Berkshire pads Delta, Alphabet stakes as Abel taps cash pile

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. boosted its investments in Delta Air Lines and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, while CEO Greg Abel tapped into the firm's substantial cash reserves. In his second quarter as chief executive, following the departure of Chairman Warren Buffett, Berkshire added 17.5 million shares of Delta, raising its stake's value to $5.37 billion as of June's end, per the company's June filing.

Alphabet became the third-largest holding for the conglomerate, worth $37.8 billion at midyear, following Abel's acquisition of an additional 48.1 million shares. Berkshire also spent approximately $4.5 billion on stock repurchases during the period, alongside a net acquisition of nearly $20 billion in other equities, as reported in a recent second-quarter results announcement.

The company held $365.5 billion in cash by midyear, a decrease from the $397 billion peak reached at the end of March. Under Abel, Berkshire has overseen two significant multibillion-dollar deals following Buffett's tenure, with Abel investing $6.8 billion in homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home Corp., a traditional value-oriented purchase, and providing $10 billion to Alphabet to support its artificial intelligence initiatives, a novel focus for the conglomerate.

Taylor Morrison's acquisition was finalized last month. Earlier, Berkshire expanded its holdings in homebuilder Lennar Corp., bringing the investment to around $1.21 billion. The firm also reduced its stake in Bank of America, now owning 6.8% of the U.S. lender's shares. Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation divested nearly 2.4 million Berkshire Class B shares, decreasing its shareholding to $7.35 billion by the quarter's end, according to a separate filing.

Bill Gates recently expressed no plans to make further gifts to the philanthropy, given increased scrutiny over his connections to the late Jeffrey Epstein. This report was initially published on Fortune.com.