Everyone Is Watching Greg Abel. But Another Berkshire Hathaway Stock Picker Is Quietly Winning in 2026.

Article highlights that Berkshire Hathaway’s Ted Weschler-selected positions in DaVita and SiriusXM are leading gains in 2026. DaVita is up 102%+ YTD, buoyed by strong results and investor appreciation for aggressive share repurchases, while SiriusXM is up 50%+ YTD on better-than-expected results and bullish guidance updates. Despite Greg Abel taking over as CEO and leaning toward technology investments (e.g., $10B Alphabet private placement), Weschler’s continued role suggests Berkshire remains anchored to value-style, long-duration compounding equities.

Analysis

The real signal is not that two legacy-value names are working; it is that Berkshire’s decision process still has internal continuity despite the succession headline risk. That should keep the post-Buffett governance discount from widening, because the market hates a forced-style pivot more than it hates any single stock pick. For BRK.B, that argues for a persistently lower-volatility multiple versus other conglomerates if capital allocation remains disciplined.

The two winners also tell us different things about what kind of returns are being harvested. DaVita’s move is mostly buyback math plus a rerating of defensive cash flow, which is fragile if reimbursement, labor, or leverage starts to matter again; SiriusXM’s rerating is even more sentiment-driven because low-multiple, slow-growth equities can fall back quickly if subscriber quality or ad demand softens. In other words, both names have more room for disappointment than for multiple expansion from here unless fundamentals inflect again over the next 1-3 quarters.

The contrarian take is that investors are over-reading portfolio optics and under-reading scale: these positions are too small to move Berkshire’s intrinsic value, and the more consequential decision is whether Abel keeps leaning into large-cap tech like GOOGL. If Berkshire’s next filing shows a broader shift out of healthcare/payments and into software/platform cash generators, that would matter more for the conglomerate’s future identity than one year of outperformance in DVA or SIRI. The thesis breaks if Weschler exits, or if Berkshire’s public equity book starts looking like a generic mega-cap barbell rather than a compounding value franchise.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Buy BRK.B on any 3-5% pullback as a low-beta compounder; the risk/reward is favorable as long as succession remains orderly and the next 13F does not show an abrupt style break.
• Trim or avoid chasing DVA after the rerating; if long, use strength to scale out or pair it vs FMS on the view that buybacks are doing more work than underlying operating growth.
• Consider a small tactical long in SIRI via a call spread or limited-risk equity entry only on a pullback; thesis is 1-3 month FCF discipline, but it is falsified by churn deterioration or a guidance cut.
• Set an alert for Berkshire’s next filing and any evidence of Weschler departure; that is the key catalyst that would widen the post-Buffett uncertainty discount on BRK.B.