Where the holdings come from
Berkshire Hathaway files a Form 13F with the SEC four times a year, like every investment manager with more than $100 million in U.S. stocks. The filing lists the shares Berkshire and its subsidiaries held at the end of the quarter. WallStPal turns it into a table on Berkshire’s page, with each position marked as new, added, trimmed or sold.
When it comes out
The deadline is 45 days after each quarter ends: around mid-February, mid-May, mid-August and mid-November. Berkshire usually files close to the deadline. When the 45th day falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
How to read it
Start with the top ten positions and their share of the total. Berkshire’s portfolio has long been concentrated, so a handful of holdings make up most of the value. Then look at the changes: new positions, large additions, and anything sold out entirely.
Two details trip readers up. Berkshire often owns more than one class of the same company, such as Alphabet’s class A and class C shares, which appear as separate lines. And the filing covers stock picked by Warren Buffett’s investment managers as well as by Buffett himself, so a small new position may not be his idea.
What you will miss
- Timing. By the time the filing is public, the trades are six weeks to four and a half months old.
- Confidential positions. Berkshire sometimes gets SEC permission to delay disclosing a position while it is still buying.
- Everything outside the 13F. The wholly owned businesses, Treasury bills and most foreign stocks do not appear. For several years Berkshire’s cash and Treasury holdings have been far larger than many of its stock positions.
- Prices. The filing shows quarter-end values, not what Berkshire paid.
Examples
Apple, 2016. Berkshire’s 13F for the first quarter of 2016, filed in May 2016, showed a new position of about 9.8 million Apple shares, worth roughly $1 billion. It looked small next to Berkshire’s other holdings. Berkshire kept buying over the next two years, and Apple became its largest stock position by far. Someone who copied the first filing would have done well, but only because Berkshire kept adding and the stock kept rising.
Chubb, 2024. Berkshire’s filings in late 2023 left out at least one position under confidential treatment. The filing for the first quarter of 2024, published in May 2024, revealed it: a stake in the insurer Chubb worth about $6.7 billion. Readers of the earlier filings had no way to see it.
Explain it like I’m 13
Imagine the most famous player in your school’s fantasy football league has to show everyone their team four times a year. But they only have to show it six weeks after the date it was taken, and they can hide one or two players for a while if they are still trading for them.
You can learn a lot from looking at their team. Copying it exactly is harder, because by the time you see it, they may already have changed things.
A sensible way to use it
Read Berkshire’s changes as a list of businesses worth studying. Look at why a company might appeal to a patient investor who likes steady profits, and decide for yourself whether the price still makes sense today.
Questions about this guide? Pal reads it with you and answers in plain English.
WallStPal explains public filings. Nothing here is investment advice. Editorial policy · Corrections