How Buffett’s 2025 Portfolio Changes Could Impact Your Financial Strategy

Warren Buffett’s recent regulatory filings are catnip for copycat investors. They reveal any quiet trims, fresh positions, and exits made by Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A and BRK.B), of which Buffett is chair and chief executive. (Buffett has said he will relinquish his CEO role late this year.) Those market moves hint at how Berkshire Hathaway is navigating today’s market.

But remember, the regulatory (13F) forms can be filed up to 45 days after quarter-end, and they show only U.S.-listed long holdings. They omit cash, Treasurys, non-U.S. stocks, and derivatives—so you’re viewing a delayed, partial snapshot.

The right takeaway isn’t to copy the tickers, but to understand the logic. Used well, Berkshire’s disclosures can sharpen your watchlist and your overall investment process.

What Berkshire Actually Did in 2025

New Buys 

• UnitedHealth (UNH): Initiated a position, buying about 5 million shares (market value: about $1.6 billion). This could signal a contrarian bet by Buffett in the face of sector headwinds that the battered health insurer is undervalued.
• Nucor (NUE): Approximately 6.6 million shares newly disclosed after an earlier confidentiality request (which typically signals that Berkshire was still trying to add shares). The steelmaker is seen as a cyclical cash generator with strong discipline.
• Lennar (LEN): Just over 7 million shares; D.R. Horton (DHI): About 1.5 million shares. Both suggest a durable demand view on U.S. housing.
• Lamar Advertising (LAMR) and Allegion (ALLE): Smaller new positions that expand exposure to asset-heavy cash flows and building-security hardware.

What Was Added to Existing Positions 

• Chevron (CVX): Stake increased; energy remains a Berkshire mainstay.
• Pool Corp (POOL), Constellation Brands (STZ), Heico (HEI), Domino’s (DPZ): Incremental adds to steady cash-return franchises.
• Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (SIRI). Classic value play, adding to stake in stock with current trailing 12-month dividend yield around 4.7%, whose share price had downtrended in 2024 and early 2025.

Trims and Exits 

• Apple (AAPL): Sold about 20 million shares (worth about $4 billion), but still maintains about 280 million shares as Berkshire’s largest single holding. It’s seen as a step taken largely to control risk and raise cash for Berkshire Hathaway, not a repudiation of Apple.
• Bank of America (BAC): Trimmed about 26 million shares, but remains a core position.
• T-Mobile (TMUS): Fully exited.
• Charter (CHTR): Cut roughly 47%.
• Verisign (VRSN): Sold nearly 33% of existing position.
• DaVita (DVA): A nearly 5% reduction.

(Sources: Berkshire’s Q2 2025 Form 13F; Q1 included confidential treatment, with positions subsequently revealed in Q2.)

Why Copying Berkshire Can Backfire 

Berkshire plays with advantages most investors lack, including scale, float, and optionality. As of second quarter 2025, Berkshire reported nearly $244 billion in short-term U.S. Treasury bills and about $100 billion in cash, earning substantial risk-free income while waiting for bargains. That liquidity lets Buffett be patient—and opportunistic—without performance pressure. You probably don’t have an insurance float or cash hoard that big. So, proportionately similar individual position concentrations and drawdowns in your portfolio could have very different consequences.

There are also data gaps. 13Fs show only U.S.-listed long positions; they omit cash, Treasurys, derivatives, shorts, and non-U.S. holdings. So Berkshire’s 13F filing doesn’t show you the complete picture of the Berkshire portfolio.

Berkshire also sometimes gets confidential treatment from regulators while accumulating positions, meaning the public learns months later. Blindly mirroring can inadvertently turn you into the liquidity for Berkshire’s next big trade.

And keep in mind the timing lags. SEC Form 13Fs are due up to 45 days after quarter-end (second quarter reports were due Aug. 14), so the prices of individual securities and Berkshire Hathaway’s positions may have already moved. Use these disclosures to frame research questions (e.g., “What’s UNH worth on normalized margins?”) rather than to place next-day copycat trades.

Should you follow Buffett? Berkshire’s latest buys (UNH, Nucor, Lennar, D.R. Horton, Lamar, Allegion), sales (Apple, BAC) and complete exits (T-Mobile) sketch a disciplined rotation from rich winners to sturdy cash engines. But because 13Fs are delayed and incomplete, and because Berkshire’s scale and liquidity are unique, use these disclosures as research starting points, not matching orders.