As Warren Buffett approaches the end of his tenure as CEO Berkshire Hathaway(NYSE: BRKA )(NYSE: BRKB)he went on a sales streak unlike anything in history. He sold more stocks than he bought during the last 13 quarters of his time in charge of Berkshire’s large marketable equity portfolio. This led to a staggering $373 billion in cash by the end of 2025.
Buffett axed some of Berkshire’s biggest positions, and the latest quarter was no different. He continued to reduce her vastness in it Appl(NASDAQ: AAPL ) And started selling Berkshire Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN ) Sharing too. These sales totaled an estimated $4.5 billion. Meanwhile, Buffett started a new position at a company that had been around since the 1850s.
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Buffett invested more than $30 billion in Apple between 2016 and 2018, making it his largest investment. And boy, did it pay off.
Berkshire’s shares were worth nearly $200 billion before Buffett’s decision to cut the position in 2023. At one point, the stock accounted for more than 50% of Berkshire’s marketable equity portfolio. Even after selling more than three-quarters of its shares, the position is still worth $60 billion.
Buffett has previously said he doesn’t mind the high concentration of high-risk stocks in his portfolio, a sentiment echoed by new CEO Greg Abel in his first letter to shareholders. While Buffett may have been comfortable with 50% of Berkshire’s portfolio in one stock, he probably wasn’t as comfortable with that stock’s value.
Apple’s trailing P/E jumped from about 10 when Buffett first started buying shares to about 29 when he first started selling shares in 2023 and 34 at the end of 2025. The value remains high, even based on the future outlook, with the stock trading for 31 times the analyst estimate of the next 2 months.
Even after selling a large portion of Apple shares, the stock remains the market’s largest equity position, accounting for about 19% of the total portfolio as of this writing. Abel said investors should expect “limited activity” on Berkshire’s Apple shares in the future, so Berkshire may sell Apple stock.
Amazon’s decision to sell comes after Berkshire has held nearly the same position since early 2019. Many believe the Amazon position was created by Todd Combs, who left the company last quarter. As a result, it’s no big surprise that the company would want to divest some of the stocks he was responsible for managing for Berkshire.
Amazon looks like a relative value compared to where Berkshire initially bought shares in 2019. Its P/E ratio fell to 32 at the end of 2025, compared to the 80 times earnings that Berkshire used to buy.
That said, there may be concerns about its free cash flow as it invests heavily in new data centers to meet the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing. Amazon surprised investors with its $200 billion capital budget for 2026, which will likely result in negative free cash flow for the year.
Apple and Amazon aren’t the only stocks Buffett sold last quarter. And the continued selloff in Berkshire’s portfolio is a sign that Buffett still thinks much of the market is worth it at this point. That said, there are pockets of opportunity, and Buffett may have found another one right before retirement.
In his 2023 letter to shareholders, Buffett told investors, “Berkshire is no Big on newcomers.” He mentions this as an aside when describing his two favorite stocks: American Express and coca cola.
Amex started its operations in 1850 and Coca-Cola started in 1886. Buffett’s last venture began in 1851 New York Daily Times. Today, it is known as The New York Times(NYSE: NYT ). Buffett’s bet on the newspaper company comes at a time when news media, particularly print news media, are facing significant turmoil. But Buffett is no stranger to the news business.
Berkshire previously owned the shares Graham Holdingswhich owns The Washington Post Before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought it. Buffett served on the board in two terms for a combined 37 years. Today, Post is facing significant disruption, and recently laid off 30% of its workforce by 2025 after a loss of more than $100 million.
But the New York Times was able to buck the trend. It raised revenue by 9% in 2025 while keeping costs low, leading to a 23% increase in its operating profit. Net income was up 18% year over year, to $344 million.
This is related to the publisher’s digital transformation, which includes high-quality content in many categories beyond news. Its cooking and gaming content keeps readers engaged and coming back The New York Times For your journalism. Additionally, it expanded its niche market with sports coverage (The Athletic), product reviews (The Wirecutter), and podcasts. The New York Times has managed the transition to digital better than any other 174-year-old publisher, and even younger ones.
Subscriber growth remains strong for the company, up 1.4 million for the year, and 96% of those 12.8 million subscribers are digital-only and pay an average of $9.72 per month. Management expects that strength to continue in the first quarter, with digital-only customers growing between 14% and 17% year-over-year, which should lead to low-double-digit revenue growth.
It is worth noting that investors currently have to pay for a high-quality company. Shares trade at nearly 30 times forward earnings estimates. Buffett likely got a pretty good deal on the stock, which traded for several in the low-to-mid 20s in the third quarter. That seems like a fair price to pay for a great business. At the current price, though, it might be worth waiting for a good entry point.
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American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Adam Levy holds positions at Amazon and Apple. The Motley Fool holds and recommends positions at Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and The New York Times Company. Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Before retiring, Warren Buffett sold 2 AI stocks worth $4.5 billion and created a new position in the 174-year-old company that was originally published by The Motley Fool.
