What Buffett's Q4 2025 Portfolio Tells Us About Berkshire's Q1 2026 13F Filing
Berkshire Hathaway's Q4 2025 13F shows $274B in public equity across just 42 holdings. Here's the complete watchlist for what to track when Buffett's Q1 2026 filing drops on May 15.
TL;DR — Berkshire Q4 2025 at a glance:
AUM: $274.16B | Holdings: 42 | Whale Score: 86
Top two positions: Apple (22.60%) + American Express (20.46%) = ~43% of visible book
Top four positions: AAPL, AXP, BAC (10.38%), KO (10.20%) = ~63.6% of visible book
Energy anchor: Chevron (7.24%) + Occidental (3.97%)
Latest filing data: Q4 2025 (Dec 2025)
Next filing: May 15, 2026
Core question: Will Q1 2026 show the first meaningful capital deployment — or another quarter of patience?
Why Berkshire's Q1 2026 13F Will Be the Most-Watched Filing of the Season
May 15, 2026. That is when Berkshire Hathaway files its Q1 13F — and when investors will finally learn whether Warren Buffett moved on the $330B+ cash pile he has been building for years, or stood pat for one more quarter.
Berkshire is not just the largest institutional filer by public recognition. It occupies a category of its own in the 13F universe. Most multi-manager funds disclose hundreds or thousands of positions; meaningful moves get buried in the noise. Berkshire runs only 42 disclosed holdings against a $274.16B visible equity book. At that level of concentration, nothing hides. When Buffett makes a real move, the market reads it within hours of the filing hitting EDGAR.
That is exactly what makes the May 15 Q1 2026 filing the most-watched 13F of the season — not Buffett's celebrity, but the structural readability of the book. The Q4 2025 visible portfolio gives us a precise baseline to measure against. The question is whether Q1 2026 shows movement.
One clarification before going further: 13F filings cover only U.S. public equity positions. Berkshire's full asset base includes BNSF Railroad, Geico, Berkshire Energy, dozens of manufacturing subsidiaries, and a cash and T-bill reserve that is simply not visible in 13F data. What follows is an analysis of the disclosed equity book — which is still $274 billion and more than sufficient to draw signal from.
Berkshire's Q4 2025 Portfolio Was Still Extremely Concentrated
Based on Berkshire Hathaway's current disclosed holdings, the Q4 2025 (Dec 2025) book looks like this:
$274.16B in public equity. 42 positions. Whale Score: 86.
| Position | % of Portfolio | Est. $ Value |
|---|---|---|
| AAPL (Apple) | 22.60% | ~$61.96B |
| AXP (American Express) | 20.46% | ~$56.09B |
| BAC (Bank of America) | 10.38% | ~$28.47B |
| KO (Coca-Cola) | 10.20% | ~$27.96B |
| CVX (Chevron) | 7.24% | ~$19.85B |
| OXY (Occidental) | 3.97% | ~$10.88B |
| All others combined | ~25.15% | ~$68.99B |
Apple and American Express alone account for roughly 43% of the entire visible portfolio. Add Bank of America and Coca-Cola, and the top four positions control approximately 63.6% of disclosed equity value. By any conventional institutional standard, this is not a diversified book. It is a conviction portfolio.
That concentration is what makes Berkshire's 13F both easy to read and impossible to ignore. Unlike a 1,000-line hedge fund filing where a $500M new position barely registers at 0.3% weight, a $500M move at Berkshire is still roughly 0.2% of the portfolio — but the absence of noise means even small changes propagate clearly through the concentration structure.
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What Changed: Reading the Q4 2025 Book Against Prior Quarters
The Q4 2025 filing reflects a portfolio that has been remarkably stable in its top-line structure. Apple's dominance at 22.60% represents Buffett's ongoing commitment to the position as a consumer-brand holding — not a tech stock in the traditional sense, in his framing. American Express at 20.46% continues to reflect a relationship Buffett has maintained for decades, viewing AXP as a durable consumer-credit franchise rather than a cyclical financial play.
What the Q4 2025 book does not tell us is whether any of this stability is intentional patience or market-value drift. A 22.60% Apple weight at a different stock price could represent a meaningfully different dollar allocation than it did two or three quarters ago. The percentage view is useful; the dollar view requires the underlying position-size data visible in the full 13F filing.
The capital deployment question frames the entire filing preview differently from a static holdings recap. Berkshire is not a fund that rotates positions for performance attribution. Buffett does not trim Apple to buy Nvidia. The meaningful questions in any Berkshire filing season are:
- Did a new position large enough to matter enter the top 20?
- Did any existing major position change by more than market-value drift?
- Does the energy allocation continue its systematic expansion in OXY?
- Does the financials weight signal a view on U.S. banking and credit durability?
Those four questions define the Berkshire Q1 2026 watchlist.
The Real Question Is Not "What Does Buffett Own?" — It's "Where Does New Capital Go?"
Berkshire's Q4 2025 equity book is public knowledge. Apple, American Express, Bank of America, Coca-Cola — these positions are disclosed, widely covered, and priced in by the market. The 13F filing is not providing new information about what Berkshire currently holds in these names.
