Just revealed – Buffett's "final work"

Berkshire Hathaway continued to adjust its holdings in tech giants in the final quarter before Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO, reducing its holdings in several major stocks while establishing its first position in traditional media outlet The New York Times.

On Tuesday, February 17th, after the US stock market closed, a 13F filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosed that Berkshire Hathaway significantly reduced its holdings in Amazon (AMZN) by more than 77% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and reduced its holdings in Apple (AAPL) for the third consecutive quarter. Berkshire Hathaway also continued to sell off its stake in Bank of America (BAC), reducing its stake in the bank to just below 7%.

The New York Times (NYT) was Berkshire Hathaway's only new addition to its portfolio in the fourth quarter, with over 5.06 million shares acquired, valued at approximately $352 million. Following the announcement, the New York Times' stock price initially rose over 10% in after-hours trading, before recovering more than half of its gains. This Tuesday's release was Buffett's final 13F filing during his 60-year tenure at Berkshire Hathaway. His successor, Greg Abel, will officially assume the CEO position on January 1, 2026. Berkshire Hathaway will release its full-year results on February 28, at which time it will also publish Abel's first letter to shareholders as CEO. According to its 13F filings, Berkshire Hathaway sold over 10.29 million Apple shares in the fourth quarter, a 4.3% decrease from the third quarter. The market value of its Apple holdings decreased by approximately $2.8 billion at the end of the quarter, and its proportion in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio fell from 22.69% in the third quarter to 22.60%. In terms of the decrease in market value compared to the previous quarter, Apple was the stock that Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings the most in the fourth quarter, but the reduction was less than in the previous quarter. In the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its Apple holdings by approximately 41.79 million shares, a decrease of over 14.9% compared to the previous quarter. Despite the continued reduction, Apple remained Berkshire Hathaway's largest holding by the end of the fourth quarter. Bank of America was another major holding that Berkshire Hathaway continued to reduce its holdings in. In the fourth quarter, Berkshire Hathaway sold nearly 50.8 million Bank of America shares, a decrease of 8.9% compared to the previous quarter, reducing its holdings to 6.89%. By the end of the fourth quarter, Bank of America remained Berkshire Hathaway's third-largest holding. However, Berkshire's holdings in Bank of America had decreased from 1.03 billion shares in mid-2024 to 517 million shares, representing a reduction of approximately 50% over the past year and a half. Amazon holdings plummeted by 77% in the fourth quarter. Based on changes in holding percentage, Amazon was the stock with the largest reduction in Berkshire's holdings in the fourth quarter. According to the 13F filing, Amazon's share in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio plummeted to 0.19% in the fourth quarter, down 0.63 percentage points from the third quarter, with the number of shares decreasing to approximately 2.3 million, a drop of over 77.2% quarter-over-quarter. Berkshire first bought Amazon in 2019. At the time, Buffett stated that while he has historically been cautious about tech stocks, not buying the online retail giant's stock earlier would have been "foolish." Amazon's stock price has fallen approximately 11% since the beginning of 2026, experiencing its largest year-over-year decline in 20 years. On Tuesday, Amazon ended its longest losing streak since 2006, lasting nine trading days. In the nine trading days ending last Friday, Amazon's market capitalization evaporated by over $450 billion, reflecting investor skepticism about the rationale behind Amazon's massive AI-related spending. When Amazon released its fourth-quarter earnings report on the 5th of this month, it revealed plans for $200 billion in capital expenditures by 2026, exceeding the annual investment of any other tech giant.

Established a position in The New York Times

The New York Times was the only stock Berkshire Hathaway established a new position in during the fourth quarter. During the quarter, Berkshire Hathaway purchased 5.067 million shares, with a market value of over $352 million, holding approximately 3.1% of The New York Times' shares. This position ranks 30th in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, representing 0.13%.

Berkshire Hathaway held media stocks for a long time, but sold its newspaper business to Lee Enterprises for $140 million in 2020. Warren Buffett was the largest outside shareholder and board member of The Washington Post. The New York Times stock has recently performed strongly, rising 6% year-to-date and currently near its all-time high of $74.59, with a cumulative increase of 50% over the past 12 months. Berkshire Hathaway significantly increased its holdings in oil giants Chevron (CVX) and Chubb Insurance in the fourth quarter. Specifically, Berkshire increased its holdings in Chubb Insurance (CB) by nearly 2.92 million shares, a 9.3% increase quarter-over-quarter. CB's share in the portfolio rose from 3.31% in the third quarter to 3.90%, an increase of 0.59 percentage points quarter-over-quarter. In terms of the increase in holdings percentage, Chubb Insurance saw the largest increase in holdings in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway purchased over 8.09 million shares of Chevron in the fourth quarter, representing a 6.6% increase in its holdings compared to the previous quarter. Its shareholding percentage increased by 0.15 percentage points to 7.24%, with a market value increase of approximately $1.23 billion. In terms of the increase in market value, Chevron saw the largest increase in holdings in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway also increased its holdings of Domino's Pizza (DPZ) by 368,000 shares in the fourth quarter, representing a 12.3% increase in its holdings compared to the previous quarter, bringing its total holdings to approximately $1.4 billion, ranking 20th. Berkshire Hathaway's holding in Kraft Heinz, another consumer staples stock, remained unchanged in the fourth quarter. Abel recently stated that he supports Kraft Heinz's decision to suspend the spin-off of its condiments and grocery businesses. Kraft Heinz disclosed in a January regulatory filing that its largest shareholder, Berkshire Hathaway, might sell nearly all of its 325.6 million shares. Buffett told the Wall Street Journal last year that Berkshire Hathaway did not support the spin-off plan. According to SEC regulations, institutional investors managing at least $100 million in U.S. stocks must file a 13F filing within 45 days of the end of each quarter. Although these documents provide outdated holdings information, Berkshire Hathaway's disclosures are still widely interpreted by market participants seeking insights into the company's investment decisions. By the end of the fourth quarter, in terms of market value, Berkshire Hathaway's top ten holdings were largely the same as the previous quarter, with most rankings unchanged from the third quarter, except for Moody's and Occidental Petroleum, whose rankings had swapped. Similar to the third quarter, only four of these heavily weighted stocks saw adjustments in holdings in the fourth quarter: Apple and American Express were reduced, while Chevron and Chubb were increased. Alphabet, Google's parent company, which entered the top ten for the first time in the third quarter, remains in tenth place. DVA, a kidney dialysis service provider that was pushed out of the top ten by Alphabet in the third quarter, remains in eleventh place in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway's top ten holdings in the fourth quarter were: Apple (AAPL), American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), Coca-Cola (KO), and Chevron (CVX). Moody's (MCO), ranked from seventh to sixth. Occidental Petroleum (OXY), ranked from sixth to seventh. Chubb (CB), ranked Kraft Heinz (KHC), ranked Alphabet (GOOGL).