Greg Abel is Writing Checks for Berkshire Hathaway in a Hurry. You Should Write One for BRK.B Stock.

It’s been less than six months since Greg Abel took over as Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.B) CEO, but it’s hard to miss the changes happening at the $1 trillion conglomerate. In Q1 2026, which was the first quarter under his leadership, Abel made several changes to the company’s portfolio of publicly traded securities.

First, Berkshire reduced its holdings of publicly traded stocks from 42 to 29, which, as I noted previously, was a smart move as these small holdings don’t move the needle for the company. Berkshire added a stake in Delta Airlines (DAL), a sector Warren Buffett burnt his fingers in and has long been talking down.

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Greg Abel Is On a Check Writing Spree

Meanwhile, despite these changes, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks in Q1 for the 14th consecutive quarter. It is the longest such streak for the company, where it has sold more shares than it bought. However, things look set to change in the current quarter as, in a span of a few days, Berkshire has announced investments worth $16.8 billion.

The company has announced a deal to acquire Taylor Morrison Homes Corp (TMHC) for $6.8 billion and agreed to buy $10 billion worth of Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) shares in a private placement. While we’ll get to know the official numbers later, in all probability Berkshire should be a net buyer of stocks in the current quarter unless, of course, Abel gets rid of a major holding.

Berkshire Repurchased Shares in Q1 After a Gap of Seven Quarters

Abel is not only writing checks to acquire stakes in other companies, but in Q1, the conglomerate repurchased its shares worth $235 million. While the amount is small by Berkshire’s standards, the pivot is noteworthy as the company did not repurchase any shares in the preceding seven quarters. The last couple of years were what Buffett described as his “nightmare” scenario in a 2019 interview with the Financial Times. The legendary investor joked that it would be a scenario wherein he finds stocks expensive, while Berkshire Hathaway shares are fairly valued.