Shock Sale at Berkshire Hathaway: Longtime Supporter and Berkshire Director’s Firm Sells 30% of Holdings

TradingKey - As shares of Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by legendary investor Warren Buffett, retreated from recent highs, a notable move by one of its board members has raised concerns. Davis Selected Advisers, an investment firm affiliated with Chris Davis — a long-time supporter of Buffett and a current member of Berkshire’s board — sold about 30% of its Berkshire stock holdings. Amid Buffett’s upcoming departure and a sharp drop in Q2 profits, the future of the iconic conglomerate faces added uncertainty.

On August 11, Barron’s reported, based on the latest 13F regulatory filing, that Davis Selected Advisers, which manages the Davis New York Venture Fund, reduced its Berkshire holdings from over 2,000 shares at the end of March to 1,434 shares, a decline of approximately 28.3%.

The report noted that in dollar terms, Berkshire remains the third-largest holding in the firm’s portfolio, valued at about $1 billion, or roughly 5% of the fund, behind Capital One Financial and Meta. In the previous quarter, the firm increased its stakes in Nvidia, UnitedHealth, and Applovin.

However, according to combined data from TradingKey and WhaleWisdom, the firm’s position in Berkshire has slipped from third place in Q1 to seventh in Q2, with its portfolio weight dropping from around 7% to 4%. For more on Chris Davis’s portfolio changes, explore the TradingKey Star Investor tool.

Davis Selected Advisers Holdings, Source: TradingKey

Chris Davis’s position changes are significant because he and his firm have long been staunch advocates of Berkshire, sharing Buffett’s value-oriented investment philosophy.

However, the firm stated that Chris Davis himself did not participate in the decision to sell Berkshire shares. It emphasized that the investment team’s decision does not reflect a change in the firm’s view on Berkshire stock, and that Davis did not sell any of his personal Berkshire holdings during the quarter — he owns 36 Class A shares, worth about $25 million, and $1 million in Class B shares.

The firm added that Davis, as a Berkshire director, recused himself from investment decisions involving the stock, and that he has not sold a single share of his personal holdings since joining the board.

Nonetheless, the fact that a firm linked to a Berkshire board member led the way in selling shares is concerning — especially amid ongoing stock price weakness and deteriorating performance.

In Q2, Berkshire’s stock fell over 8%; from its peak in early May, it has declined 12%, while the S&P 500 has risen about 14% over the same period.

Berkshire’s Q2 earnings, released earlier this month, showed revenue growth to over $92.5 billion, but net income plunged 59% year-on-year to $12.37 billion, below the $10.703 billion consensus.

Eleven consecutive quarters of net stock sales reflect the company’s cautious investment stance — a strategy that Wall Street had hoped would shift toward more active capital deployment.

Although Buffett, Berkshire’s iconic leader, is set to step down at the end of the year, UBS remains optimistic about the company’s outlook and has raised its price target for Berkshire Class B shares to $597, citing that its revised revenue outlook still exceeds the bank’s forecast.

Analyst Price Target for Berkshire Class B Stock, Source: TradingKey