The Berkshire Beat: August 8, 2025
All of the latest Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway news!
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We’re less than one week away from Berkshire Hathaway’s latest 13F filing — which will reveal (hopefully) all of its investment activity from the second quarter.
But, with Berkshire a net seller yet again, don’t count on anything too monumental. Fingers crossed, though, that we learn the identity of the mystery stock that someone at Berkshire quietly scooped up in Q1 under confidential treatment.
Happily, there are a couple of new portfolio moves to discuss today. Both involve positions in which Berkshire owns more than 10% of the companies in question — and must, therefore, disclose any changes within two business days.
Berkshire bought 5.03 million more shares of Sirius XM between July 31 and August 4. This $106.5 million purchase boosts Berkshire’s stake in the satellite radio and streaming giant up to an impressive 37.1%. Howard Stern might be out over there, but Berkshire is still very much in on SIRI 0.00%↑.
On July 31, Berkshire also offloaded 1.6 million shares of Davita for $230 million. While the Form 4 filing does not explicitly link this sale to the Share Repurchase Agreement that caps Berkshire’s ownership at 45%, the timing and size of the transaction strongly suggests that is indeed the reason. Davita repurchased 3.1 million of its own shares in the June quarter — and Berkshire made this sale just a few days before the dialysis provider released its Q2 earnings. The stake now rests at a carefully calibrated 44.98%, just a hair under the agreed-upon limit.
By Berkshire’s standards, neither of these moves are particularly earth-shaking. A couple of hundred million dollars here and there is pretty much pocket change for a conglomerate of its size. Nevertheless, it’s yet another reminder that — even during the dog days of summer — Mr. Market can offer up an intriguing opportunity or two.
And, now, on to the latest news and notes out of Omaha…
Whitney Tilson released his current intrinsic value estimates for Berkshire Hathaway: $749,000 for Class A shares and $499 for the Class B variety. “I think Berkshire’s stock should modestly beat the S&P 500 over the next five years,” he wrote. “I would say Berkshire is still a ‘comfortable hold’ right now. But if you’re looking to buy the stock, you may not have to wait long for an attractive entry price.”
Back in March, I mentioned that the Berkshire-owned television station — WPLG in Miami, Florida — was going independent after seven decades as an ABC affiliate. A reader kindly pointed me towards a recent LinkedIn post by Jeff Weinsier, a veteran reporter at the station, that sheds more light on the situation. “Our parent company made the decision not to pay for programming that’s now easily found on streaming,” he wrote. “ABC is all-in on Hulu and truthfully, the future of broadcast is shifting. Networks may not need affiliates someday. Industry insiders say we’re ahead of the curve.” Weinsier added that WPLG has hired more than forty additional people as it transitions to fully local programming.
While WPLG is the teensiest of cogs in Berkshire’s vast machinery, Weinsier’s comments might tell us something about Greg Abel’s leadership style compared to that of Warren Buffett. The decision to leave ABC came down from the parent company — Berkshire Hathaway — which certainly seems like a departure from Buffett’s famously hands-off approach to management. Perhaps this is a preview of how Abel will be much more operationally involved when he takes over as CEO.
BNSF Railway set a new all-time best for terminal dwell last month. “In July,” vice president Matt Garland wrote on LinkedIn, “we once again hit new service highs — by reaching new lows. When it comes to what we call dwell, you want a lower number. Dwell is the average number of hours a railcar stays at a terminal before it’s moved to its next destination.” He singled out the Pearland (TX) facility for special praise as it finished the month with 100% on-time performance.
An SEC filing revealed the official details of Berkshire’s recent Verisign stock sale. On July 30, Berkshire sold 4.3 million shares of VRSN 0.00%↑ at an average price of $282.15 a piece. That works out to another $1.21 billion for the company coffers. Berkshire still owns 8,989,880 shares of the domain name giant — and will continue to do so for some time as they are now subject to a one-year lockup period.
In a rare all-hands meeting in Cupertino last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly delivered a fiery call-to-arms on the company’s AI efforts. Addressing the crowd, Cook positioned artificial intelligence as a transformative force — “as big or bigger” than other technological tidal waves like the internet, mobility, and cloud computing. And, up to this point, Apple has faced criticism for lagging behind its Silicon Valley rivals in this department. But, insisted Cook, the race has just begun. “Apple must do this,” he said. “Apple will do this. This is ours to grab. We will make the investment to do it.”
Cook added that Apple trailing the AI pack is nothing new for the company. “We’ve rarely been first,” he said. “There was a PC before the Mac. There was a smartphone before the iPhone. There were many tablets before the iPad. There was an MP3 player before iPod.” But it took Apple to perfect the design and usability of each nascent technology. “This is how I feel about AI,” said Cook.
Occidental Petroleum will sell “certain gas gathering assets” in the Midland portion of the Permian Basin to an affiliate of Enterprise Products Partners for $580 million. Upon closing, the proceeds will go towards reducing Oxy’s debt — which had ballooned up after the CrownRock acquisition. “We are pleased with how we continue to strategically strengthen our portfolio,” said CEO Vicki Hollub, “and it’s rewarding to see those efforts drive debt reduction and create value for shareholders. We believe Occidental has the best assets in our history and we will continue to find opportunities to high-grade our portfolio and generate long-term value.”
On Kraft Heinz’s Q2 2025 earnings call, CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera did not exactly deny the rumors about a potential corporate breakup. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that KHC 0.00%↑ is planning to spin off its slow-growing grocery business. And, while he stopped short of confirming the story, Abrams-Rivera did not dismiss the speculation, either. “Our board is working with urgency on an evaluation of those strategic options to unlock long-term strategic value creation,” he said. “What I will say — and I’ll remind our investors — is that we will operate with the same financial discipline you have come to expect from us. So any actions, if any, will be consistent with that goal of unlocking that long-term shareholder value.”
And, finally, a few odds and ends to finish off the week…
Today, Berkshire will collect $124.3 million in quarterly dividends from American Express and $3 million from Mastercard.
Bloomberg reports that CSX is working with Goldman Sachs to explore consolidation options after Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern rocked the industry with a potential mega-merger to create the first true transcontinental railroad. This story seems more believable than BNSF consulting Goldman.
Early next week, a new edition of Uncommon Sense (with an appropriate theme for this time of year) will go out to all paid supporters. If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading, there’s no time like the present.
Strange how no hard information is available on DQ since it was bought. Sales? Performance of management?