Warren Buffett has reduced Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in short-term Treasury bills by tens of billions of dollars and is doubling down on one broadcasting company’s stock.

New SEC filings show Buffett’s short-term Treasury bill holdings declined by $42.867 billion at the close of the second quarter of the year when compared to December 2024, with total holdings of T-bills now at $243.605 billion.

Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway purchased 5,030,425 more shares of Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) last month at around $21 per share, bringing its total holdings of SIRI to 124,807,117 shares.

SIRI is trading for $20.97 per share at the close of the market on Wednesday.

Also last month, Berkshire Hathaway dumped nearly $1.23 billion worth of shares in the domain name giant Verisign.

Verisign announced the Omaha-based investment giant would sell 4,300,000 shares of the company’s common stock to the public for $285 per share. The sell-off materialized after Buffett’s firm acquired multiple new stocks in the first quarter of 2025.

Filings with the SEC earlier this year showed Berkshire added 865,311 shares of the swimming pool supply giant POOLCORP (POOL) for nearly $262 million in Q1. The firm purchased an additional 6,384,676 shares of the alcohol producer Constellation Brands (STZ) for nearly $961 million and it acquired 238,613 new shares of Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) worth approximately $204 million.

Berkshire also bought 112,401 new shares of Heico Corporation (HEI), an aerospace and electronics firm, worth nearly $50 million in Q1.

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Two stocks purchased by investment legend Warren Buffett’s firm in the first quarter of the year have witnessed significant gains in 2025.

Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year indicate Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought 238,613 new shares of Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) in Q1, worth approximately $204 million.

The Omaha-based holding company also bought 112,401 new shares of Heico Corporation (HEI), an aerospace and electronics firm. Those new shares were worth nearly $50 million in Q1.

Domino’s stock is up more than 2.5% in the past five days, more than 4% in the past month and more than 13.5% year-to-date. Heico’s stock is up more than 35% in 2025.

Berkshire Hathaway added shares in both firms while hawking $3.23 billion worth of stock in the financial giants Citigroup, Bank of America and Capital One in Q1.

Buffett’s firm completely exited Citigroup in the first quarter, unloading its remaining 14,639,502 shares worth about $1 billion.

Berkshire sold an additional 48.7 million Bank of America shares in Q1, worth about $2.19 billion, and 300,000 shares in Capital One exposure, worth more than $46 million.

Buffett’s firm also sold all of its remaining 40,180,168 shares of the Brazilian fintech Nu Holdings, which were worth more than $416 million.

Beyond banking, Berkshire also reduced positions in Charter Communications, DaVita, T-Mobile and Liberty Media’s Formula One stock.

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Warren Buffett surprised Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.36%) (BRK.B -0.37%) shareholders earlier this month when he announced at Berkshire’s annual meeting that he would be stepping down as CEO once the year ended. Buffett has run Berkshire for about six decades and made many shareholders rich in the process, with Berkshire’s stock generating incredible returns.

Now, the Oracle of Omaha will pass the baton to Berkshire’s vice chair, Greg Abel. Buffett had previously announced that Abel would take over as CEO once he stepped down, although the timeline hadn’t been clear until recently. With Berkshire’s massive $350 billion hoard of cash, Abel is taking over Berkshire at a time when the company has a fortress balance sheet and a war chest ready for any opportunities that should arise. Here are some moves Abel might make once he officially becomes CEO.

What will he buy?

Many have speculated that Buffett was stockpiling cash in preparation to hand the reins over to his successor. Buffett has, of course, denied this. While Abel and the rest of the team at Berkshire are more than capable of carrying the torch, it’s still a big change, given that Buffett is arguably the greatest investor of all time and that investors viewed his role as CEO — even at the age of 94 — as a port in the barrage of storms that have become common in the market since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Image source: Motley Fool.

It would be surprising to see Berkshire continue building cash at this pace forever, and Buffett himself has said the Berkshire team would always prefer to put its money to work in productive businesses. However, one problem for Berkshire is that its success has swollen its size. The market cap of the company has surpassed $1 trillion, and Berkshire’s equity portfolio has surpassed $300 billion on numerous occasions in the past. That makes buying positions in stocks difficult because Berkshire likes to maintain less than a 10% ownership in companies when possible, and it makes many companies too small to move the needle.

