These Are All of the Stocks Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's Successor, Dumped in the First Quarter

Greg Abel’s first Berkshire Hathaway 13F as CEO shows a more concentrated portfolio after 16 smaller positions were sold, including long-held stakes in Visa and Mastercard. Berkshire still holds 29 non-Japan positions, with Apple, American Express, and Coca-Cola remaining the top three, while Alphabet was notably tripled and new stakes were added in Delta Air Lines and Macy’s. The filing signals continuity with Buffett-style investing rather than a major strategic shift.

Analysis

This is less a “Buffett succession trade” than a portfolio hygiene event: Abel appears to be stripping low-conviction, smaller-capitalized positions to reduce clutter and re-center capital around the handful of names that can actually move Berkshire’s needle. The first-order read is benign, but the second-order effect is a higher-quality signal set for the market: when a conglomerate with permanent capital exits legacy positions, it often implies the marginal dollar is being reserved for internal deployment or a much narrower public-equity barbell.

The biggest competitive implication is not the sells themselves but the explicit capital-intensity preference that follows. By removing quasi-optional positions in consumer, insurance, and communications, Berkshire becomes a cleaner expression of financials-plus-select platform winners, which can tighten relative ownership pressure in the remaining holdings and support their multiples over the next 3-12 months. Alphabet stands out as the only meaningful “new economy” conviction add; that matters because it validates large-cap AI exposure as compatible with classic value discipline, potentially pulling incremental institutional flows into mega-cap tech from diversified value pools.

There is also a subtle negative read for some former holdings: if Berkshire no longer wants Visa/Mastercard at their current risk-adjusted return profile, the market may start questioning payment-network premium multiples in an environment where growth is normalizing and regulation remains a slow-burn overhang. That said, the move may be over-interpreted as bearish when it is really about opportunity cost. The main risk to the bullish interpretation is that this concentration increases idiosyncratic exposure; if a couple of the remaining core names underperform, the market will likely reassess whether Abel is pruning wisely or simply becoming more defensive at the wrong time.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long GOOGL vs. short basket of former Berkshire exits with similar quality profiles (V, MA, AMZN) over 1-3 months — bet on continued multiple support for AI-capable mega-caps relative to de-rated financial infrastructure/payment names.
• Reduce exposure to MA and V on strength for the next 4-8 weeks; the risk/reward is no longer attractive if Berkshire’s exit accelerates broader “quality at any price” unwinds in payments.
• Add AXP on pullbacks over a 3-6 month horizon — it remains the cleaner financial compounding vehicle inside the Berkshire ecosystem, with less sensitivity to regulatory narrative than networks.
• Use BRK.B as a low-volatility proxy for a concentrated quality basket, but size modestly; upside is limited unless capital returns or a large acquisition emerges, while downside is muted but real if core holdings lag.
• If looking for AI exposure without full mega-cap beta, pair long GOOGL with a short in a slower-growth consumer/credit name from the same “sell discipline” bucket over 2-4 months; this expresses the theme that secular growth is being preferred over legacy compounders.