Dear Reader,
This is Dylan Jovine with Behind the Markets.
Happy Friday. Today is Friday the 13th.
Today I'd like to talk about Warren Buffett and his last quarter as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. His SEC filings just came out, and they're revealing in a way that goes beyond the numbers.
They're clues to where he sees value, what he's worried about, and in some ways, how he sees the world right now.
The headline: during his last quarter as CEO, Berkshire sold more equities than it bought. He's continuing to sell into what he clearly sees as an overvalued market.
I remember back in the nineties, when I was in my twenties and thought I knew everything — this cocksure kid before life had knocked me in the face a couple of times, as life does — I remember Buffett during the dot-com boom. He was a net seller the whole time.
People were saying, has Buffett lost his touch? Two or three years of that. And then of course the market crashes, and he becomes a big buyer.
What I learned from watching that — and from other great investors — is that during periods of really high markets, they go quiet. They're basically in hibernation. Occasionally buying something here, occasionally selling something there. But mostly just selling into it. Because the higher the market gets, the fewer truly cheap, wonderful opportunities you find.
So what did Buffett actually do in his last quarter?
He continued selling his Apple stake. He slashed Bank of America. He trimmed Amazon. But he significantly increased his stakes in Chevron and Chubb Insurance. And he took a small new stake in the New York Times — his first move back into newspapers in quite a while.
The Chevron add is about $1.2 billion, a 6% increase in his stake. And Chubb, interestingly, is now the company that has agreed to underwrite vessels in the Strait of Hormuz for the Trump administration. Coincidence?
His top holdings by dollar amount right now: Apple, American Express, Bank of America — though he's aggressively selling that — Coca-Cola, Chevron, Moody's, Occidental Petroleum, Chubb, Kraft Heinz, Alphabet, DaVita, Kroger, Visa, and Sirius XM.
Look at that list. Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Chubb, Moody's, Kraft Heinz, Bank of America. These are old-fashioned, industrial-type American businesses. Real companies with real earnings. And in his last quarter as CEO, he doubled down on energy and insurance.
And that tells you something about how Buffett sees the world right now.
When markets get expensive and uncertainty rises, he doesn't chase the latest technology story.
He goes back to simple businesses that generate real cash flow.
Energy. Insurance. Infrastructure. The kinds of companies that quietly throw off money year after year.
It's the same philosophy that led me to publish a report on what I call "The Last Retirement Stock."
It's not a flashy Silicon Valley company.
It's the kind of business Buffett himself has loved for decades — one tied to the energy backbone of the American economy, and positioned to benefit from the massive power demands coming from the AI boom.
If you'd like to see the company and why I believe it could provide the kind of long-term income Buffett has always favored, you can read the full briefing here.
Now Buffett leaves the portfolio in the hands of Greg Abel. Buffett moves to chairman — still involved, but not day-to-day. Which is probably a good thing for him at this point.
But my favorite investor of all time. The one investor who has taught me more than anybody else, one of the great mentors of my life — even if only through his words and his actions. And in his final quarter as CEO, he went back to his roots. Old-fashioned America. Energy and insurance.
I think that's worth paying attention to.
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