Under Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway has made few major changes, though it resumed share buybacks for the first time since 2024. Berkshire began buying Alphabet while Warren Buffett was still CEO and has increased the stake substantially since, and Alphabet now makes up about 12.6% of the portfolio, its third-largest position. Google still holds roughly 90% of the search market, but eMarketer projects Meta will overtake Alphabet as the top digital ad company this year, with a 26.8% share versus 26.4% for Alphabet. Alphabet's ad business is still expected to grow about 12% in 2026, while Google Cloud sales rose 82% to $24.8 billion in the second quarter. The author suggests Berkshire could buy more Alphabet stock at some point.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Read the original on Yahoo Finance ↗
Keywords
GOOGLBerkshire HathawayWarren Buffettshare buybacks
Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.
Related tickers and likely impact
GOOGL
▲ Likely positiveAlphabet Inc. (Class A)
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Communication Services |
| Industry | Interactive Media & Services |
| Market cap | $4.3T |
| Close on 10/19/2026 | 344.18 |
| Change that session | +1.05% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
Related news
- Warren Buffett Warned About Stock Valuations. So Why Is Berkshire Still Buying Stocks?
In an early-May CNBC interview, Warren Buffett answered “Yeah” when asked whether stock prices were too high, saying many things would look very silly. From May 1 (7,230.12) to Oct. 15 (7,744.06), the S&P 500 rose 7%. Even so, Berkshire Hathaway became a net buyer of stocks in Q2 for the first time in three and a half years, buying about $23.5 billion while selling about $3.7 billion, and it bought back $4.5 billion of its own stock. It also invested in Alphabet, now nearly 13% of its equity portfolio, and in the recent IPO of Bending Spoons, with $600 million in July and $330 million in a private placement this month. The article notes Bending Spoons trades at 29 times forward earnings and will carry significant debt, so it is not a bargain in the traditional sense.
- Greg Abel Made Major Additions to Alphabet and Delta Last Quarter While Berkshire Bought Back $4.4 Billion of Its Own Stock. Is This a Buying Signal Investors Should Watch?
In the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway under CEO Greg Abel, Buffett's successor, significantly added to its Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) holdings and bought 17.5 million more shares of Delta Air Lines (DAL), raising its stake by 44% to more than 57 million shares. The company also repurchased $4.5 billion of its own Class B shares, up from about $235 million in the first quarter, at average prices of $476.01 in May and $487.98 in June. Berkshire's rules allow buybacks only when the CEO judges the price is below its conservatively estimated intrinsic value, so the article treats the purchases as a sign that Abel sees value in the stock. Berkshire ended June with about $359.2 billion in cash and short-term investments, leaving room for further investments. The article suggests these repurchases are a useful starting point for evaluating the stock.
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Compounded at More Than 19% a Year Over 6 Decades, Nearly Double the S&P 500's 10% Return. Can Investors Still Apply That Playbook Today?
The article looks at Warren Buffett's record at Berkshire Hathaway, which from 1964 to 2024 posted returns of 5,502,284%, or compounded annual growth of about 19.9%, versus 10.4% for the S&P 500 over the same six decades. The author argues that few investors can copy his exact playbook, but anyone can adopt his habits: buying companies they understand and believe in, such as Coca-Cola, holding investments for the long term, and steadily buying low-cost S&P 500 index funds rather than trying to beat the market by picking stocks.
- BNSF Paid Berkshire Hathaway $4.4 Billion in Dividends Last Year. Berkshire Bought It for $34.5 Billion in 2010.
According to Greg Abel's 2025 shareholder letter, BNSF, the railroad owned by Berkshire Hathaway, generated $8.1 billion in operating earnings in 2025, and $4.4 billion of that was paid to Berkshire as a cash dividend, with the company on pace to at least match that again this year. In the first half of 2026, BNSF's operating earnings reached just over $2.9 billion, up nearly 10% year over year. Berkshire paid $34.5 billion for BNSF in 2010, and the effective dividend yield on that initial investment is now 12.7% after 16 years, not counting the appreciation of the railroad's value. Estimates of BNSF's market value range from $75 billion to $200 billion, and Warren Buffett has described it as Berkshire's second-most-valuable asset, mainly because of the cash it produces. The author suggests shareholders might prefer that Abel make more acquisitions of small cash-generating companies rather than use Berkshire's $365.5 billion in uninvested cash to buy stocks.
- Warren Buffett warned about stock valuations but Berkshire Hathaway is aggressively purchasing stocks
- Why Berkshire's Latest Move Proves It's Not Really a Warren Buffett Company Anymore
Greg Abel took over as Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the start of 2026, though Warren Buffett and Abel are reportedly in regular contact on investment decisions. Berkshire has taken a stake in Milan-based Bending Spoons, investing $600 million in its IPO over the summer and adding $330 million since, a position of about 0.4% of its portfolio. The author argues this is out of character for Buffett, who was skeptical of acquisitive companies and prefers consistent, predictable earnings, while Bending Spoons buys and turns around troubled software businesses. The author sees the move as a possible turning point toward more risk-taking and tech investment under Abel, and suggests a wait-and-see approach to the stock until his investment choices become clearer.
