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Berkshire ekes out some new highs, but October rally stalls

The more widely held Class B shares also set a new record high close on Monday, finishing that day at $548.56.

But their high during Friday's session of $550.47 is enough for a new all-time intraday record, edging out last Thursday's $549.96.

For the week, however, they inched less than 0.1% higher. 

Despite losing some steam this week, Berkshire shares are ending October with strong gains, especially when compared to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.

The latter index lost 2.9% Friday, its worst one-day drop since June, as money moves away from high-flying AI and tech stocks over spending concerns.

Berkshire appears to be benefiting from the back-to-basics rotation.

It's closing out the month with an 8.9% gain, as the S&P fell 0.9% and the Nasdaq dropped 5.3%. 

BRK.B trimmed its year-to-date deficit against the benchmark S&P from 3.5 percentage points last week to 2.8 percentage points this week.

As shown in the "Berkshire Stock Watch" chart below, it's ahead of the S&P over the past 12 calendar months by more than two percentage points.

AI jitters cut Berkshire's bet on Alphabet by billions 

Berkshire's enormous Alphabet stake, initiated by Buffett last year and boosted by a $10 billion private placement during this year's second quarter, hit a Q3 high of $40 billion in early August.

Since then, it's lost a quarter of its value, falling to $29.6 billion Friday, making it Berkshire's fourth largest equity holding.

(That's based on the number of shares held as of June 30. The values in October may change based on Berkshire's September 30 portfolio snapshot that will be released in two weeks.)

Coca-Cola has moved decisively into third place, with the position increasing by almost 16% from a low of $32.5 billion in late July to $37.6 billion now.

Barron's estimates Berkshire likely paid more than $300 a share for Alphabet, and "perhaps close to $320," putting it in the red for the investment, at least so far.

DaVita holding trimmed again under deal to keep percentage stake steady

In an SEC disclosure this week, Berkshire said it sold $69 million of DaVita shares on Tuesday.

The remaining 28.3 million shares of the dialysis provider in its portfolio are worth $5.3 billion.

Don't interpret the reduction as sign Berkshire has changed its view of the company.

This is the latest in a series of quarterly share reductions under a 2024 agreement with DaVita in which Berkshire agreed to keep its stake in the company at 45% or lower.

As DaVita reduces its outstanding shares through buybacks, Berkshire needs to also cut its holdings to keep the ratio intact.

BUFFETT & BERKSHIRE AROUND THE INTERNET

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM CNBC'S BUFFETT ARCHIVE

Robinhood takes advantage of 'gambling instincts' (2021)

Robinhood takes advantage of "gambling instincts"

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BECKY QUICK: This question comes from Robert Miles in Nebraska.

"The trading apps. What do you think about Robinhood and other trading apps, or fintech companies, enabling all ages and experience to participate in the stock market?"

WARREN BUFFETT: (Laughs) Well, I'm looking forward to reading the S-1 on Robin — that's the big thing you file with the SEC when you're going to be offering securities, and —

It's — you know, it's become a very significant part of the casino aspect — of the casino group — that has joined into the stock market in the last year or year and a half.

And I do want to say I'm concerned of how they handle the source of income when they say they don't charge the customer anything. I mean, you know, I'm — it'll just be interesting to watch how they describe it. I mean, but —

But they — they have attracted — maybe set out to attract — but they have attracted, I think I read where 12 or 13% of their casino participants were dealing in (option) puts and calls.

I looked up on Apple, you know, the number of seven-day calls and 14-day calls outstanding. And I'm sure a lot of that is coming through Robinhood. And that's a bunch of people writing — they're gambling on the price of Apple over the next seven days or 14.

There's nothing, you know — there's nothing illegal about it. There's nothing immoral.

But — I don't think you'd build a society around people doing it. I mean, if a group of — a group of us landed on a desert island, and we knew we would never be rescued, and I was one of the group, and I said, well, I'll set up the exchange over here. (Laughs) And I'll trade our corn futures and everything around —

I think — I think the degree to which a very rich society can reward people who know how to take advantage, essentially, of the gambling instincts of the — not only the American public — worldwide public — it's, you know, it's not the most admirable part of the accomplishment.

But I think what America's accomplished is pretty admirable overall. (Laughs)

And I think actually, you know, American corporations have turned out to be a wonderful place for people to put their money and save. But they also make terrific gambling chips.

And if you cater to those gambling chips when people have money in their pocket for the first time, and you tell them they can make 30 or 40 or 50 trades a day, and you're not charging them any commission, but you're selling your order flow or whatever, it —

I hope we don't have more of it, I'll put it that way. And I will be interested in reading the prospectus.

Charlie?

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, that is really waving the red flag at the bull. (Laughter)

I think it's just God-awful that something like that would draw investment from civilized men and decent citizens. It's deeply wrong.

We don't want to make our money selling things that are bad for people.

WARREN BUFFETT: But we've got the states doing it with the lottery, you know.

CHARLIE MUNGER: No, but that's bad, too.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah, I know. I understand, but I'm saying —

CHARLIE MUNGER: That's very bad. That's very bad —

WARREN BUFFETT: Once you —

CHARLIE MUNGER: That's one of the things that's wrong with it. It's getting respectable to do these things.

The states are just as bad as Robinhood.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, in a sense they're worse. I mean, they're really taxing the —

CHARLIE MUNGER: I know it's — I know, I know.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. They're taxing hope.

CHARLIE MUNGER: Not only that —

WARREN BUFFETT: And they don't get much in the way of taxes from me and Charlie than they do —

CHARLIE MUNGER: The states in America replaced the Mafia as the proprietor of the numbers game. That's what happened.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yep.

CHARLIE MUNGER: They pushed the Mafia aside and said that's our business, not yours. Doesn't make me proud of my government.

WARREN BUFFETT: When I was a kid, my dad (Howard Buffett) was in Congress. They had a numbers runner in the House office building (laughs), actually.

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Four weeks

Twelve months

BRK.A stock price: $815,600.00

BRK.B stock price: $542.49

BRK.B P/E (TTM): 13.64

Berkshire market capitalization: $1,162,224,814,491

Berkshire Cash as of June 30: $365.5 billion (Down 8.0% from March 31)

Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $359.2 billion (Down 3.8% from March 31)

Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its shares in Q2 2026.

BERKSHIRE'S TOP EQUITY HOLDINGS - Oct. 30, 2026

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices.

Holdings are as of June 30, 2026, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on August 14, 2026, except for:

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@cnbc.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.

Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch

Source: CNBC · Alex Crippen

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