Buffett Has Been Stockpiling Cash and Selling Stocks for More Than 2 Years. Is He Finally Buying?

Consider what's been happening for the past 2 years. It's been a beardown bull market, which means investors are buying, but Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B), Buffett's holding company, has been a nett seller of stocks each 4th throughout. It deed 9 consecutive quarters of nett selling stocks successful the 2024 4th quarter, and it ended the twelvemonth with $334 cardinal successful cash, its largest stockpile ever. Buffett has been astatine the helm of Berkshire Hathaway for 60 years, which puts that into context.

Armchair analysts person been dissecting Buffett's trading behaviour to spot what investors tin larn from it and what it means astir the markets. Specifically, radical person been wondering if helium thinks there's a marketplace clang connected the way.

Well, the clip has come. The markets tumbled past week aft President Trump's "Liberation Day." Is Buffett yet buying stocks?

Buffett has made it wide connected galore occasions that helium isn't funny successful buying overpriced stocks, and that he's wary of a beardown bull market.

Many radical cognize his celebrated credo astir fearfulness and greed from the Chariman's missive Buffett penned successful 1986 : "We simply effort to beryllium fearful erstwhile others are greedy, and to beryllium greedy lone erstwhile others are fearful."

In that aforesaid letter, helium claimed not to cognize however immoderate marketplace would move, but that a bull marketplace that becomes "uncoupled" with existent banal values would beryllium bound to fall. "As this is written, small fearfulness is disposable successful Wall Street...unfortunately, however, stocks can't outperform businesses indefinitely." That's erstwhile he's funny successful buying.

Buffett's occurrence is clear, and truthful is his investing method. But investors inactive find it challenging to get into Buffett's mindset. He's known for investing successful undervalued stocks. his 1986 missive continued, "when conditions are right, that is, erstwhile companies with bully economics and bully absorption merchantability good beneath intrinsic concern worth -- stocks sometimes supply grand-slam location runs,".

But however helium determines that isn't ever obvious. One illustration of what was a intelligibly undervalued banal that Berkshire Hathaway bought is Kroger, which it bought successful 2019. Kroger is the largest premium supermarket concatenation successful the U.S., which meets Buffett's criteria for a institution that has a semipermanent relation successful the U.S. economy. But it wasn't doing truthful good astatine the time, and look however inexpensive it got erstwhile Buffett bought it.