Warren Buffett's latest 13F filing reveals that Berkshire Hathaway's $263 billion U.S. stock portfolio remains a masterclass in conviction over diversification, with just five companies commanding 67% of the book as of March.
The concentration is not new. Apple anchors the portfolio at roughly $58 billion, or 22%, followed by American Express at $46 billion and 17%. Coca-Cola, Bank of America and Chevron round out the top five at $30 billion, $25 billion and $17.5 billion respectively. Two names, Apple and American Express, alone account for nearly 40% of the equity holdings, a weighting that has barely shifted over decades.
The filing captures only part of the empire. Berkshire's Japanese trading-house stakes trade overseas and its dozens of wholly owned operating businesses never appear on a 13F. More striking is the cash position: $397 billion in Treasury bills and cash at the end of March, a pile now larger than the entire stock portfolio. That liquidity buffer is the structural advantage no individual investor can replicate.
Buffett has defended this approach since at least 1993, arguing that concentration decreases risk by forcing deeper study of each business. "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful," he wrote then, borrowing Mae West. The top five holdings, brands he has owned and studied for years, in some cases decades, fit that mold: durable franchises with long dividend histories.
The portfolio remains his call. Buffett stepped down as chief executive at the end of last year but retained the chairman title, and he told CNBC last week that the multibillion-dollar Alphabet position, first disclosed in the third quarter of 2025 and built since, was his decision, not that of new CEO Greg Abel.
For everyone else, the lesson is not the weights. An individual with two-thirds of savings in five stocks has no insurance operation, no railroad, no utility subsidiary and no $397 billion cash cushion to absorb a halving of the largest holding. Copying the allocation without the surrounding fortress replicates the risk without the edge.
The real takeaway is the homework. Buffett's concentration is earned by decades of studying these specific businesses, allowing him to hold through downturns because he knows exactly what he owns. The next 13F will show whether the Alphabet bet expands further or whether the cash pile finally finds a new elephant.