One thing we have seen Berkshire do is continually increase its stake in many of its existing holdings. Berkshire isn’t afraid to go big like it did when it took Apple to 40% of its total portfolio. I think this trend may continue. Abel has been running Berkshire Hathaway Energy for some time, and it’s clear that Berkshire’s team of investing lieutenants think that domestic energy and oil producers are going to continue to be incredibly valuable. This makes me wonder if Berkshire will one day purchase Occidental Petroleum outright. The company already owns 28% of outstanding shares, and many of Berkshire’s more recent acquisitions have been in the energy sector.

Buffett has said Berkshire has no interest in fully acquiring Occidental, but I wonder if this will change with Abel running the company. Occidental’s CEO, Vicki Hollub, has recently said that a buyout by Berkshire “would be a dream come true.” Other purchases are tough to predict, but I wouldn’t expect Berkshire’s investing lieutenants to stray too far from Berkshire’s proven strategy. Many, like Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, already run about 10% of the portfolio, and some of their recent purchases, like Sirius XM, seem to be following Buffett’s long-term, value-oriented playbook.

Expect capital distributions to pick up

One thing I would expect Abel to do with Berkshire’s massive cash hoard is to increase capital returns to shareholders. Berkshire hasn’t been buying back as much of Berkshire’s stock as it normally does.

One possible reason is that Berkshire’s stock is too highly valued, but Abel may not be afforded the same luxury as Buffett by shareholders, who will likely expect or possibly demand a steadier stream of buybacks. Buffett was certainly shareholder-friendly and repurchased plenty of Berkshire stock, but Abel probably can’t sit on hundreds of billions of cash for as long as Buffett can.

This brings me to another area of capital deployment that I think Abel will strongly consider: Launching a dividend. Berkshire has never paid a dividend, simply because Buffett thought he could deploy capital better — and he was right. But, once again, Abel probably doesn’t have this luxury. Given how Berkshire’s size makes it more difficult to deploy capital, it makes more sense to pay a dividend now.

A dividend would also likely draw in a new investor base. Furthermore, a dividend aligns with Berkshire’s brand. The company is not only one of the best at deploying capital, but it’s been viewed as a flight to safety during times of market turbulence. This is part of the reason the stock has crushed the broader market this year. Investors like the company’s diversity of businesses, strong earnings and cash generation, and strong management team. Adding a sturdy dividend only boosts this brand, in my opinion.

After 60 years of running Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.18%) (BRK.B 0.09%), Warren Buffett will be riding off into the sunset.

The 94-year-old, widely regarded as the greatest investor of all time, announced at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting over the weekend that Greg Abel would take over as CEO by the end of the year.

Buffett is regarded as an investing and business legend for a number of reasons, and Berkshire’s track record speaks for itself. He essentially doubled the annual return of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) over his career, delivering phenomenal returns for his investors along the way.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Arguably, Buffett was at his best during bear markets, and Berkshire’s greatest periods of outperformance often came during sell-offs. He built his conglomerate for longevity with durable, all-weather businesses like insurance companies, and the famed value investor was able to capitalize on stock market sell-offs and take advantage of deals in the private market as he often kept a large war chest of cash on hand to be ready when a good value presented itself.

While we’re not in a bear market, the S&P 500 was on the verge of one not long ago, and 2025 has already given investors plenty of volatility. In this environment, Berkshire’s reputation for stability has served it well as it’s outperforming the S&P 500 by a wide margin, and the chart below includes the 5% decline after Buffett announced his retirement.

BRK.B data by YCharts

As good as Berkshire has been in bear markets under Buffett, there are a few other stocks that have been even better, outperforming Berkshire not just this year, but in prior years. Let’s take a look at two of them.

1. Altria

Altria (MO -1.61%) hasn’t been a top stock over the last decade, but its performance over its history has been dominant, especially when factoring in dividends reinvested.

Altria is currently the domestic seller of its Marlboro and other cigarette brands, as well as smoke-free products like on! oral nicotine pouches and NJOY vapes. Earlier in its history, it was a global company combined with Philip Morris International.