Related markets
Latest news
- Japan exports post huge miss in September as growth slows to 16.7%
Japan's exports rose 16.7% year on year in September, well below the 20.1% growth Reuters-polled analysts had expected. This marks the second straight month of slowing shipments, following a nearly four-year high in July. Imports grew 18.9%, also missing the 19.6% forecast.
- Can Micron Stock Keep Climbing After a 10-Fold Run? Here's What Its Past Booms Say.
Micron's shares have risen about tenfold from their 2024 year-end close of roughly $84 and now sit near $903. The author argues that past Micron booms show the stock tends to fall before profits do, as earnings stayed strong for a time after prices peaked. The shares are currently 26% below their late-June closing high of $1,213.56, while GAAP earnings per share for fiscal 2026 reached $74.33 versus $7.59 the year before. Profit growth is slowing and DRAM prices are still rising but more slowly, and a price-to-earnings ratio of about 12 suggests the market doesn't expect those profits to last. The author suggests investors size positions with the risk of the next downturn in mind.
- Bridging the gap between deposit mobilization and credit growth
As of October 14, 2026, outstanding credit across the economy exceeded VND 20.72 million billion, up 11.44% from end-2025, while deposit mobilization grew 11.22% as of the October 19 meeting, lagging credit growth. The article says demand for capital is rising faster than banks' ability to raise funds, even though household deposits rose 10.63% to about VND 11.43 million billion by end-August. It warns that simply raising deposit rates could push up funding costs and make lending rates harder to cut. At the October 19 meeting, the State Bank of Vietnam asked banks to cut deposit rates by at least 0.5 percentage points for terms of 6 months or more and lending rates by 1.5-2 percentage points for production, business and priority sectors. Banks including BIDV, Agribank and Vietcombank have announced support programs, but the article argues that effectiveness should be judged by how many firms actually access capital and the real reduction in borrowing costs.
- S&P 500, Dow Gain As Earnings Season Sets In, While SpaceX Aids Nasdaq After-Hours — SPCX, BA, MMM, NFLX, QCOM In Focus
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1% on Tuesday as investors looked toward the start of earnings season, while the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.1%. Shares of 3M jumped over 5% after beating estimates and raising its full-year outlook, Northrop Grumman rose more than 4%, and lower crude prices helped sentiment. After hours, SpaceX reported third-quarter revenue of $14.58 billion versus an estimated $13 billion and EPS of $0.35 against $0.13 expected, lifting the Nasdaq about 1%. The report also noted Anthropic could be valued at up to $2 trillion in its IPO, the FAA certified Boeing's 737 MAX 10, Netflix shares fell 5% after hours on a soft fourth-quarter revenue outlook, Kroger committed $5 billion to lower grocery costs, and Qualcomm is preparing to downsize its global workforce.
- Capital One's strong quarter and progressing Discover integration are rewarded on Wall Street
Capital One Financial posted better-than-expected third-quarter results, with revenue up 6.4% year over year to $16.34 billion against a $16.27 billion consensus, and adjusted EPS up 12% to $6.69 versus an estimated $5.50. Net interest income rose about 4% quarter over quarter, beating estimates by $134 million, while net discount and interchange fees climbed 3.5% to $2.34 billion, which the article links to the company's ownership of the Discover network. Non-interest expense of $8.86 billion was above the $8.75 billion consensus, though marketing spending of $1.59 billion came in below forecasts. Provisions for credit losses of $2.9 billion were well below the roughly $3.6 billion expected, and a $225 million allowance release boosted earnings. CEO Richard Fairbank said Discover integration has delivered about $1.8 billion of annualized synergies so far and expects lost interchange revenue if the proposed Visa and Mastercard settlement receives final court approval, roughly offsetting the remaining synergies; shares rose about 4% after hours to $210.
- SpaceX touts possible Tesla merger after profits soar
SpaceX reported a $4.4 billion net profit for the third quarter, its first as a public company, with revenue of $14.6 billion, nearly double the second-quarter figure of $7.8 billion. CEO Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to explore a potential merger, though he is not taking part in the talks as a conflicted party and the committees have not yet agreed on terms. SpaceX shares rose nearly 8% to $159.50 after hours, while Tesla gained 1.2%. The connectivity segment, which includes Starlink, posted a $2.37 billion operating profit on $5.25 billion in revenue after adding 1.6 million subscribers, and the AI division returned to operating income of $431 million. Capital expenditures reached $19.59 billion, mainly for AI computing, and Musk said the company aims to make Starship fully reusable.
Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo
Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.