Berkshire Hathaway has been a net seller of equities in 14 of the last 15 quarters, unloading $175 billion since October 2022, a pace that underscores how few opportunities Warren Buffett and Greg Abel see at current market multiples.
The quarterly ledger
The streak began in the fourth quarter of 2022 with $14.64 billion of net sales and persisted through the first quarter of 2026, which recorded $8.149 billion of net dispositions. The second quarter of 2024 alone saw $75.536 billion exit the portfolio. The only reversal came in the June-ended quarter of 2026, when Abel oversaw $19.774 billion of net purchases, a figure the filing makes clear is concentrated in a single name.
The Alphabet distortion
Roughly $17 billion of that quarter's buying went into Alphabet, accounting for the vast majority of gross purchasing. Without that position, the quarter would have shown continued net selling. The source describes the headline net-buy number as "somewhat deceptive" for that reason.
The valuation backdrop
Buffett has long cited the ratio of total U.S. market capitalization to GDP, now 240.32% as of August 12, versus a 1970-present average of 88%, as "probably the best single measure of where valuations stand." The Shiller cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio on the S&P 500 sits at levels last seen before the dot-com bubble burst. The $175 billion of net selling since late 2022 reads as a judgment that those multiples do not offer the margin of safety both men require.
The signal
Abel may be more comfortable with technology names than his predecessor, but the discipline is shared: neither has chased a stock they did not consider attractively valued. Both remain long-term optimists on U.S. equities, a stance supported by multi-decade index returns. Their actions, however, say the entry price today is wrong.