What the Q1 2026 filing will provide is evidence about what Berkshire did with capital between January 1 and March 31, 2026. And that evidence is where the useful signal lives.
Buffett's cash reserve — estimated in the $330B+ range going into 2026 — is the single most consequential variable that the 13F cannot show. If any portion of that cash found a home in Q1 2026, it will appear as either a meaningful increase in an existing position or a new entry in the 42-stock disclosed book. Either outcome is actionable. Either outcome is readable. The 42-stock structure guarantees that.
The framing that serves investors is not "here is Berkshire's famous portfolio." The framing is: this is the baseline we are measuring Q1 2026 against. 13F Insight surfaces those position-level comparisons automatically — quarter-over-quarter changes, concentration shifts, and new entries — instead of requiring readers to manually parse SEC tables.
Berkshire's filing will generate instant headlines, but the useful signal is in the comparison layer: what changed, by how much, and where concentration moved. 13F Insight surfaces that in one workflow instead of making readers manually compare raw SEC tables.
→ See Berkshire on 13F Insight
Four Signals to Watch in Berkshire's Q1 2026 Filing
With only 42 disclosed positions, Berkshire's Q1 13F will be easy to read — if you know which four layers of the book actually carry information.
Signal #1 — Did Apple Remain the Anchor at 22%+ of the Portfolio?
Apple at 22.60% is the first line every market participant checks when the Berkshire filing lands. The question is binary in market perception terms: unchanged, or meaningfully trimmed.
- Unchanged: Buffett's consumer-brand thesis holds. Apple remains a conviction hold, not a trade.
- Meaningful trim (>2%): Triggers immediate "Is Buffett rotating out of tech?" media cycle regardless of actual rationale.
At Berkshire's scale, trimming Apple from 22.60% to below 20% would involve selling tens of billions of dollars of stock. That is not a quiet maneuver. Any AAPL weight reduction of that magnitude would be the defining story of the filing — and likely of the week it lands.
Signal #2 — Are Financials Still the Second Leg of the Book?
American Express at 20.46% and Bank of America at 10.38% combine to approximately 31% of the visible portfolio. Together they function as Berkshire's explicit macro-confidence tells on U.S. consumer credit and banking durability.
AXP is especially Buffett-specific: he has held it for decades and has called it a business he would not want to sell regardless of price. Any meaningful change in that position would be treated as a strong Buffett conviction statement about the consumer credit cycle.
With rate uncertainty going into Q1 2026, the financials allocation carries more signal than it would in a stable rate environment. A meaningful add would read as Buffett seeing the banking environment as benign. A meaningful trim would read the opposite.
Signal #3 — Does Berkshire Still Lean on Old-Economy Stability?
Coca-Cola at 10.20% is effectively a legacy no-touch position. Buffett has publicly committed to holding KO indefinitely, and any change would be genuinely surprising rather than merely noteworthy.
Chevron at 7.24% and Occidental at 3.97% form Berkshire's visible energy and inflation-durability allocation. OXY is the variable to watch: Buffett has been a systematic buyer, and Berkshire holds substantial OXY call options beyond the disclosed equity stake. Any Q1 2026 OXY add would continue a clear, documented pattern. A CVX trim would suggest a softening energy thesis.
Signal #4 — Is There Any Genuinely New Idea Large Enough to Matter?
At 42 holdings, a new position large enough to appear in the top 10 is virtually impossible to conceal. The editorial threshold for a "real new idea" at Berkshire scale is approximately 0.5% of AUM — roughly $1.4B — or a position in a sector that Berkshire has not historically touched.
Recent Berkshire filing seasons have shown Buffett is capable of decisive moves: the TSMC entry and rapid exit, the systematic Japanese trading house positions, selective energy additions. If Q1 2026 contains a genuinely new large idea, it will generate more coverage than any adjustment in the existing book.
Three Stocks and Sectors Most Likely to Drive the Headlines When Berkshire Files
Not every position change generates a headline. At Berkshire's concentration, three layers of the book carry the most market attention.
Apple remains the center of gravity. Any AAPL move at Berkshire's scale is measured in billions and will lead every financial publication on filing day. The relevant benchmark is not price appreciation — it is whether Berkshire's weight in AAPL changes meaningfully. Trimming from 22.60% to below 20% would be the filing's defining story.
Financials as macro confidence signals. AXP and BAC are read not just as individual stock picks but as Buffett's view on U.S. financial-sector resilience. A meaningful add to either signals Buffett sees the credit environment as benign; a meaningful trim signals the opposite. Both narratives will be aggressively amplified by financial media regardless of the actual magnitude.
Energy and defensives as inflation and stability tells. CVX, OXY, and KO form Berkshire's visible signal on pricing-power compounders and durable cash flows. OXY is the most likely candidate for a meaningful add given Buffett's documented systematic buying pattern. KO is the no-touch legacy anchor. CVX is the variable — and a CVX trim would generate significant energy-sector narrative around whether Buffett is rotating away from commodities.
