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Berkshire Hathaway's biggest new investment last quarter was a return to a sector its former CEO famously abandoned. The Omaha-based conglomerate purchased 39.8 million shares of Delta Air Lines, valued at $2.6 billion at the end of March, making it the company's 14th largest holding. Delta shares rose more than 3% Monday after the disclosure.
The move comes under new CEO Greg Abel, who took over from Warren Buffett at the start of the year. Berkshire disclosed the quarter-end equity holdings in a regulatory filing Friday, giving investors one of the first detailed looks at how Abel is reshaping the portfolio. Abel has said he continues to consult Buffett, who is 95, on investment decisions.
"He's in the office every day, so we're talking every day if I'm in Omaha, we're always connecting," Abel said in March. "If I'm traveling, like I was yesterday, I often check in just to catch up on what he's seeing, what he's hearing, what am I feeling. So if it's not every day, it's every couple days."
The Delta purchase reverses a decision Buffett made in 2020, when he surprised markets by selling Berkshire's entire U.S. airline portfolio, unloading positions worth more than $4 billion in United, American, Southwest and Delta. Buffett argued at the time that the pandemic had permanently reshaped consumer habits and travel demand. The new stake suggests Abel sees the airline industry differently, or at least sees Delta differently, than his predecessor did coming out of the pandemic years.
Berkshire also initiated a position in Macy's last quarter. The department store's shares climbed more than 2% Monday after the filing showed a new stake valued at roughly $55 million at the end of the first quarter. The stake is small relative to Berkshire's overall portfolio, and according to CNBC, many observers speculated it was bought by investment lieutenant Ted Weschler, who manages 6% of the equity portfolio.
The conglomerate also significantly increased its relatively new position in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, making it Berkshire's seventh-largest holding. At the same time, Berkshire trimmed its stake in Chevron.
On the sell side, Berkshire unloaded a number of positions last quarter, a move widely attributed to the departure of Todd Combs, who left the company at the end of 2025 to join JPMorgan. Combs had been personally recruited by Buffett to manage Berkshire's equity portfolio alongside Weschler. The stocks sold included Mastercard and Visa, two early Combs investments that reflected positions from his former hedge fund, as well as a full exit from Amazon, another holding broadly seen as tied to him.
Other stocks Berkshire sold included UnitedHealth Group, Aon, Pool Corporation, Domino's Pizza and Charter Communications.
Abel took center stage at Berkshire's annual meeting earlier this month, his first as CEO of the conglomerate Buffett built over more than five decades.
