Warren Buffett officially turned over the reins of CEO at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.30%) (BRK.B 0.13%) at the start of 2026. But before the transition, he was able to make a few more moves with the conglomerate's investment portfolio.
Berkshire Hathaway bought $6.4 billion worth of equities in the third quarter, according to its most recent quarterly report. We received further details about those purchases in the company's 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That report showed six new U.S. equity purchases.
While Buffett likely thinks each one of them stands out as a wonderful company trading at a fair price, one in particular stands out among the group as the best of the bunch.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Here are the six stocks Warren Buffett purchased
Buffett and his team of investment managers made some significant moves in the third quarter. That included selling some big holdings, including Apple, Bank of America, and VeriSign. In fact, stock sales exceeded stock purchases for the 12th straight quarter for Berkshire Hathaway.
Finding great investment opportunities has become more difficult for Berkshire. Nonetheless, the team found value and added these six stocks.
- Alphabet (GOOG 1.29%)(GOOGL 1.23%): A new purchase, at 17.8 million shares.
- Chubb (CB +2.14%): An additional 4.3 million shares.
- Domino's Pizza (DPZ +0.47%): 348,000 shares added.
- Lamar Advertising: 32,603 shares added.
- Lennar: Another 2,007 shares between the homebuilder's Class A and Class B shares.
- Sirius XM (SIRI 0.18%): 5 million shares added.
Berkshire Hathaway has consistently added to its positions in Domino's Pizza and Sirius XM over the last few years.
The third quarter was the fifth straight period that Buffett and the investment managers added to their position in Domino's. And there's good reason for that. The pizza chain continues to find success in its industry as its peers struggle to grow sales. U.S. same-store sales climbed 5.2% in the third quarter, well ahead of its closest competitors.
NASDAQ: DPZ
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Sirius XM faces a huge competitive threat from the rise of streaming music services, which has stalled its subscriber growth. That said, it has a steady funnel of new subscribers coming in from its ties to new car sales, and its service remains attractive to many listeners.
With most of its revenue coming from subscriptions (instead of ads), it has predictable cash flow and earnings. Considering that the stock's forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) sits below 7, it's no wonder Buffett and his team continue to snatch up shares.
After establishing a position in Chubb in late 2023 (and not disclosing it until early 2024), Berkshire held off on acquiring any more shares of the insurance stock until the most recent quarter. Chubb is a huge international insurance business, an industry Buffett is quite familiar with. Its scale and leading position in property and casualty insurance give it a competitive advantage in the industry, enabling it to insure complex global commercial clients when many smaller companies cannot.
NYSE: CB
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But none of those stocks are the best of the bunch, in my opinion. Investors looking to follow Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway into a great stock right now should consider Alphabet.
A standout investment, for multiple reasons
Alphabet stands out among the recent Berkshire investments because it's not your typical Warren Buffett stock. The Oracle of Omaha has historically shied away from tech companies, which is why many believe one of the other investment managers at Berkshire was behind the purchase. But Buffett has long admired Alphabet, and there are a couple of key components that make it just the kind of business that would attract him.
Its Google search engine is a money-printing machine. Many saw the rise of AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT as a threat to the cash cow, but management has adeptly integrated AI into search to ensure it continues to grow and remain profitable.
Its AI Overviews have increased user engagement without hurting its ability to monetize search results with ads. As a result, Alphabet has seen Google ad revenue growth accelerate through the first nine months of 2025, reaching 15% in the most recent quarter.
NASDAQ: GOOGL
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That core advertising business has helped Alphabet produce free cash flow of $73.5 billion over the trailing 12 months. That's despite spending heavily to build data centers for its booming Google Cloud business, whose revenue is growing in the low 30% range quarter after quarter as it works to meet demand for its AI services.
Its backlog is growing even faster. As it scales up, it's gaining improvements in its operating margin, which reached 24% last quarter.
The cash-generating business, which has recently proved to have a wide moat, has enabled Alphabet to capitalize on a huge opportunity while returning capital to shareholders through its share repurchase program and dividend. Those are important qualities for a great Warren Buffett investment. While the stock no longer trades at the bargain forward P/E that Berkshire bought it for in the third quarter, its earnings multiple of 29 is still a fair price to pay for the stock.
