Even though he's only been the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA -0.59%) (BRKB -0.36%) since January, Greg Abel hasn't wasted any time putting the company's cash hoard to work.
Abel used $235 million to buy back Berkshire shares in the first quarter of 2026, the first time the company had completed a buyback since 2024. He upped that further to $4.5 billion in the second quarter. Warren Buffett's replacement also bought $10 billion of Alphabet stock in a private placement, allocating $5 billion to GOOGL (Class A shares) and $5 billion to GOOG (Class C shares).
One of his biggest moves, however, was the outright $6.8 billion acquisition of the homebuilder Taylor Morrison Homes.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Finding value across multiple sectors
Warren Buffett is known for staying within his circle of competence, often shying away from industries like tech that didn't fit within the businesses he understood. That said, Buffett is modest, as that circle is large. His knowledge of different sectors, ranging from insurance to railroads, is impressive.
Abel seems to be cut from the same cloth. His background is in the energy industry, but less than a year into the job, his early moves suggest he's willing to allocate capital where he sees value. That includes upping the company's holdings in the tech giant Alphabet and purchasing the homebuilder Taylor Morrison, which Buffett heaped praise upon Abel for doing:
Greg did that faster than I could have done it, smoother than I could have done it, and I never talked to the CEO. He has launched.
While higher home prices and supply issues are pressuring the U.S. housing market at the moment, purchasing Taylor Morrison signals that Berkshire foresees an eventual recovery, with demand increasing. That exemplifies the long-term thinking that Berkshire is known for embracing.
Investing where there is synergy
Part of Berkshire's empire includes real estate through its ownership of Clayton Properties Group, a builder of manufactured modular homes, as well as a global residential real estate franchise network, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
Abel called Taylor a "best-in-class national homebuilder," which fits into that real estate and real estate adjacent empire. "Over time, we expect to unify our site-built homebuilding operations into a combined platform enabling us to deliver the dream of homeownership to more Americans," Abel said.
NYSE: BRKB
Key Data Points
A recap of Abel's capital allocation style
Given Abel's activities thus far in his short tenure, we've seen that he's more focused on finding value than just investing in any one particular industry. Through the acquisition of Taylor Morrison, we've also seen that Abel is looking to deploy Berkshire's cash hoard in businesses that can build synergies within what the conglomerate already owns.
Finally, the last time Berkshire purchased a company was in 2025 when it paid $9.7 billion for the chemical business, OxyChem. With the acquisition of Taylor Morrison, Abel showed he is looking at buying more than just shares of companies; he's looking to buy entire businesses if the price is right.
