Greg Abel Quietly Ends Berkshire’s 14-Quarter Selling Streak

For 14 consecutive quarters, Berkshire Hathaway sold more stock than it bought — a stretch of institutional patience that outlasted even Warren Buffett’s famously long timeline. That streak just broke. In Q2, under new CEO Greg Abel, Berkshire became a net buyer for the first time since 2022, purchasing roughly $23.5 billion in shares against $3.7 billion sold, a net swing of about $20 billion. The long-term signal here matters more than the headline earnings beat: Berkshire’s capital allocation engine, dormant since Buffett began stepping back, is running again.

The numbers underneath tell a disciplined story, not a reckless one. Operating earnings rose 16% year-over-year to $12.98 billion, while net earnings more than doubled to $25.67 billion, boosted by $12.68 billion in investment gains. Buybacks jumped from a token $235 million in Q1 to $4.5 billion in Q2, with another $3.3 billion repurchased in July alone. Roughly $21 billion of the new buying went into commercial and industrial names, alongside a fresh $6.8 billion all-cash acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison — a bet on U.S. housing that plays out over years, not quarters. Even after this spending, Berkshire’s cash and Treasury position sits at $365.5 billion, down modestly from a record $397.4 billion but still the largest dry-powder reserve of any public company on earth.

What makes this notable isn’t the size of the checks — it’s the pattern. Abel, now a full two quarters into the job, appears to be applying the same discipline Buffett preached for six decades: hoard cash when prices are unattractive, deploy decisively when they aren’t. Hedge fund ownership of Berkshire dipped slightly during the leadership transition (133 funds to 126), a modest wobble rather than a vote of no confidence, especially with short interest sitting at a negligible 0.92%.

So what for long-term investors: the reopening of Berkshire’s capital spigot is a tell about where a famously patient, valuation-sensitive allocator sees value right now — industrials, commercial names, and U.S. housing exposure — while still keeping over a third of a trillion dollars in reserve for the next real dislocation. For investors trying to gauge whether markets are overheated or merely fully priced, Abel’s willingness to spend, rather than his rhetoric, is the more reliable signal to watch.