The first quarterly portfolio report for Berkshire Hathaway in the "post-Buffett era" has been released. On May 15 local time, Berkshire Hathaway filed its 13F form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, detailing its holdings as of the end of the first quarter. This marks the first 13F filing since Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO of the company.
The holdings report reveals that during the first quarter, Berkshire invested approximately $2.65 billion to establish a new position in Delta Air Lines. It also increased its stake in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, while completely exiting positions in Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, and several other consumer and fintech stocks.
As of the end of the first quarter, Berkshire's overall portfolio value stood at $263 billion, a decrease from the previous quarter's $274 billion. The concentration of its top ten holdings rose further to 90.72%. The top ten holdings are: Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Alphabet, Chubb, Moody's, and Kraft Heinz.
Overall, in the first quarter, Berkshire initiated three new positions, increased holdings in four stocks, completely exited 16 positions, and reduced holdings in six stocks. The total number of holdings dropped from 42 to 29, indicating a significant portfolio adjustment.
Among the top ten holdings, Berkshire only increased its stake in Alphabet. It added over 36.4 million shares of Alphabet Class A stock, representing an increase of approximately 204% compared to the end of the fourth quarter. The position's value grew to $15.6 billion, elevating its rank within Berkshire's main holdings from tenth to seventh. Furthermore, Berkshire initiated a new position in Google's Class C shares, with a quarter-end value of $1 billion, bringing its total Google-related holdings to $16.6 billion.
At the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders' meeting held in early May, Greg Abel, who succeeded Buffett as CEO, mentioned that some subsidiaries, including BNSF Railway, are exploring opportunities related to artificial intelligence applications. Alphabet has been one of the few large technology companies that Berkshire has consistently added to its portfolio over recent quarters.
Interestingly, while Berkshire was significantly increasing its stake in Google, two major domestic investment firms, HHLR Advisors (affiliated with Hillhouse) and Gao Yi Capital, reduced their positions in Google to varying degrees during the first quarter.
Apart from initiating the Google Class C position, Berkshire only established two other new positions in the first quarter: Delta Air Lines and Macy's.
Notably, Berkshire initiated a position of approximately 39.8 million shares in Delta Air Lines, with a market value nearing $2.65 billion, making it Berkshire's 14th largest holding. This marks Berkshire's first major bet on an airline stock since Buffett exited positions in Delta, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines during the pandemic in 2020. This move is seen as a signal that management is turning optimistic again regarding U.S. consumer and business travel, as well as corporate profit prospects.
On the reduction side, Berkshire trimmed its holdings in several financial and energy stocks during the quarter.
Among the top ten holdings, Berkshire significantly reduced its positions in Chevron and Bank of America. It sold 45.78 million shares of Chevron, a 35% reduction worth about $2.4 billion, leaving a quarter-end holding value of $17.457 billion. It also sold 3.67 million shares of Bank of America, with a quarter-end holding value of $25 billion. The Chevron reduction represented the largest single transaction by value in this report. Chevron's stock price reached a historical high in March amid U.S.-Iran tensions and surging oil prices. Berkshire initially purchased Chevron around $65 per share in 2020 and partially reduced it in 2021. Around the time of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, it significantly increased its position again at an average price of $124.
Additionally, Berkshire reduced its holdings in companies such as DeVito, Constellation Brands, and Nucor.
Furthermore, Berkshire completely exited its positions in 16 companies during the quarter. Among these, it sold off its entire 2.276 million-share position in Amazon, which Berkshire had held for approximately seven years. Berkshire first bought Amazon in the second quarter of 2019. At that time, Buffett admitted that his long-standing caution toward tech stocks and not buying Amazon earlier was "foolish." In the fourth quarter of last year, Amazon was already the stock Berkshire reduced the most, with its share count falling by over 77% quarter-over-quarter.
Moreover, Berkshire also exited its positions in Visa and Mastercard. It sold its entire 8.3 million-share position in Visa, valued at approximately $2.91 billion, and its Mastercard position worth about $2.28 billion.
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