Here are 5 Warren Buffett stock moves that were made in the last quarter

4 times per annum we get to see some Warren Buffett stock moves, and we like to recap some of the most noteworthy. Berkshire Hathaway released its quarterly report in which it details some (but not all) of its buys and sells. Investors take moves he makes as a massive sign of confidence in the prospects of these companies, although of course, it doesn’t always go to plan.

In recent years, Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks and its cash balance was a reported US$358.4bn, 15.5% up in 12 months. Notwithstanding, investments in stocks was US$283.2bn, up 4.3% in a year. The 4 biggest investments are Apple, American Express, Bank of America and Cca-Cola which account for more than half of his portfolio.

Let’s look at 5 notable moves he made in the last 3 months.

What are the Best ASX Stocks to invest in right now?

Check our buy/sell tips

5 Warren Buffett stock moves made in the last quarter

Buying Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ)

Buffett bought just over US$1.2bn of this company’s shares and it now represents 0.5% of his portfolio. It produces some of the world’s most preeminent beer and spirit brands like Corona, Modelo and Victoria. In buying this company, it signals that not only is Buffett confident in this company but in the beer industry generally.

Because there has been a fair bit of doom and gloom over the purported decline of beer as millennial and Gen Z ditch alcoholic beverages. Or maybe he thinks it’ll be buck the trend with its premium brands – Modelo was able to become the number 1 beer in the USA after Bud Light forfeited its spot because its customers were not too happy that it (briefly) partnered with Dylan Mulvaney.

Buying Sirius XM

Hey Siri, what is SiriusXM? It is a Manhattan radio broadcaster that specialises in sport and has an effective monopoly on satellite radio (but not streaming). Warren Buffett has been buying shares in this company for a while. In the September quarter last year, he bought 9.7m shares in Sirius, worth US$43.8m at the end of the period. He bought a further 96.2m shares in the June quarter of 2024, taking his total stake to $2.3bn. He topped up his stake with 12.3m more shares.

This is a surprising buy because Sirius has performed poorly, down roughly 50% in the last year. But one of his most famous sayings is to be greedy when others are fearful, and he is putting his money where his mouth is.

Selling down Bank of America

Buffett has been selling down shares in Apple for a while, which is his largest holding. But he sold 117.4m shares in one of his next biggest holdings – Bank of America. He still holds 9% of the company, 680m shares. He also sold 40m shares in Citi and 46m shares in fintech Nu Holdings, moves that indicate pessism about the banking sector. He began accumulating a stake in BoA in 2011 when America was still emerging from the GFC and no one would touch banks.

In one sense it is difficult to see why because the US banking sector could benefit from Trump/DOGE deregulation. At the same time, Bufett has said that high valuations made made it harder to find compelling deals and he has grown more comfortable keeping large amounts of cash out of the stock market. There’s few other companies he would’ve netted as much cash as this.

Buying Dominos

Berkshire Hathaway now owns 6.9% of the Michigan-headquartered pizza franchisor, buying 1.1m shares in the last quarter. Unlike its Australian master franchisor (Dominos Pizza Enterprises (ASX:DMP), DPZ is up 30% in 5 years. Maybe Americans just like pizza better than any other market. Maybe DPZ did itself a favour by franchising out speculative markets like Japan to DMP.

But perhaps it is able to sell its ‘value’ proposition to its customers better than its many competitors. Not many companies offer an ‘Emergency Pizza‘.

One thing to watch is that it has just moved from the NYSE to the NASDAQ in 2025, so it could attract some more investors.

Selling Ulta Beauty

Buffett makes mistakes from time to time, and there’s nothing like admitting it when you offload 96% of shares just one quarter after buying and the balance just another quarter later. He only bought shares last April, 690,000 shares at $266m all up.

Ulta is a chain of cosmetic stores, having pitched its tents in 1,375 locations spanning all 50 US states. With that network and a US$16.8bn market cap, it is no penny stock. Buffett timed his run badly because it disappointed on its earnings, given consumers were cutting back on purchases of Ulta Beauty products.

The company bet that spending would bounce back and opened a lot of new stores, but this did not happen. In the second quarter, comparable-store sales fell 1.2%, its gross margin fell from 39.3% to 38.3% and its EPS retreated from $6.02 to $5.30.