Adding over $10 billion to its Google position! Abel’s first-quarter U.S. equity moves as Berkshire’s new leader: exiting 16 stocks, re-entering airline stocks after six years...

Industrials & Building Materials: HEICO, Allegion, Pool Corp (POOL) As reported by The Wall Street Journal on April 17, citing informed sources, Abel has sold off a batch of stocks previously managed by former investment manager Todd Combs—and has no plans to appoint a new investment manager to replace him. Combs departed Berkshire at the end of 2025 to lead a new strategic investment initiative at JPMorgan Chase, marking the formal end of Berkshire’s long-standing “dual portfolio manager” structure (Todd Combs & Ted Weschler), which had lasted over a decade. Berkshire has never publicly disclosed which stocks each manager oversaw. However, the market has long attributed several holdings—including Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, and UnitedHealth—to Combs. According to a CNBC article published on April 20, Visa and Mastercard were among Combs’ largest positions dating back to his tenure at Castle Point Capital before joining Berkshire; Amazon was first initiated by Combs in 2019 and had already been reduced by nearly 80% in Q4 2025. All four were fully exited in Q1. Other stocks—including HEICO, Pool Corp, Domino’s, Aon, Allegion, Diageo, Charter Communications, Liberty Media Formula One, Warriner Holdings, Liberty Latin America Classes A/C, and Lamar Advertising—were not officially attributed to either manager by Berkshire. Yet they share common traits: relatively small position sizes (ranked near the bottom of the portfolio) and each accounted for less than 1% of the portfolio’s total market value over the past year. In its May 11 deep-dive analysis of Berkshire’s Q1 10-Q filing, Kingswell wrote: “If recent media reports are accurate—that Berkshire liquidated much of the portfolio inherited from Combs—then this single factor alone would explain the bulk of Q1’s sell-off. Excluding this one-time disposal, Berkshire was, in fact, a notably net buyer during Q1.” Chevron was reduced by 35.17% in Q1—from 130 million shares to 84.38 million shares. Like Bank of America (reduced by 0.71%), it is not included in Abel’s core list named in his shareholder letter. IV. Core Holdings Unchanged In his 2025 shareholder letter, Abel identified four U.S. public companies—Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody’s—as core holdings, along with five Japanese trading houses: Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo. He wrote: “A large portion of our portfolio is concentrated in a small number of U.S. companies—such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody’s—businesses we understand well, hold their management teams in high regard, and expect to compound value profitably for decades to come. This concentrated approach will continue. We intend to make only modest adjustments to these positions unless we observe fundamental shifts in their long-term economic prospects.” He also noted that, together with the five Japanese trading houses, these nine positions totaled over $200 billion in market value—approximately two-thirds of Berkshire’s entire equity portfolio. All four U.S. core holdings remained unchanged in Berkshire’s Q1 13F filing. At the May 2 shareholder meeting, 95-year-old Warren Buffett sat in the audience—not on stage—for the first time.

Hermès stock downgraded to 'sell' rating; H1 2026 revenue up 6.1%

Goldman Sachs analyst Erwan Rambourg and his team argue that Hermès’ multi-year double-digit growth streak has ended, with weakness in non-leather goods categories being a major drag on performance. Since sales of non-leather goods rely heavily on aspirational shoppers, they are more sensitive to macro-level consumer sentiment. Rambourg stated: “We expect its revenue growth to remain slightly above peers—but noticeably more moderate than investors have grown accustomed to.” UBS analyst Zuzanna Pusz downgraded Hermès from “neutral” to “sell,” slashing its 12-month price target from €1,695 to €1,168. UBS explained that Hermès’ brand scarcity is eroding, as supply in the secondary market increases, resale prices converge with—or even discount—boutique retail prices, and quota-free bag models become increasingly available. Consequently, demand is becoming more susceptible to cyclical fluctuations. While Hermès’ financial figures alone do not look poor, they clearly lack the upside surprise seen in prior years. In H1 2026, Hermès reported revenue of €8.163 billion, up 6.1% at constant exchange rates; operating profit stood at €3.35 billion, with an operating margin of 41%. Leather goods and saddlery—the company’s primary revenue driver—grew 9.8% year-on-year; the Americas region rose 15.3%, and Japan rose 11%, making them the two fastest-growing markets. Extending the timeline further, Hermès’ revenue growth has been trending downward since 2021: from 42% in 2021 to just 9% in 2025.

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Albemale Corporation reported Q3 2026 net sales of $1.6 billion, driven by higher lithium pricing and increased specialty volumes. The company raised its full-year outlook while managing supply challenges and CEO transition plans.

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