Buffett Trims Apple, Bets Big on Alphabet Ahead of Retirement

Key Points

• Berkshire Hathaway cut its Apple holdings by 15% in Q3, marking its largest reduction in the stock recently, while still keeping it as its top holding.
• The firm initiated a $4.3 billion position in Alphabet, making it Berkshire’s tenth largest holding and its third Magnificent Seven bet.
• Berkshire’s Q3 portfolio value rose to $267.3 billion, indicating sustained investment activity despite Warren Buffett’s upcoming retirement.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway NYSE: BRK.B just released its much-anticipated Q3 13F filing, revealing what portfolio moves the Oracle of Omaha’s investment firm made during the quarter.

Notably, Buffett is set to retire at the end of 2025 and is leaving Berkshire with a record amount of cash. 

Despite this, Berkshire isn’t sitting pat; it remains actively engaged in reshaping its holdings.

Berkshire Dumps Shares of Apple and VeriSign

Most notably, Berkshire significantly lowered the size of its largest position: Apple NASDAQ: AAPL.

Its Apple shares fell to around 238 million, a 15% decrease compared to 280 million in Q2. At first glance, this may seem like an alarming and bearish signal for Apple, but Berkshire has actually been trimming its Apple position for a while now.

From Q1 2024 to Q3 2024, the company reduced its Apple shares by 62% to 300 million, and again by nearly 7% from Q1 2025 to Q2 2025. Still, Q3 marks Berkshire’s largest reduction in Apple shares for some time. With Apple rising 24% in Q3, it is not surprising to see Berkshire take further gains. Although this is not a great sign for Apple, the stock remains by far Berkshire’s largest holding.

VeriSign NASDAQ: VRSN was another big sale, with Berkshire selling 4.3 million shares, or a 32% cut. VeriSign holds an enviable position as the monopolistic registry operator for “.com” and “.net” website domain names. Essentially, any time a party registers or renews a website that ends with “.com” or ".net," they will end up paying Verisign one way or another.

While this is a large sale, markets have known about it for months. 

VeriSign announced in July that Berkshire would sell 4.3 million shares, noting the purpose was to keep Berkshire’s ownership percentage below 10% to avoid certain regulatory obligations.

The fact that Berkshire's sales were exactly what it indicated in July is a moderately positive signal for VeriSign.

However, what happens with Berkshire’s position going forward is worth monitoring.

Buffett Makes Third Magnificent Seven Wager on Alphabet

Berkshire initiated only one new position during Q3, and did so in a huge way.

The firm took a $4.3 billion position in Google parent company Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL, making it Berkshire’s tenth largest position and its third Magnificent Seven holding.

At the end of Q3, Berkshire’s position in Alphabet was around double the size of its position in Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN.

This is a clear positive sign for the stock. Alphabet shares rose by approximately 3% in after-hours trading on Nov. 14, reacting to the purchase. The reasoning behind the buy is unknown, but there are several key possibilities.

Alphabet’s artificial intelligence strategy is clearly working. Growth is accelerating across Search, YouTube Ads, Subscriptions, and Google Cloud. Additionally, the resolution of Alphabet’s antitrust lawsuit removed a dark cloud that had been hanging over the stock. The company will not have to divest its Chrome browser or Android operating system—an outcome that pushed shares up 9% on September 3.

It is possible that Berkshire saw the combination of these factors and chose to take a position.

Smaller Moves Across Financials and Consumer Stocks

It was a bit of a quiet quarter for Berkshire in terms of the number of positions changed. The company only made 12 allocation changes in Q3, compared to 18 in Q2 and 15 in Q1. 

Some of the notable moves include reducing its Bank of America NYSE: BAC by 6%, increasing its position in Domino's Pizza NASDAQ: DPZ by 13%, and selling out of D.R. Horton NYSE: DHI completely—a position that Berkshire only initiated in Q2.

Shares were up by as much as 43% in Q3, indicating that Berkshire likely took the money and ran. Since its Q3 peak, the stock is down around 22%.

Berkshire’s Stock Portfolio Moves up to $267 Billion

Overall, Berkshire’s public equity portfolio ended Q3 with a value of $267.3 billion, up 3.8% from Q2. This doesn’t indicate the company’s return, as no one knows the exact prices at which the firm bought or sold. However, it suggests that Berkshire may have increased, or at least maintained, its allocation to stocks. That alone is a modestly bullish sign for the broader market, especially with Buffett’s retirement on the horizon.

Berkshire’s latest 13F suggests the firm remains confident in select technology and consumer-facing stocks while trimming legacy holdings in areas like banking and real estate. As Buffett’s 2025 exit nears, all eyes remain on how the conglomerate positions itself for a post-Buffett future.