Berkshire net-bought $8.0bn of stocks and $13.8bn of its own shares
How much stock Berkshire Hathaway bought minus how much it sold in each quarter since 2013, from the cash-flow statements in its 10-Q and 10-K filings, shown beside what it spent buying back its own Class A and Class B shares.
What does it show?
Over the four quarters to 2026 Q3 Berkshire bought $45.2bn of stocks and sold $37.2bn. Its largest net sale was $75.5bn in 2024 Q2, its largest net purchase $41.4bn in 2022 Q1.
Methodology
Purchases of equity securities less proceeds from sales and redemptions of equity securities, from the investing section of the cash-flow statement in each 10-Q and 10-K Berkshire Hathaway has filed for 2013 Q1 to 2026 Q3, read from the filings' XBRL. Berkshire reports these year to date, so each quarter is its report's year to date less the previous report's (the fourth quarter is the 10-K's year less nine months). Purchases are us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireAvailableForSaleSecuritiesEquity (to 2018 Q1), PaymentsToAcquireEquitySecurities (to 2023 Q1) and PaymentsToAcquireEquitySecuritiesFvNi; sales are ProceedsFromSaleOfAvailableForSaleSecuritiesEquity and ProceedsFromSalesAndRedemptionsOfAvailableForSaleSecuritiesEquitySecurities (to 2018 Q1), ProceedsFromSalesAndRedemptionsOfEquitySecurities (to 2020 Q1), ProceedsFromSalesOfEquitySecurities (to 2023 Q1) and ProceedsFromSaleOfEquitySecuritiesFvNi. Proceeds include redemptions, such as Kraft Heinz's redemption of its preferred stock in June 2016. The flows cover all of Berkshire's equity securities, foreign ones included, but not equity-method stakes or acquisitions of whole companies. Buybacks are payments for repurchases of Berkshire's Class A and B shares (us-gaap:PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock); Berkshire made none from 2013 until mid-2018, and its cash-flow statement leaves the line out in a year without any, so a report without it counts as zero.