If you were expecting Greg Abel to come out swinging with a massive portfolio shakeup in his debut as Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.B) head honcho, you might want to adjust your expectations.
With Warren Buffett finally vacating the CEO chair, the Oracle of Omaha has officially passed the torch. Last Saturday the 28th, Abel dropped his very first annual shareholder letter, and Wall Street was collectively holding its breath to see how the new boss would handle the legendary $300 billion equity book.
The takeaway? Berkshire is quietly settling into a profound "wait-and-see" holding pattern. Abel isn't looking to reinvent the wheel; instead, he's bolting it down. In a letter that felt distinctly like a pledge of allegiance to the Buffett doctrine, Abel explicitly named four heavyweight stocks as absolute, undisputed permanent fixtures of the Berkshire portfolio.
Here is a look inside the Gurus' Moves and what this new era means for the world's most closely watched investment vehicle.
The "Mount Rushmore" of Berkshire's Portfolio
Abel didn't mince words when outlining the foundation of Berkshire’s future. He singled out four specific companies, practically tattooing them onto the firm's balance sheet as perpetual assets. They are:
- Apple (AAPL)
- American Express (AXP)
- Coca-Cola (KO)
- Moody's (MCO)
According to the new CEO, these are businesses whose leadership teams Berkshire "deeply understands and respects." More importantly, he expects them to compound growth for decades to come.
Unless the fundamental long-term economic reality of these specific companies falls off a cliff, do not expect Berkshire to hit the sell button. Abel made it crystal clear that the firm's historically concentrated investment strategy isn't going anywhere.
To put the math in perspective, these four juggernauts alone account for over half of Berkshire’s massive $300 billion equity portfolio. Add in the $35 billion parked across five Japanese trading houses—which Abel also tossed into the "core asset" bucket—and you are looking at roughly two-thirds of the entire portfolio locked up in just nine names.
The cost basis on some of these legacy positions is the stuff of Wall Street legend. Berkshire has held Coke and Amex for over four decades, and Moody's for over two. Back in the late 1980s, Buffett was scooping up Coca-Cola for an average of just $3 a share. With KO recently trading around $81, the paper profits are absolutely staggering. They aren't just stocks anymore; they are foundational pillars of the company.
The Notable Snubs: BofA and Chevron
Just as important as who made the VIP list is who got left out. Noticeably absent from Abel's "forever" roster were two of Berkshire's top five holdings: Bank of America (BAC) and Chevron (CVX).
Abel noted that while Berkshire holds "significant positions" in other companies, the capital tied up in them has a lot more room for "dynamic adjustment." Translated from corporate-speak? We like them, but we aren't married to them. We’ve already seen this dynamic adjustment in action. Over the past 18 months, Berkshire has aggressively trimmed its Bank of America position, dumping about half of its stake to leave a remaining 517 million shares (worth roughly $28 billion). Chevron, sitting at a $20 billion valuation in the portfolio, also looks vulnerable to future trimmings if the macro environment shifts or if Berkshire simply needs to free up cash for an acquisition.
The Apple Bottom Line
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Apple.
Berkshire has been riding the Apple train for about a decade. After a ruthless paring down that saw the firm slash its AAPL holdings by roughly 80% from peak levels, they still walked into 2026 holding a massive 227 million shares.
If you were worried Abel was going to liquidate the rest of the position, his letter should help you sleep at night. Naming Apple to the "permanent" list is a massive vote of confidence.
The underlying mechanics of how they sold Apple last year are also fascinating. Berkshire's overall average cost for AAPL is currently sitting at a comically low $27 per share—about a tenth of its recent $264 trading price. When they originally bought their 1 billion shares, the cost basis was closer to $35. It seems evident that during the great Apple sell-off of 2024, Berkshire strategically dumped its highest-cost tax lots to soften the blow of a monumental capital gains tax bill, holding tightly onto the cheapest shares to maximize long-term compounding.
Who is Actually Steering the Ship?
Here is where the waters get remarkably muddy. Abel wrote in his letter, "Ultimately, the responsibility lies with me, the CEO."
That sounds great on paper, but let's be realistic: Greg Abel is an operations mastermind, not a seasoned stock picker. He is currently juggling the day-to-day management of over 50 Berkshire subsidiaries. Handing him a $300 billion stock portfolio is like asking a master architect to suddenly take over as the lead interior decorator.
Buffett, ever the optimist, has brushed off concerns about Abel's lack of formal investment background, essentially arguing that if you can accurately value a whole business, you can pick a stock. Plus, it's not like the 95-year-old Oracle has vanished into the ether. Abel admitted that Buffett is still rolling into the office five days a week and remains "available to advise on capital allocation."
But what about the guys who were actually hired to do this?
Back in 2011, Berkshire issued a press release boldly claiming that after Buffett stepped down, portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler would take the wheel of the entire stock and bond portfolio.
Fast forward to today, and that succession plan has been completely flipped on its head. Todd Combs abruptly left the firm in December 2025 to take a lucrative gig at JPMorgan Chase (JPM). That left the 64-year-old Ted Weschler seemingly primed to inherit the kingdom.
Yet, according to Abel's letter, Weschler is only managing about 6% of the total equity assets—a negligible bump that includes just a handful of positions previously managed by Combs. The vast majority of the portfolio remains under the ambiguous umbrella of the CEO's office, with Buffett likely whispering in Abel's ear from down the hall.
The Big Picture: Is the Alpha Gone?
All of this brings up a rather uncomfortable question for Berkshire shareholders: Is the era of the stock portfolio as a primary growth engine officially over?
Abel gave lip service to equities, claiming they remain "at the core of our capital allocation activities." But without a dedicated, proven Chief Investment Officer pulling the levers, and with Abel publicly adopting a "perpetual holding" strategy for the bulk of the assets, Berkshire is looking less like a nimble investment fund and more like a traditional, slow-moving conglomerate.
If Berkshire essentially turns its massive stock book into an untouched, passive index of its favorite companies, the days of generating massive alpha through shrewd stock picking might be behind them. For a company built entirely on Buffett’s uncanny ability to beat the market, that is a monumental paradigm shift.
We are watching Berkshire Hathaway transition from a hunter to a farmer. The crops are planted, the moats are dug, and Greg Abel is simply making sure the fences hold up.