Warren Buffett’s cash fortress Berkshire closes gap with S&P 500 as AI worries depress Wall Street

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The rise in Berkshire shares eased its underperformance relative to the benchmark S&P 500 It increased from 12.2 points on October 29 to 4.3 points.

Again, there was no share buyback; This is a sign that Buffett doesn’t think Berkshire shares are significantly undervalued. Weakness since May.

At a time when no money was spent to buy back Berkshire shares and stock sales outpaced purchases, the company’s Sept. 30 cash rose 10.9% to $381.7 billion since the end of June.

If you subtract BNSF’s cash and account for the timing of some Treasury bond purchases, the total is $354.3 billion, up 4.3% from June.

This week the company newsletter what’s this told Wall Street Magazine last week.

“On Monday, November 10, Berkshire will issue a press release containing a message from Mr. Buffett regarding philanthropy and other topics that may be of interest to Berkshire and Berkshire shareholders and others.”

The philanthropy part will probably be linked to his. annual Thanksgiving contributions to family foundations.

The “Berkshire and other issues” section may be a farewell message prepared for him. resign as CEO at the end of the year.

Although he will remain chairman of the board, he will not take the stage at next May’s meeting and new CEO Greg Abel will write the annual letter to shareholders.

Buffett may now be ready to have his final say, as he appears to be deliberately limiting his future opportunities to speak to shareholders and the rest of the world.

We won’t know for sure until Berkshire releases its third-quarter stock portfolio snapshot next Friday, but it looks like there may have been more selling Apple shares for the three months ending September 30.

CNBC.com Yun Li received Berkshire’s note 10-Q last Saturday It reported a $1.2 billion drop in cost basis for consumer products stocks, including Apple.

He also points out that Apple’s 24% gain in the quarter will provide Buffett with the opportunity to make more profits.

Apple remains Berkshire’s largest equity holding, currently valued at $75.2 billion, but it has cut its position by 69% in the past two years.

Barron’s We divide the $1.2 billion cost basis reduction by Apple’s $35 per share basis to estimate that Berkshire could have sold 35 million shares for about $8 billion, based on Apple’s average price of $230 per share during the quarter.

Apple reported that it had $12.4 billion in stock sales in the 3rd quarter, compared to the 10th quarter. Barron’s Most of the remaining $4.4 billion Bank of America Selling is another big position that Berkshire has cut sharply.

This stock is down nearly 40% since the beginning of last year.

It is Berkshire’s third-largest equity holding, with $32.2 billion.

A. newsletter Thursday, “Such video footage of Mr. Buffett in general may resemble him, but the voice of the impersonator speaking in a very flat, monotone voice is clearly not Mr. Buffett’s voice.” he said.

He added: “Mr. Buffett is concerned that such fraudulent videos may become a spreading virus. People less familiar with Mr. Buffett may believe these videos are real and be misled by the content of these videos.”

one in april Berkshire version “All such reports are false,” he said, referring to “reports currently circulating on social media” about “comments allegedly made” by Buffett.

Buffett also warned shareholders AI’s ability to fake audio and video could make fraud “an all-time growth industry,” it was told at the 2024 Berkshire annual meeting.

Warren Buffett explains why investors should treat stocks like they would own a farm or a flat.

WARREN BUFFET: If you have the disposition to be afraid when others are afraid, you know, you won’t make much money in securities over time.

You know, people really – if they didn’t look at quotes – but of course, the whole world encourages them to look at quotes and, furthermore, to do something based on small changes in quotes.

But think about how much more sense investing in a farm makes than the way most people buy stocks – we’ve talked about this before.

If you buy a farm, will you get a quote next week, or will you get a quote next month? If you buy an apartment, do you get a price quote next week or month?

No, you look at the apartment building or the farm and say, “I expect it to produce this many soybeans and corn, and if it does that, it will meet my expectations.”

If they buy a stock and it goes up they think it’s great, if it goes down it’s bad.

We think just the opposite. We love it when it drops because we’ll buy more. And if it goes up, it would kill us to buy more.

And I – you know – all kinds of – you know, Ben Graham wrote about this. Announced. But if you can’t get yourself into that mental attitude, you’ll be afraid when everyone else is afraid.

And waiting for someone else to tell you when to buy so you can muster up the courage or something, you know —

I could boost this guy’s courage significantly by telling him it was a great time to buy, and a week later he’d run into someone else telling him the world was ending and he was going to sell.

So, he’s the broker’s friend, but he won’t make much money.

Assets are as of June 30, 2025, as reported. Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing On August 14, 2025, except:

A complete list of holdings and current market values ​​is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at: alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (We’re sorry, but we do not forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

Additionally, reading Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders is highly recommended. There are people gathered on Berkshire’s website here.

— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch