Warren Buffett's Q1 2026 13F moves
TL;DR
Berkshire Hathaway's Q1 2026 13F-HR (filed 2026-05-15) discloses eight position changes: Delta Air Lines re-entry (first airline since 2020), Alphabet Class C add, Macy's add, New York Times add, and full exits of Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth Group, and Aon. Plus trims to Chevron and Constellation Brands. This is Berkshire's most active 13F in roughly six quarters — and the first time since 2020 they've bought an airline. Every transaction is reconstructable from EDGAR using Form 13F-HR.
The eight moves
New positions
- Delta Air Lines (DAL) — first airline re-entry since Q2 2020. Berkshire fully exited Delta + American + Southwest + United at the pandemic bottom, with Buffett saying publicly: “the airline business — and we owned 10% of the four largest — was changed by the virus.” Re-entering means Buffett (or a portfolio manager) now sees structural recovery that wasn't visible six years ago.
Position adds
- Alphabet Class C (GOOG) — meaningful add to a previously small position. Class C (no voting rights) was chosen over GOOGL (voting). Reduces Berkshire's tech concentration around Apple-only.
- Macy's (M) — add to existing Berkshire position. Macy's traded at low P/E multiples through Q1 2026.
- New York Times Co. (NYT) — subscription-economic business with ~10.8M digital subscribers. Durable-moat fit with Buffett's historical preferences.
Full exits
- Visa (V) — held since 2011. Multi-cycle exit after 15 years.
- Mastercard (MA) — held since 2011. Together with V, marks Berkshire's full withdrawal from the payment-network duopoly.
- UnitedHealth Group (UNH) — full exit. UNH had been a meaningful Berkshire holding.
- Aon plc (AON) — full exit. Aon is the insurance brokerage operator. Combined with the UNH exit, Berkshire's healthcare-and-insurance-services exposure dropped meaningfully this quarter.
Trims
- Chevron (CVX) — position trimmed but maintained. CVX remains a top-5 Berkshire holding.
- Constellation Brands (STZ) — recent-entry position trimmed. Trim within first year of entry suggests reconsideration of the thesis or position-sizing rebalance.
What the pattern signals
Q1 2026 marks Berkshire's most active 13F since 2024. The pattern: exits from established financial-services and payment-network positions, adds in tech-platform (GOOG) and value-rotation (M, NYT, DAL). The full exit of both Visa and Mastercard simultaneously is structurally significant — payment networks were a long-held Buffett-style “toll booth” thesis.
The Delta re-entry is the move with the most public-narrative weight. Buffett's 2020 admission that he'd been wrong on airlines became one of the most-cited investor concessions of the pandemic era. Re-entering Delta — even at modest size — signals that whichever Berkshire decision-maker drove the position (Buffett himself or Todd Combs / Ted Weschler) now sees an airline thesis robust enough to overcome that public-narrative cost.
How to verify this yourself
Every position change above is reconstructable from public SEC EDGAR filings. Steps:
- Open Berkshire Hathaway's 13F-HR filing history on EDGAR (CIK 0001067983).
- Compare the Q1 2026 13F (filed 2026-05-15) line-by-line against the Q4 2025 13F (filed Feb 2026).
- Position changes appear as: new CUSIP rows (new positions), increased share counts (adds), decreased share counts (trims), removed CUSIP rows (exits).
- Cross-reference with HoldLens's machine-readable /api/v1/snapshot/2026-Q1.json for a pre-computed summary across all 30 tracked managers including Berkshire.
Our view
Six historical trades reconstructable from SEC EDGAR alone. Each essay traces the trade through 13F + Form 4 + DEF 14A filings.
Berkshire's 1988-89 KO purchase — $1.3B → ~$28B, untouched 37 years.
Berkshire's 2016-onward AAPL accumulation — largest equity position in firm history.
The $5B preferred + 700M-share warrants at $7.14 strike. ~$13B paper gain at 2017 exercise.
Appaloosa's $2B March 2009 distressed-bank bet (BAC + C + AIG). ~$7B returned. $4B Tepper payday.
Scion Capital's 2005-2008 subprime CDS trade — ~489% net return.
Pershing Square's 2012-2018 multi-year activist campaign.
September 16, 1992. The single-day macro trade that broke the Bank of England.
1997-2023 hold + board seat — the canonical long-duration value position.
2013-2016 long-side activism — public letter to Tim Cook, ~$2B realized gain.
Cite this page
Researchers, journalists, and Wikipedia editors — citation formats load with the page. HoldLens content is freely available for reference; please cite.
Recommended reading
The six books that map the mental model behind every 13F on this site.
Bookshop.org affiliate links — HoldLens earns a 10% commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop.org is the indie-bookseller consortium that supports local bookstores. These are the books we actually recommend. Always do your own research.
Not investment advice. Sourced from public SEC EDGAR Form 13F-HR filings (Berkshire CIK 0001067983). All position changes verifiable from Form 13F-HR alone. See methodology.