As a tobacco company, Altria has the advantage of selling a recession-resistant product, as smokers and other consumers of its products tend to buy them regardless of the state of the economy. Altria’s high-yield dividend and status as a Dividend King, having raised its dividend 59 times in the last 55 years, also makes it an attractive stock in a down market as it has reliably paid increasing dividends for nearly as long as Buffett’s been CEO.

On a total return basis, Altria stock is up 16.6% this year, outperforming both Berkshire and the S&P 500.

During the bear market of 2007-2009, during the financial crisis, Altria stock fell, but it still beat both Berkshire Hathaway and the S&P 500, as the chart below shows.

^SPX data by YCharts

Though Berkshire stock held up well through the early stages of the bear market, it fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and as it reported large paper losses in its stock portfolio.

A business like Altria’s, on the other hand, doesn’t have to worry about that kind of volatility.

Similarly, during the bear market of 2000-2002, both Altria and Berkshire Hathaway delivered a positive return as they were relatively unaffected by the dot-com bust, even as the S&P 500 lost 49%. However, as the chart below shows again, Altria was the clear winner, tripling during that period when including dividends reinvested.

^SPX data by YCharts

With its dividend yield of 6.8% today and its recession-proof business model, Altria looks like a good bet to outperform in a bear market if it happens again.

2. AutoZone

Another sector that has a clear track record of outperforming in bear markets is aftermarket auto parts.

After all, consumers generally buy these products because they need them for repairs, and in recessionary environments, they tend to delay replacing their vehicles and instead spend on repairs, meaning replacement parts. In other words, auto parts is a countercyclical industry, meaning consumers spend more on them in bad times than in good.

One of the best-performing stocks in that sector has been AutoZone (AZO -0.44%), which has steadily expanded its store base and excelled at managing inventory through its hub and spoke, where centrally located hub stores ensure that spoke stores remain well-stocked. That also helps it serve commercial customers like repair shops that need parts in a timely manner.

AutoZone has a history of capitalizing on recessions, and year to date, the stock is up 17.8%.

In previous bear markets, AutoZone has also thrived. In the 17-month bear market during the financial crisis, the stock gained 22%, as you can see from the chart below.

^SPX data by YCharts

Historically, the business has accelerated toward the end of recessions, presumably because consumer savings have been depleted at that point. In fiscal 2009, which ended in Aug. 2009, domestic same-store sales rose 4.4%, its best performance in the previous five years.

AutoZone is not a dividend payer, but the company has aggressively repurchased its stock over its history, accelerating its earnings-per-share growth and boosting the stock price by taking advantage of discounts as they come.

In the 2000-2002 bear market, AutoZone stock also soared, tripling during that period like Altria. Again, its gains were weighted to the second half of the downturn.

^SPX data by YCharts

^SPX data by YCharts

Similarly, AutoZone’s comparable sales surged 9% in fiscal 2002, coming out of the recession of that era.

That pattern of outperformance is likely to hold up again if the economy slips into a recession, which explains why AutoZone is up nearly 20% this year on little news.

Is Berkshire still a buy?

Investors may be disappointed that Buffett is stepping down as the rare 5% slide in Berkshire stock indicates, but the Oracle of Omaha has built the company for the long term.

Additionally, Berkshire also benefits from a cash hoard that has swelled to nearly $350 billion, giving the company plenty of firepower to make a deal if it finds an attractive one.

Berkshire is certainly not a bad stock to own in such an environment and its unique position makes it a buy. However, investors looking to a capitalize on a potential bear market would do well to buy shares of Altria or AutoZone.

Both have history behind them, and their business models make them highly likely to beat the market again should it tip into a recession.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 1.99%) (BRK.B 1.76%) has crushed the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.47%) over the last 60 years thanks in part to savvy investment decisions about long-held stocks like American Express and Coca-Cola — and more recently Apple. But Berkshire’s stakes in public companies may no longer be the driving force behind its success.

On May 3 Berkshire published its first-quarter results, which included a new record position in cash, cash equivalents, and investments in U.S. Treasury bills of $342.39 billion. As of May 2, the value of Berkshire’s public equity portfolio was $277.41 billion, or roughly a quarter its market cap of $1.16 trillion. The rest of Berkshire’s value comes from its subsidiaries.

