Berkshire May Have Sold $15 Billion of Stocks Run by Former Manager - Barron’s

Berkshire May Have Sold $15 Billion of Stocks Run by Former Manager - Barron’s By Andrew Bary https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-stocks-sale-todd-combs-greg-abel-531ff5e0 April 18, 2026 11:58 am EDT Key Points \- Berkshire Hathaway may have sold about $15 billion in stocks in Q1, divesting holdings managed by Todd Combs, who left in December. \- CEO Greg Abel now oversees 94% of Berkshire’s portfolio after Combs’ exit, potentially selling stocks like Amazon.com and VeriSign. \- Berkshire’s Q1 equity sales, potentially $15 billion, will be detailed in its 10-Q report by May 2 and 13-F filing by May 15. Berkshire Hathaway may have sold about $15 billion in stocks during the first quarter that were managed by Todd Combs, who left in December for an investment role at JPMorgan Chase. CEO Greg Abel decided to unload the stocks that had been managed by Combs, who ran an estimated 5% of Berkshire’s equity portfolio that totals about $300 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday Berkshire doesn’t disclose which stocks in the portfolio are run by which manager. Combs and investment manager Ted Weschler, who remains at Berkshire, had run a total of about 10%; Chairman Warren Buffett handled the other 90%. As CEO, Abel now oversees the portfolio, with Weschler responsible for about 6% of the holdings. Abel succeeded Buffett as CEO at year’s end. The stocks Berkshire might have sold include Amazon.com, Constellation Brands, VeriSign, Capital One Financial, Visa, Mastercard, and Kroger. These holdings each are valued at $3 billion or less. Combs and Weschler probably managed some of the smaller Berkshire holdings while Buffett ran the big, longstanding ones such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Moody’s, Occidental Petroleum m, and Chevron. Berkshire watchers have speculated that Amazon was a Combs stock. Berkshire unloaded almost 80% of the position in the fourth quarter, dropping it to 2.2 million shares. Those sales might have come just after Combs departure in December. Other trimmed holdings in the quarter were Constellation Brands and Pool—a sign that they could have been Combs holdings that Berkshire began to sell after he left an investment role for JP Morgan. Internet domain company VeriSign also could be a Combs holding since he was viewed as the technology investment specialist at Berkshire, having likely overseen a position in software maker Snowflake that Berkshire bought in 2020 and sold in 2024. The Berkshire equity sales in the first quarter will be disclosed in the coming month. Berkshire will disclose its overall equity sales and purchases as part of its 10-Q report for the first quarter expected on May 2, and it will detail its individual equity holdings along with other big institutional investors in a 13-F filing around May 15 that will lay out what individual stocks it bought and sold in the first quarter. It’s believed that Weschler is responsible for Berkshire’s $4 billion stake in kidney dialysis provider DaVita and its $3 billion holding in satellite radio operator Sirius XM Holdings, and its $1.5 billion stake in Liberty Live Holdings, which owns a sizable stake in Live Nation Entertainment. Weschler owns stock in those three companies personally, according to filings, including a stake of about $300 million in DaVita. Barron’s raised th e possibility in December that Berkshire would sell the Combs stocks after Combs departure, given that it had done so with many of the equities run by investment manager Lou Simpson after he departed from Berkshire about 15 years. Berkshire also sold nearly all the stocks that had been owned by Alleghany after it bought the insurer in 2022. It’s unlikely that Berkshire bought a lot of stocks in the first quarter because Buffett said in a recent CNBC interview that the stock market doesn’t excite him. That would continue a trend over recent years as Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks and a light buyer. The Journal reported that Berkshire doesn’t plan to replace Combs with a new investment manager. That means that Abel will oversee 94% of the portfolio and Weschler the rest. Abel wrote in his annual letter in late February that Weschler “manages about 6% of our investments, including a portion of the portfolio formerly overseen by Todd Combs.” Fin \*(Do let me know if you are triggered/offended by such articles and I will keep such articles away from you in the future)\*