Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTAdam Levy, The Motley FoolSat, September 5, 2026 at 6:50 PM GMT+2 6 min readOne of the biggest questions Greg Abel faced after he took over for Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) at the start of 2026 was how he would manage the company's massive equity portfolio.Unlike Buffett, Abel doesn't have a significant background in capital allocation decisions. Abel is known as a strong operations manager, which makes him well-suited for overseeing Berkshire's dozens of owned-and-operated businesses.Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »But with an equity portfolio value of about $360 billion and roughly equal amounts of investable cash and Treasuries, as of this writing, the liquid portfolio accounts for far more of Berkshire's value than its own operations do. That's why many investors have been watching what Abel will do with the company's portfolio.Last quarter, Abel made some big moves, including purchasing about $4.5 billion of a single stock. And the company's quarterly filing revealed that he's buying billions more this quarter. Here's what investors need to know.Image source: Getty Images.As Warren Buffett wound down his tenure as CEO, he had created a couple of notable streaks in Berkshire's capital allocation.The first streak was that he was a net seller of stocks for 13 straight quarters. Abel continued that streak in the first quarter, unless you count the $9.7 billion acquisition of OxyChem as a stock purchase. Total net stock sales in the 14 quarters added up to $194.8 billion.Abel ended that streak last quarter. He bought a total of $23.5 billion worth of equities while selling just $3.7 billion. The biggest of those stock purchases, by far, was Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL).Buffett initiated the Alphabet position in the third quarter of 2025 and noted that he approves of Abel's decision to make it one of Berkshire's largest positions. That includes a $10 billion private placement Abel took in June, in addition to purchasing the stock in the public market.Alphabet is currently Berkshire's third-largest position, and Abel may be buying more of the stock while the price trades below the level at which he took the private placement. Investors will have to wait for public disclosures to find out for sure.It's another stock Abel bought in the second quarter that we know for certain he bought more of since the end of June. And that relates to the other notable streak Buffett started. After buying back Berkshire shares for 24 straight quarters, Buffett stopped repurchasing the stock in the third quarter of 2024. That began a streak of six straight quarters without a buyback.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info