Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
No. of Recommendations: 7
No. of Recommendations: 5
Good to see Berkshire finally buying Google. Many here have been on board for a long time.
My 2nd largest position after Berkshire
No. of Recommendations: 1
“Good to see Berkshire finally buying Google. Many here have been on board for a long time.
My 2nd largest position after Berkshire.”
Very pleased as well! It is my #3 holding behind Berkshire and #2 Apple. Hope it will be a long-term holding which will grow over time.
No. of Recommendations: 2
But how does he get to a GOOGL position of $4.3B, versus, say, $8.5B for KHC or $12.5B for OXY? Any insights?
If Alphabet is indeed Buffett's pick, he may not be finished buying, although he probably would have requested (and received) temporary secrecy from the SEC if that were the case. So maybe it's a Ted or Todd pick. Perhaps Greg will reveal this in May 2026.
No. of Recommendations: 0
I'm sure I posted somewhere it was worth a $50bn at c$150.
Probably a T or T position given the sizing. Has there been any press about how the equity portfolio is to be managed going forward with T&T?
No. of Recommendations: 0
May have been early 2023 when it was 90$ish. Ive been in and out.
No. of Recommendations: 3
I think it's Warren . T & T don't buy in the multi-billions. I believe their largest purchase was 1.1 billion .
No. of Recommendations: 4
I think it's Warren . T & T don't buy in the multi-billions. I believe their largest purchase was 1.1 billion .
I believe this is correct. T&T have so far only been allocated relatively minor portions of the total equity capital ( probably around $28-30b in all) and they have never before built up a position of this size this quickly.
In any case since Buffett is not going to actively manage any capital going forward, all we can learn from this is that he probably approves of the holding whoever initiated it.
Like others here, this is close to joint top holding for me after Berkshire now. I have had an IRR of just under 26% on this since 2017 which is not bad ! I have added to it in chunks all through - most recently earlier this year when it fell below $150. I once again find myself in the familiar position of having too much exposure to a single company so I doubt I will add meaningfully to the existing position soon. The price has almost doubled since April and it is still not obviously extravagantly valued compared to some of the alternatives in the market.
No. of Recommendations: 0
If thats the case, i'm surprised to see the buy now with the uncertainty around AI spending, (possible returns) it's trading in the high 40's on a FCF basis, double that from 2023 when it was more of a no brainer.
No. of Recommendations: 4
I have added to it in chunks all through - most recently earlier this year when it fell below $150. I once again find myself in the familiar position of having too much exposure to a single company so I doubt I will add meaningfully to the existing position soon. The price has almost doubled since April and it is still not obviously extravagantly valued compared to some of the alternatives in the market.
Yeah, I added to my position in April at $152 when it felt like peak "OpenAI is going to destroy Google". My plan was to sell that chunk if it reached $298 and rotate the money into Berkshire.
But now I'm not so sure. Confirmation bias?
Either way, I've had a Google position for 14 years, so I'm happy Warren is onboard.
No. of Recommendations: 2
"it's trading in the high 40's on a FCF basis, double that from 2023 when it was more of a no brainer."
Lot of investment being deployed for GCP, Waymo, next gen TPUs, etc.
The cash flows will increase substantially IMO. Perhaps this is what Berkshire is thinking.
No. of Recommendations: 23
Good to see Berkshire finally buying Google. Many here have been on board for a long time...
Whether it's a position of Mr Buffett or T/T, the slight mystery to me is, why now?
There are always lots of news and narrative developments, both good and bad, so I discount most of those. (LLM on-again-off-again competitive position, antitrust noises, whatever). But at the top level they're basically the same behemoth profit juggernaut that they've been for many years, and has been obvious to all. Didn't Mr Munger call it the biggest moat he'd ever seen? It's easy to say with hindsight that they should have invested way back when, but even avoiding that trope, it's a bit of a puzzler as to why one might pull the trigger now rather than at any time in the past. That $100+ bn/year of net profit is hard to miss, especially the bit about it growing at around 19%/year in the last decade.
One thing can be more or less ruled out: if it's T or T, it isn't an opportunistic trade as they sometimes do, as valuation at the moment seems much closer to top of their cycle than bottom, and the capex drag is coming. So I presume it is intended as a longer term hold.
