Berkshire's Q2 13F holdings adjustment: increased positions in Google and Delta Airlines, reduced positions in Bank of America for two consecutive quarters

Author: Wall Street Journal

After "stock god" Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO, Berkshire Hathaway's second 13F report was released.

According to documents disclosed on August 14, Eastern Time, as of the end of the second quarter, Berkshire's 13F stock portfolio had a market value of approximately $299.3 billion, an increase of 12.09% from about $263.1 billion at the end of the first quarter. Overall, Berkshire initiated a position in 1 new stock, increased its holdings in 7 stocks, reduced its holdings in 6 stocks, and completely exited 1 stock.

It can be seen that under the leadership of Greg Abel, Berkshire is continuing to increase its investments in areas such as Alphabet, housing, and aviation, while gradually reducing its positions in traditional finance and some consumer stocks.

If we combine the two classes of Alphabet shares, Berkshire's current top ten holdings are Apple, American Express, Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Swiss Re, Moody's, and Kraft Heinz.

Apple remains Berkshire's largest holding, with a market value of approximately $65.95 billion, accounting for 22% of the 13F stock portfolio's market value; American Express ranks second with a market value of approximately $51.28 billion, accounting for 17.14%; Alphabet, the parent company of Google, ranks third when combined; Coca-Cola and Bank of America are fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the second quarter of this year, Berkshire continued to significantly increase its stake in Alphabet. Berkshire added approximately 24.54 million shares of Google-A, an increase of 45.24%, bringing the total number of shares held to approximately 78.79 million, with a market value of about $28.16 billion; it also added approximately 23.60 million shares of Google-C, with an increase of 658.35%, bringing the total to approximately 27.19 million shares, with a market value of about $9.61 billion.

This resulted in a combined market value of approximately $37.76 billion for Google-A and Google-C at the end of the second quarter, accounting for about 12.62% of the 13F stock portfolio's market value, surpassing Coca-Cola, making it Berkshire's third-largest holding after Apple and American Express.

Additionally, among the top ten holdings, the only stock that was reduced was Bank of America, with a reduction of approximately 30.20 million shares during the quarter. Based on the end-of-quarter price, Berkshire reduced its holdings in Bank of America by about 30.23 million shares, a decrease of 5.89%, corresponding to a market value of approximately $1.72 billion. It became the largest reduction target for Berkshire during the quarter. At the end of the period, Berkshire still held 483 million shares of Bank of America, with a market value of approximately $27.54 billion, accounting for 9.2% of the 13F stock portfolio's market value, ranking as the fifth-largest holding. Bank of America remains an important investment for Berkshire, but it has been reduced for two consecutive quarters.

Aside from this, there were no changes in the holdings of other top ten stocks in Berkshire's portfolio during the second quarter.

In terms of other increased positions, in the second quarter of this year, Berkshire increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by approximately 17.51 million shares, an increase of about 44%, bringing the total number of shares held to 57.32 million, with a market value of approximately $5.37 billion; it also increased its holdings in Lennar Corporation Class A shares by about 3.01 million shares, an increase of nearly 30%, while also adding about 60,000 shares of Lennar Corporation Class B; it increased its stake in Macy's by approximately 4.31 million shares, an increase of 141.82%; and slightly increased its stake in The New York Times by about 550,000 shares.

The only new position established by Berkshire in the second quarter was in Horton Homes, with a small purchase of 3,564 shares, approximately $580,000.

In terms of reductions, aside from Bank of America, Berkshire also reduced its holdings in Ally Financial, Capital One, kidney dialysis service provider DaVita, grocery retailer Kroger, and steel manufacturer Nucor. The alcoholic beverage producer Constellation Brands was completely exited by Berkshire in the second quarter after a significant reduction in the first quarter.