Berkshire’s likely top stock picker: Who he is and how he got there

Ted Weschler, who seems poised to become Berkshire Hathaway’s top stockbroker, has personally achieved considerable success as an investor, turning his IRA account worth about $70,000 in the late 1980s into $221 million in 2018.

Weschler, 64, is a value-focused investor who joined Berkshire as an investment manager in 2012 and has since managed an estimated 5% of Berkshire’s $300 billion equity portfolio. Before joining Berkshire, he co-managed Peninsula Capital, a $2 billion investment fund.

He personally owns more than $200 million in shares of kidney dialysis provider DaVita and $15 million in satellite radio company Sirius XM Holdings, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing Berkshire and Weschler’s holdings in those two stocks.

Berkshire has not yet confirmed what Weschler’s exact role will be when Berkshire executive Greg Abel takes over as CEO in 2026. But when Berkshire hired Weschler as its investment manager, it said that once Buffett “no longer serves as CEO, Todd and Ted—possibly with the assistance of an additional executive—will assume responsibility for Berkshire’s entire equity and debt portfolio, subject to the overall direction of the then-CEO and Board of Directors.”

Todd Combs has resigned from Berkshire to take an investment role at JPMorgan Chase, the two companies said in early December.

That leaves Weschler with a potentially significant role in managing Berkshire’s stock portfolio, which is dominated by a handful of stocks such as Apple, American Express, Bank of America, Chevron and Coca-Cola. Berkshire also has numerous smaller holdings, likely accumulated by Weschler and Combs, who each manage about 5% of the portfolio.

Weschler did not respond to a request for comment. He has said little publicly about his investments since arriving at Berkshire and has not appeared onstage at any of Berkshire’s annual meetings.

Buffett hasn’t disclosed his investment performance, but told CNBC in 2019 that Weschler and Combs had lagged the S&P 500 slightly since joining Berkshire.

Both managers have likely fallen behind the market since then. Berkshire owns more than $4 billion in DaVita, arguably Weschler’s largest investment, and $3 billion in Sirius XM, another large holding thought to be linked to it.

DaVita shares have been stable for the last five years. Sirius It’s trading at about $20, half its price 10 years ago.

Weschler was first introduced to Buffett’s writings in 1979, while an undergraduate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, when a friend told him to “read everything he wrote,” according to a 2022 Weschler interview available on YouTube.

“There was tremendous clarity in what he wrote,” Weschler said. “He has been my hero” ever since.

Weschler had the opportunity to spend time with Buffett and eventually land a job at Berkshire by purchasing lunch from the CEO, which was auctioned by the San Francisco charity Glide. It paid $2,626,311 at the 2010 auction and paid another dollar more in 2011.

According to the YouTube interview, Buffett, impressed by a meal at Piccolo’s, a defunct steakhouse in Omaha, in 2011, told Weschler that he would be a “great fit” for Berkshire. Buffett made an offer for the investment manager role.

Weschler lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia, and spends two to three days a week in Omaha.

Weschler gained attention in 2021 when Barron’s contributor Allan Sloan wrote for the Washington Post how Weschler turned a $70,000 IRA account into $221 million by 2018 with a series of successful investments.

It is not yet known what roles Weschler, Buffett and Abel will play in the stock portfolio and capital allocation. The latter is critical because Berkshire has more than $350 billion in cash on hand.

Buffett sold almost 75% of Berkshire’s shares in Apple in recent years. But that investment still totals $65 billion, the largest equity stake the company has.

It’s possible that Berkshire will make little change to the portfolio. That reflected the current situation at the Daily Journal, a small publishing and software company headed by Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s longtime vice chairman, until shortly before Munger’s death at age 99 in 2023.

Munger managed the roughly $500 million Daily Journal investment portfolio, which included stocks like Wells Fargo, and the company decided to essentially leave the portfolio alone after his death.

Berkshire may provide more information about managing the portfolio in the coming weeks. Abel will likely address this issue in his first shareholder letter, sent around March 1.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com