August Lee Pfluger II makes significant purchases in Amerco, Berkshire Hathaway, and others

Texas Rep. August Lee Pfluger II disclosed six stock purchases, each valued at $15,001-$50,000, across Amerco, Berkshire Hathaway, Dorchester Minerals, Enterprise Products Partners, Kimbell Royalty Partners, and Viper Energy. All transactions were executed on March 13, 2026 and reported on March 31, 2026 through a U.S.-based investment vehicle. The filing is informational rather than market-moving and does not indicate any change in corporate fundamentals.

Analysis

The signal here is less about any single name and more about a concentrated tilt toward hard-asset cash flows and balance-sheet durability. When a political insider groups midstream, royalty, and a large-cap conglomerate in one basket, the second-order read is a preference for businesses with inflation pass-through, low reinvestment intensity, and relatively stable distributions. That favors EPD and the royalty vehicles first, because they monetize volume/commodity exposure without the same capex burden as operators, while BRK.B serves as the “quality ballast” if growth expectations or credit conditions wobble.

The more interesting nuance is that the energy names are not a single-factor bet on oil; they are differentiated exposures to a “higher-for-longer” commodity regime. If crude softens modestly, the royalty names typically compress faster than midstream because their cash flows are more directly exposed to pricing rather than take-or-pay fee structures. That makes KRP/VNOM the more levered upside expression and EPD the better downside-defensive hold if the market starts pricing in slower drilling activity or weaker refinery demand over the next 3-6 months.

Contrarian risk: these purchases may simply reflect a retail-style “own what you understand” allocation, not a view with predictive power. If investors crowd into the same energy complex after a political trade print, the easy upside can get arbitraged away quickly, especially in smaller royalty names where liquidity is thin and flows can dominate fundamentals for weeks. The cleaner edge is to separate durable cash generators from duration-sensitive commodity beta rather than treating the whole basket as one trade.

From a market-structure perspective, the biggest beneficiary outside the named tickers is likely the broader domestic small-cap energy ecosystem if this is read as a positive sign for drilling discipline and MLP yield support. But if AI/server demand stays robust and keeps power loads elevated, the indirect winner may actually be midstream assets tied to gas throughput and NGL volumes, not pure upstream names. That creates a subtle lagged trade: energy infrastructure can outperform commodity producers over a 6-12 month horizon if investors rotate from price leverage to yield stability.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long EPD vs short KRP as a 3-6 month pair trade: favor fee-based cash flow and lower commodity sensitivity; target 8-12% relative outperformance if oil/gas volatility rises.
• Buy VNOM on pullbacks only, with a 1-2 month entry window and tight risk controls: higher torque to commodity upside, but expect sharper drawdowns if WTI rolls over.
• Accumulate BRK.B as a defensive equity hedge over 6-12 months: lower upside beta, but better risk-adjusted if growth or credit conditions deteriorate.
• Avoid chasing DMLP on the headline alone; use it only as a small satellite position because smaller royalty vehicles can gap on flow-driven moves unrelated to fundamentals.
• If the market starts pricing a commodity drawdown, rotate from royalty exposure into midstream yield (EPD) rather than exiting energy entirely; the risk/reward is materially better in a softer tape.