Buffett Strikes? Berkshire Buys $16B in Alphabet in Q2, Shares Surge 80% to Become Third-Largest Holding

Investment giant Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A-US, BRK.B-US) has revealed in its latest 13-F filing that it substantially increased its stake in Alphabet (GOOGL-US) during the second quarter, while also adding positions in Delta Air Lines (DAL-US), Macy's (M-US), The New York Times (NYT-US), and Lennar (LEN.B-US).

According to The Barron's, Berkshire filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday (the 14th), disclosing that its holdings in Alphabet—including both voting and non-voting shares of the tech giant—increased by about 80% in the second quarter, reaching 106 million shares.

The增持 included shares purchased directly from Alphabet in June, as well as shares acquired through open-market purchases.

Berkshire’s current Alphabet stake is valued at approximately $36 billion, comparable in size to its holding in Coca-Cola (KO-US), and now ranks as the company’s third-largest stock position, behind only Apple (AAPL-US) and American Express (AXP-US).

Notably, Berkshire did not establish any new major stock positions in the second quarter, marking a rare three-month stretch without significant new investments.

On the other hand, Berkshire reduced its sizable stake in Bank of America (BAC-US) by 30 million shares, bringing its total holdings down to 483 million shares. The current market value of this stake stands at approximately $31 billion.

The amount spent by Berkshire on buying Alphabet shares in Q2 may have reached around $16 billion, accounting for the majority of the $23 billion in total stock investments disclosed in its Q2 10-Q financial report.

Delta Air Lines was Berkshire’s second-largest purchase target in the quarter, with its stake increasing by about 40% to 57 million shares. The current market value of this holding is approximately $5 billion. Barron’s estimates that Berkshire spent roughly $1.5 billion acquiring Delta shares during the quarter.

Additionally, Berkshire increased its stake in homebuilder Lennar by 3 million shares to 13 million shares; its stake in Macy's more than doubled to 7 million shares; and its holding in The New York Times rose slightly to 15.7 million shares.

Analysts believe that the decision to increase Alphabet holdings and reduce Bank of America exposure was likely led by Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffett. Smaller-scale portfolio adjustments, however, may have been managed by investment managers such as Ted Weschler.

Weschler currently oversees approximately $20 billion of Berkshire’s more than $350 billion stock portfolio.

Berkshire also reduced stakes in several other stocks during the second quarter, including Kroger (KR-US), First Citizens Financial (COF-US), Nucor (NUE-US), and Ally Financial (ALLY-US).

Specifically, its stake in Kroger decreased by about 20%, or 11 million shares, down to 39 million shares; First Citizens Financial was reduced by 4 million shares to 3 million shares; Nucor’s stake was cut by approximately 50%, down to 1.9 million shares; and Ally Financial saw a less than 10% reduction, bringing its holdings to 27 million shares.