Berkshire has plenty of valuable wholly-owned businesses, from the BNSF railroad to utility giant Berkshire Hathaway Energy. But by far the most important category is its property and casualty (P&C) insurance businesses. At Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, investors had plenty of questions about the future of the P&C businesses: from how they will fare in the face of an onslaught of private equity investment to the changing landscape of insurance in the autonomous age.

Are potential changes in P&C insurance enough to derail the Berkshire Hathaway investment thesis? Here are key takeaways from what Warren Buffett and Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance operations, Ajit Jain, said during the annual meeting.

Image source: Getty Images.

A changing game

In Q1, income from insurance underwriting and insurance investment combined was $4.23 billion, or a whopping 43.9% of total operating earnings.

As insurance has grown, it has become a bigger topic at Berkshire’s annual meetings. And for good reason, considering its impact on operating earnings.

Berkshire has maintained its focus on the P&C side of the insurance industry — distancing itself from the life insurance business, now dominated by private equity. During the annual meeting, Buffett and Jain said that private equity firms can make a lot of money in that area, but that the leverage and credit risk aren’t appealing to Berkshire anymore from a risk-management standpoint.

Another change to the insurance business has been the rise of autonomous vehicles. An audience member asked if this rise would change the underwriting requirements of the insurance business. Buffett responded, “We expect change in all of our ideas,” welcoming changes in the auto insurance industry. He also said that an annual auto insurance policy from GEICO in the 1950s could cost as little as $40, whereas today, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to have a $2,000 annual policy. Even as the cost of insurance is up some 50-fold, Buffett said that accidents have fallen by more than 80%. So the prospect of autonomous vehicles reducing accidents further doesn’t necessarily jeopardize the insurance investment opportunity.

Jain said that full vehicle autonomy could transform the auto insurance business from concentrating on the risks of operator error to instead focus on the automaker’s errors and omissions in creating autonomous vehicle driving capabilities, which would essentially become a product liability issue. Buffett followed up by reaffirming his confidence that the auto business has been a huge growth industry, saying “We do have unusual advantages in the insurance business that can’t be replicated by the competition.”

It’s worth noting that we’re a long way away from full autonomy on U.S. roadways. As autonomous vehicles make up a larger share of the vehicle mix and encounters between autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles rise, it wouldn’t be surprising if insurance becomes an even more profitable business — either through policies controlled by owners of autonomous vehicles, or maybe by the auto manufacturers including a policy with the sale of the vehicle as a value-added option.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), for example, has gotten into the insurance business through Tesla Real-Time Insurance, which measures a safety score and offers discounts based on whether its “Full Self-Driving” feature is used at least 50% of the time. However, insuring fully autonomous vehicles is a different animal.

Focusing on the long term

Widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles would be a game changer for the P&C business, but it’s an adjustment that the whole industry must adapt to — not just Berkshire. Still, insurance has become a crucial element of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment thesis, so you may want to monitor how technology advancements impact underwriting criteria and Berkshire’s operating earnings.

When looking at Berkshire (as with any company), it’s best to focus on where it will be several years from now, instead of getting too caught up in changes to quarterly or annual results. As Buffett said during Saturday’s annual shareholder meeting, “We don’t do anything based on its impact on quarterly or annual earnings.”

Staying true to this philosophy will likely give Berkshire Hathaway an advantage in navigating vehicle autonomy. The long-term mindset could even lead it to gain market share in the industry, especially if its competitors are more interested in making money quickly than building lasting businesses.

Investing legend Warren Buffett has built a record $334 billion cash position at Berkshire Hathaway.

The firm’s new fourth-quarter and yearly earnings reports show Buffett continues to be a net seller of assets, with cash on hand rising from $325 billion at the end of Q3.

The firm’s Q4 sales include a whopping sell-off of 117 million Bank of America (BAC) shares, worth about $5.5 billion.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Buffett says despite the firm’s ongoing unload of equities, investors should not be concerned that Berkshire is hoarding too much paper money.

“Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses, whether controlled or only partially owned…

Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities. That preference won’t change.

While our ownership in marketable equities moved downward last year from $354 billion to $272 billion, the value of our non-quoted controlled equities increased somewhat and remains far greater than the value of the marketable portfolio.”

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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