Key Points
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Berkshire was a net buyer of stocks for the first time in more than three years, while it also bought back its own stock.
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Abel and company still have a lot of cash, and the stock is at one of its most attractive valuations in years.
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During his last few years at the helm of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB), Warren Buffett took a very conservative view of stocks. While he maintained that equities were still the best way to invest for the long term, he sold a lot more stocks than he bought, significantly cutting stakes in the company’s top holdings, including Apple and Bank of America.
Between late 2022 and the end of the first quarter of this year, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks for 14 straight quarters. At the same time, Berkshire also stopped buying back its own stock, doing no share repurchases for more than a year and a half, from June 2024 until March 2026. The combination of net stock sales, solid cash flow generation, and a lack of buybacks led Berkshire to accumulate a huge stockpile of cash near $400 billion at the end of Q1.
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Putting cash to work
However, with Buffett officially retiring at the end of 2025, new Chief Executive Officer Greg Abel has begun to deploy the company’s cash. He restarted the company’s buyback program in early March, repurchasing $235 million worth of shares in Q1. That continued in Q2, with $4.5 billion in share repurchases.
On top of that, for Q2, Berkshire was a net buyer of stocks for the first time in more than three years. The conglomerate made nearly $20 billion in net purchases in the quarter, headlined by a $10 billion private placement investment in Alphabet to help the cloud computing giant build out its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. While big tech investments haven’t been typical for Buffett, he has come out and said that Berkshire’s initial investment in the search behemoth in Q4 2025 was at his behest and in consultation with Abel. Alphabet is now one of Berkshire’s top five equity holdings, along with Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America.
During the quarter, the company also closed on its acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison. Berkshire has a pretty strong presence in the U.S, housing market, also owning manufactured-home builder Clayton Homes, several building products companies, and residential real estate brokerage franchise network Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. It was the first deal made under Abel, whom Buffett has praised for his deal-making skills.
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All these moves reduced Berkshire’s cash hoard from a record $497.4 billion at the end of Q1 to $365.5 billion at the end of June. However, it still gives Abel more than enough dry powder to continue to invest in equities, buy back Berkshire stocks, and make large deals.
Berkshire’s Q2 earnings report shows that the company’s operating earnings climbed 16%, from $11.2 billion a year ago to almost $13 billion. The growth was led by its manufacturing, service, and retailing segment, which saw growth soar 24% to $4.5 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, where profit surged 27% to $891 million . Profit at BNSF, its railway segment, meanwhile, rose 6% to $1.6 billion.
The company’s insurance segment saw some pressure, with underwriting profits sinking 13% from almost $2 billion a year earlier to $1.73 billion. Insurance investment income, meanwhile, fell by 9% to $3.06 billion. Berkshire’s insurance segment can be lumpy quarter to quarter depending on when claims come in, but its enormous float — money collected from policy holders before claims are paid — provides the company with a steady, zero-cost pool of capital to help fund its investment portfolio.
Is the stock a buy?
It’s good to see Berkshire finally using some of its cash instead of sitting on it. The stock dropped to one of its lowest price-to-tangible book value in several years, at 1.85, so the return of buybacks makes sense and isn’t just something Abel decided to do arbitrarily. At the same time, while the market has performed well, there are certainly some pockets where value can be found.
Given an improved valuation and Berkshire and Abel having plenty of cash for work with, now looks like a good time to buy the stock for the long haul.
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, American Express, Apple, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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