The reason I note that it's not a particularly good time for a quick trade:
In the last dozen years, for example, price/sales ratios have usually been in the range 4.5 to 9.5, and it's right at the top now. Good entry opportunities have usually been at 6 or lower. The prospects are that net "owner earnings" margins will more likely fall than rise, so it would make sense for a lower number than previously to constitute a particularly good entry.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 6
No way Buffett made this decision. I believe him when he says he has stepped away.
No. of Recommendations: 20
No way Buffett made this decision. I believe him when he says he has stepped away.
They you should believe what he said, not what you think he said : )
He said he would " no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual meeting. As the British would say, I’m “going quiet.”...Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend."
Those things he mention start next year.
This year, he is still CEO and chairman and fully in charge of capital allocation. If the Alphabet purchase has been initiated by Todd or Ted, that's solely because Mr Buffett has delegated that amount of authority to them this year, as it's his to delegate.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 6
Maybe, but a 95 year old with this level of self awareness and a stated desire to hand over the wheel is unlikely to make such a substantial decision alone.
“ When balance, sight, hearing and memory are all on a persistently downward slope, you know Father Time is in the neighborhood. I was late in becoming old – its onset materially varies – but once it appears, it is not to be denied.
To my surprise, I generally feel good. Though I move slowly and read with increasing difficulty, I am at the office five days a week where I work with wonderful people. Occasionally, I get a useful idea or am approached with an offer we might not otherwise have received. Because of Berkshire’s size and because of market levels, ideas are few – but not zero.”
Maybe he shared a useful idea. Probably he let the kids take the car out for a drive.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Wouldn't it make the most sense that BRK felt compelled, for one reason or another, to wait until the antitrust remedy decision was released?
BRK is in a particularly delicate situation with this sort of thing, given its standing in the political and financial press, etc., and if the order had required the dismantling of GOOG via the sale of Chrome or similar -- invariably sales that would have a political dimension -- being a significant shareholder would have brought BRK into the limelight. The dust settled and the purchases appear to have begun shortly thereafter.
There was also quite a bit of financial litigation risk pre-remedy order. I was a buyer but it was the kind of buying into the unknown that BRK does less of.
Alphabet is my largest position by a fair amount, including after substantial trimming post run-up (risk mitigation), so the seal of approval is good news in any case.
No. of Recommendations: 2
GOOG price was 165 at 6/2/2025, not it's 276. If the purchase was made near the beginning of June, that's a nice move, whoever did it.
No. of Recommendations: 4
My guess is that it's either Todd or Ted who bought GOOG. It's quite possible that Warren & Greg increased the capital allocated to T & T as a result of the impending transition.
No. of Recommendations: 0
I haven't seen any discussion of the increase in CB. I believe that CB was a Buffett purchase. BRK's ownership is now 7.8%.
No. of Recommendations: 0
As has been pointed out, both Charlie and Warren said that they missed the boat on Google/Alphabet, like so many of us did, going all the way back to the initial IPO. The price just kept moving up out of reach. I hope that there will be opportunities to buy much more.
No. of Recommendations: 0
I haven't seen any discussion of the increase in CB. I believe that CB was a Buffett purchase. BRK's ownership is now 7.8%.
Low prices in the Q3 time period hit around $266 per share. It looks to me like they had another opportunity to purchase at a similar price in the middle of October, with about a week of prices below $270 per share.
No. of Recommendations: 0
If I'm correct that Berkshire is interested in CB at prices below roughly $270 a share, the January 2027 $270 puts look interesting. You could sell these for an extra 4.66% interest on cash you're holding with a bit of a backstop that if the price drops below the strike, Berkshire will swoop in and buy shares. Insurance is a business Berkshire should know about.
No. of Recommendations: 1
"I think it's Warren . T & T don't buy in the multi-billions. I believe their largest purchase was 1.1 billion ."
Yeah it's higher than the standard T & T purchases, however, with Warren going dark perhaps there is more leeway for larger purchases now. The position is not big enough to say "oh yeah that's definitively Warren" and not small enough to presume it's T & T. If I had to guess I'd say it's T or given the newness of the position coupled with Warren's retirement.
