Berkshire Hathaway disclosed sweeping portfolio changes on Friday, May 15, in its first 13F filing under new chief executive Greg Abel. The conglomerate closed 16 positions during the first quarter of 2026, exited several long-running Buffett-era holdings, and started two new positions — including a roughly $2.65 billion stake in Delta Air Lines — while more than tripling its bet on Alphabet.
The filing puts a stamp on what The Motley Fool called “Greg Abel’s portfolio now”, marking the clearest break yet from the investment style of the Buffett era. The 13F-HR report covers positions held at quarter-end on March 31, 2026.
The big exits: UnitedHealth, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, Domino’s
Five high-profile names headlined the 16 positions that Abel closed during the quarter, according to Seeking Alpha’s reading of the filing. Berkshire fully exited UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Amazon (AMZN), Visa (V), Mastercard (MA) and Domino’s Pizza (DPZ). Each of those names had been part of the Berkshire book for multiple quarters; Visa and Mastercard were originally accumulated through a stake first disclosed more than a decade ago by lieutenant Todd Combs.
The UnitedHealth exit came in the same week that Goldman Sachs added UNH to its U.S. Conviction List, framing two sharply divergent reads on the country’s largest managed-care insurer. UnitedHealth closed Friday at $384.44, up 1.17% on the session, before slipping fractionally in after-hours trading.
The new positions: $2.65 billion into Delta, a small Macy’s bet
Abel started two new positions in the quarter. The bigger of the two — and the headline trade for many market participants — was a roughly $2.65 billion investment in Delta Air Lines (DAL), per New York Post reporting on the filing. The trade is notable because Buffett famously dumped Berkshire’s entire airline book in 2020, calling the industry “a bottomless pit” during the pandemic-era cash burn. Abel’s return to the sector signals a different posture toward cyclicals.
The second new position was a smaller stake in department-store operator Macy’s (M). The disclosure sent Macy’s shares up roughly 7% to $19.74 in trading following the filing, according to MarketWatch. The reaction underlines how much price-discovery weight remains attached to a Berkshire disclosure, even on small stakes.
The conviction adds: Alphabet more than tripled
Berkshire more than tripled its stake in Alphabet (GOOGL), adding more than $2.6 billion of stock during the quarter, per the Boston Herald’s reporting on the filing. That makes Alphabet one of the few mega-cap technology names where Berkshire has materially leaned in over the last two quarters, even as it has trimmed Apple in prior periods.
On the reduction side, Berkshire continued to trim Chevron (CVX), extending a multi-quarter wind-down of what had been one of the conglomerate’s larger energy positions. The Chevron sale is consistent with Berkshire’s broader pull-back from concentrated energy exposure since 2024.
The numbers at a glance
| Position | Ticker | Action | Disclosed size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | DAL | New position | ~$2.65B |
| Macy’s | M | New position | Small stake |
| Alphabet | GOOGL | Increased (tripled) | ~$2.6B added |
| Chevron | CVX | Reduced | Not disclosed |
| UnitedHealth | UNH | Exited | Full sale |
| Amazon | AMZN | Exited | Full sale |
| Visa | V | Exited | Full sale |
| Mastercard | MA | Exited | Full sale |
| Domino’s Pizza | DPZ | Exited (part of 16 total exits) | |
What this tells us about Abel
Three themes stand out in Abel’s first 13F:
- Faster turnover than late-Buffett Berkshire. Sixteen exits in a single quarter is heavy activity for a firm long known for its low-portfolio-turnover discipline. The pace itself is a signal, even before considering which names were dropped.
- Reversal on previously taboo sectors. The new Delta stake breaks a five-year taboo on airlines that began with Buffett’s 2020 sale of Berkshire’s holdings in United, American, Delta and Southwest. The Macy’s bet revives an “old retail” exposure that Berkshire had largely moved away from.
- Doubling down on Alphabet. Tripling a position is unusually decisive for Berkshire. It suggests Abel sees Alphabet’s free-cash-flow profile and AI-monetization optionality as sufficiently mispriced even at current valuations.
Reading the market’s reaction
Outside of Macy’s, the immediate-tape reaction to the filing was muted. UnitedHealth held its bid into the close on Friday, supported in part by the Goldman conviction list addition that landed in the same window. Delta closed the week trading on its own catalysts — fuel costs, summer-travel demand commentary and an OEM delivery update — rather than the Berkshire flow.
That muted reaction is itself revealing. 13F filings are 45-day-lagged and reflect quarter-end positioning, which means Friday’s disclosure described book changes that mostly happened weeks before the market learned about them. The information value is in the shape of the new book — which Abel chose to keep, which he chose to drop — far more than in any single-name price implication.
What to watch next
Three questions for the second-quarter filing in August:
- Does Abel continue to thin out long-running consumer-finance positions (American Express remains a top-five holding) or does he draw the line at Visa/Mastercard?
- Is the Delta stake the start of a broader airline reentry, or a one-off opportunistic trade tied to fuel and capacity dynamics?
- Does the Alphabet build-out continue, and does it come at the expense of the Apple stake, which has been trimmed across multiple quarters?
Form 13F filings disclose long U.S. equity holdings only and do not include short positions, options, fixed-income, foreign-listed securities or cash — so the picture is partial. Berkshire’s full operating-company exposure runs far beyond what shows up on this filing.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (CIK 0001067983) Form 13F-HR filings
- New York Post — Berkshire’s $2.65B Delta investment and Macy’s stake disclosure
- MarketWatch — Macy’s shares jump 7% to $19.74 on Berkshire disclosure
- Boston Herald — Berkshire more than triples Alphabet stake, adds $2.6B
- Seeking Alpha — Abel exited 16 positions in Q1 2026, including Domino’s Pizza
- The Motley Fool — “This is Greg Abel’s portfolio now”; Goldman Sachs UNH Conviction List addition
- SEC — Form 13F: Information Required of Institutional Investment Managers
Disclosure: This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed before publication. It is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.