett. 

With a market value of $16.6 billion as of the end of the first quarter, the Google parent is Berkshire’s seventh-largest equity holding.

At least for the short term, the decision to buy so many shares has been a spectacular success.

The stock has seen a 38% rally since the end of the first quarter, just over six weeks ago.

As previewed by The Wall Street Journal last month, it appears Abel did sell many or all of the stocks that had been handled by portfolio manager Todd Combs, who moved to JPMorgan in early December.

Abel, or Ted Weschler, the portfolio manager still with Berkshire, probably sold some non-Todd stocks as well, but the company generally does not publicly identify who is responsible for individual names, so we don’t know for sure.

Some of the holdings eliminated in the first quarter include Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth, Domino’s Pizza, Amazon, and Atlanta Braves Holdings.

The 2.3 million Amazon shares sold in the first quarter were all that remained after Berkshire sold 7.7 million of its 10 million share stake in the fourth quarter.

Constellation Brands, which has been associated with Combs, was all but eliminated with a cut of 95%.

Bank of America and Apple, which have been substantially reduced in previous quarters, were spared.

BofA was trimmed by less than 1%, and Apple’s position was unchanged.

Measured by market value, Chevron was the first quarter’s largest reduction. 

The shares in the 35% cut were valued at more than $8 billion as of the end of the first quarter. The remaining stake was worth more than $17 billion at the time. Especially given its large size, it is not thought to be a Combs stock.

The stock was rising in the first quarter as Berkshire was selling, but it has dropped by 7.6% since the end of Q1. It is still up 25.4% year-to-date amid elevated oil prices due to the Iran war.