No. of Recommendations: 0
If it were up to you, how would you size Warren's holdings in his three, recent purchases, OxyChem, Alphabet and Chubb? The OxyChem position (100% owned)is $9.7B. CB is $8.8B, and GOOGL is $4.9 (after paying maybe $3.6B).
Personally I would not have bought OxyChem at all, and I would have bought enough GOOGL to bring GOOGL up to roughly the same size position as CB. As John Kelly showed, it's all a question of how much you estimate you will earn on a given position and how confident you are in that estimate, with confidence being the bigger factor. OxyChem has no competitive advantage, and in fact has a couple of competitive disadvantages. CB must look pretty good in Warren's eyes, and Warren knows insurance. GOOGL has 90% of the search business, and is a leader in AI.
What would you do?
No. of Recommendations: 20
"There are always lots of news and narrative developments, both good and bad, so I discount most of those. (LLM on-again-off-again competitive position, antitrust noises, whatever). But at the top level they're basically the same behemoth profit juggernaut that they've been for many years, and has been obvious to all. Didn't Mr Munger call it the biggest moat he'd ever seen? It's easy to say with hindsight that they should have invested way back when, but even avoiding that trope, it's a bit of a puzzler as to why one might pull the trigger now rather than at any time in the past. That $100+ bn/year of net profit is hard to miss, especially the bit about it growing at around 19%/year in the last decade.
One thing can be more or less ruled out: if it's T or T, it isn't an opportunistic trade as they sometimes do, as valuation at the moment seems much closer to top of their cycle than bottom, and the capex drag is coming. So I presume it is intended as a longer term hold.
The reason I note that it's not a particularly good time for a quick trade:"
A recent Q3 NAIC filing for National Indemnity (page E04) reveals that on 8/8/25 they purchased 11,284,606 shares of Alphabet Class A shares for $2,176,508,440, or $192.87/share.
GOOGL is currently trading around $289 as I type. That would imply a 50% gain in just over three months.
No. of Recommendations: 10
“GOOGL is currently trading around $289 as I type. That would imply a 50% gain in just over three months.”
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& I owe Manlobbi a bottle of his finest for this very timely shout-out on Google prior to a nice +50% move!
I saw the light & finally made the move after reading his synopsis
Nice call!!! …..maybe the folks in Omaha peek at his postings also?
https://www.shrewdm.com/MB?pid=127200598ciao
No. of Recommendations: 4
on 8/8/25 they purchased 11,284,606 shares of Alphabet Class A shares for $2,176,508,440, or $192.87/share.
Nice find! I too took advantage of Manlobbi's keen valuation eye, with which I seem to have bested Berkshire's entry point. I bit on 7/31 for a price of $191.27. My previous purchases on 4/1/25 and 4/28/2022 have done very well too, but I didn't have the conviction to make large purchases at the time.
No. of Recommendations: 3
A recent Q3 NAIC filing for National Indemnity (page E04) reveals that on 8/8/25 they purchased 11,284,606 shares of Alphabet Class A shares for $2,176,508,440, or $192.87/share.
GOOGL is currently trading around $289 as I type.
Nice spotting, thanks for posting that.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 1
"If it were up to you, how would you size Warren's holdings in his three, recent purchases, OxyChem, Alphabet and Chubb? The OxyChem position (100% owned)is $9.7B. CB is $8.8B, and GOOGL is $4.9 (after paying maybe $3.6B)."
This is all dependent on where we bought Google. If it was five months ago then Google is #1. If it is after the run up then I put OxyChem #1. It is a more tangible asset and we bought it at a time where earnings were a bit depressed. I don't know enough about Chubb to comment.
No. of Recommendations: 0
GOOG price was 165 at 6/2/2025, not it's 276. If the purchase was made near the beginning of June, that's a nice move, whoever did it.
Yep. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if they bought more in October and the first two weeks of November (before the current 13F was released).
No. of Recommendations: 4
GOOG price was 165 at 6/2/2025, not it's 276. If the purchase was made near the beginning of June, that's a nice move, whoever did it.
As far as I know, Berkshire did not make a request in a prior quarter to keep its Alphabet purchase hidden from view. So because the recent 13F filing was for the third calendar quarter, and Alphabet was shown as a brand new holding, Berkshire can't have purchased Alphabet as early as June.
