Berkshire Hathaway buys big Alphabet stake and reduces Apple holdings

Post by : Saif

Berkshire Hathaway has made a major change to its investment portfolio. The company revealed that it has bought a new $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, while cutting more of its long-held shares in Apple. This marks an important moment because it is the final portfolio update before Warren Buffett ends his 60-year leadership as CEO.

According to a filing submitted on Friday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Berkshire owned 17.85 million Alphabet shares at the end of September. This new investment is now the company’s tenth-largest stock holding in the United States.

At the same time, Berkshire reduced its Apple stake from 280 million shares to 238.2 million shares in the third quarter. Over the years, Berkshire once owned more than 900 million Apple shares, but has now sold almost three-quarters of them. Even after the sales, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest single stock holding, valued at $60.7 billion.

Berkshire’s full list of U.S.-listed stocks made up most of its $283.2 billion equity portfolio as of September 30.

The Alphabet purchase has surprised many market watchers. Warren Buffett is known for being a value investor who prefers simple, non-tech companies with steady earnings. For many years, Buffett avoided big technology firms, even though he later made a huge and successful exception with Apple. However, he still considers Apple to be more of a consumer electronics company rather than a traditional tech stock.

It is not clear who exactly made the Alphabet trade. Berkshire has three major decision-makers for stock investments—Buffett himself, portfolio manager Todd Combs, and portfolio manager Ted Weschler. Greg Abel, who will soon take over as CEO, may also have been involved. Usually, Buffett handles the very large investments, but the filing does not say who chose this one.

Buffett and his longtime partner, the late Charlie Munger, have openly said that they regret not buying Google many years earlier. During Berkshire’s 2019 annual meeting, both leaders admitted missing the opportunity. Munger said, “We screwed up,” and Buffett added that they “blew it.” Buffett has long praised Google’s advertising business, which reminded him of how strongly Geico—Berkshire’s car insurance company—benefited from online marketing.

After the news of Berkshire’s new Alphabet stake became public, Alphabet shares went up 1.7% in after-hours trading. Investors often react this way because a stake from Berkshire is seen as a strong vote of confidence.

This portfolio report marks the end of an era. Warren Buffett will soon hand over the CEO role to Greg Abel, making this disclosure the final one under Buffett’s name. The choices shown in this filing could also hint at the direction Berkshire may take in the years ahead—balancing classic value investing with selective interest in powerful tech companies.

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