How to Read Berkshire's Q1 2026 Filing Without Overreacting
Critical reminder: 13F data is 45 days delayed. The Q1 2026 13F will cover positions as of March 31, filed by May 15. You are reading a snapshot from six weeks prior — not current positioning.
What 13F does NOT show:
- Berkshire's full cash and T-bill reserve (reportedly $300B+ going into 2026)
- Private business holdings (BNSF, Geico, Berkshire Energy, manufacturing subsidiaries)
- Short positions or options hedges beyond SEC disclosure thresholds (note: OXY call options are disclosed separately, not via 13F)
What actually matters in the filing:
- Position changes ≥ $500M (those are deliberate at Berkshire scale)
- Concentration shifts (AAPL weight moving ±3% is meaningful; ±0.5% is likely market value drift)
- Genuinely new entries in the top 20 holdings
The context in which you read the filing matters as much as the data itself. Berkshire's Q4 2025 deep-dive research article provides the quarter-by-quarter baseline needed to evaluate whether Q1 2026 changes represent signal or noise.
Bottom Line: Berkshire's Q4 2025 Book Gives Us a Clear Watchlist for May 15
Berkshire's Q4 2025 13F shows a $274.16B public equity portfolio compressed into 42 holdings — more concentrated than almost any other institutional manager of comparable scale. Apple and American Express dominate the visible book, with four positions alone accounting for roughly 64% of disclosed equity value. The May 15 Q1 2026 filing will confirm whether Buffett finally deployed capital meaningfully, or stayed patient for another quarter.
Berkshire's Q1 2026 13F is due May 15. That is 19 days away.
Follow Berkshire before the May 15 rush starts
Use 13F Insight to monitor Berkshire's latest Q4 2025 holdings, track the Q1 2026 filing the moment it drops, and compare position changes in one view — without manually reading SEC tables.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When is Berkshire Hathaway's Q1 2026 13F filing due?
May 15, 2026 — the standard 45-day deadline following March 31 quarter end. This is the earliest investors can see what positions Berkshire held as of the end of Q1.
Q: What are Berkshire Hathaway's largest disclosed holdings right now?
Based on the Q4 2025 (Dec 2025) filing: Apple at 22.60%, American Express at 20.46%, Bank of America at 10.38%, Coca-Cola at 10.20%, Chevron at 7.24%, and Occidental Petroleum at 3.97%. The top six positions account for more than 74% of Berkshire's disclosed equity portfolio.
Q: How many stocks does Berkshire Hathaway currently hold?
Berkshire's latest 13F discloses 42 equity positions — unusually concentrated for a fund managing $274.16B in public equities. For reference, most large multi-manager funds disclose hundreds of positions. The 42-stock book means every meaningful position is visible and readable.
Q: Does Buffett's 13F show Berkshire's full cash holdings?
No. The 13F covers only U.S. public equity positions. Berkshire's substantial cash reserve — which has reportedly exceeded $300B going into 2026 — is not visible in 13F data. Neither are its private businesses (BNSF, Geico, manufacturing subsidiaries) or insurance float. The disclosed equity book is $274B, but that represents only a portion of Berkshire's total asset base.
Q: What should investors watch most in Berkshire's Q1 2026 13F?
Four things: (1) Apple's weight — unchanged or trimmed? Even a 2-3 percentage point change would involve tens of billions of dollars. (2) Financials exposure — are AXP and BAC positions growing or shrinking, and what does that signal about Buffett's view on U.S. consumer credit? (3) Energy stance — does Occidental buying continue, or does CVX get trimmed as the energy thesis evolves? (4) New positions — any genuinely new top-20 idea that signals capital was finally deployed from the cash reserve?
Q: Why does Berkshire hold such a concentrated portfolio?
Buffett's long-stated philosophy is to concentrate in high-conviction ideas rather than diversify across hundreds of positions. He has argued that true diversification is the refuge of those who do not know what they are doing — that owning many stocks to "reduce risk" dilutes returns without eliminating it. With 42 positions in a $274B portfolio, each position change is substantive enough to be meaningful. There is no hiding signal in the noise.
Q: How can I track Berkshire Hathaway's position changes automatically?
13F Insight tracks Berkshire's current holdings, shows quarter-over-quarter changes, surfaces concentration shifts, and will update automatically when the Q1 2026 filing lands on May 15. Follow Berkshire directly at 13F Insight — Berkshire Hathaway.
About This Article
Written by Marcus Chen, 13F Insight research team. Data sourced from 13F Insight production database, Q4 2025 filing (filed February 2026, positions as of December 2025 quarter end). Filing deadline per SEC 45-day rule from March 31, 2026 quarter end. Whale Score is a proprietary 13F Insight signal.
Internal links: Berkshire Hathaway filer page | Q1 2026 13F Preview | Apple (AAPL) | American Express (AXP) | Bank of America (BAC) | Coca-Cola (KO) | Chevron (CVX) | Occidental Petroleum (OXY) | Berkshire Q4 2025 deep-dive | Pricing
Senior Market Analyst at 13F Insight. Covers institutional portfolio strategy, 13F filings, and smart money trends.
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