--- title: "Warren Buffett Has Bought $78 Billion Worth of His Favorite Stock in 7 Years -- but He Currently Prefers Shares of This Legal Monopoly Instead" description: "Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has not purchased shares of his favorite stock in over 13 months, despite spending $78 billion on buybacks since 2018. This pause is attributed to high valua" type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/258036962.md" published_at: "2025-09-19T07:52:15.000Z" --- # Warren Buffett Has Bought $78 Billion Worth of His Favorite Stock in 7 Years -- but He Currently Prefers Shares of This Legal Monopoly Instead > Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has not purchased shares of his favorite stock in over 13 months, despite spending $78 billion on buybacks since 2018. This pause is attributed to high valuations, with Berkshire's stock trading at a 60% to 80% premium to book value. Instead, Buffett has shifted his focus to Sirius XM Holdings, a legal monopoly, purchasing over 5 million shares recently, amidst a trend of net selling totaling $177.4 billion over 11 quarters. Wall Street is a stomping ground for wealth creation, and few investors know this better than **Berkshire Hathaway**'s (BRK.A -0.42%) (BRK.B -0.35%) billionaire CEO Warren Buffett. Six decades ago, the aptly dubbed Oracle of Omaha took the lead role at Berkshire. Under his watch, Berkshire's Class A shares (BRK.A) have rallied nearly 5,940,000%, as of midday trading on Sept. 15. For the sake of comparison, the benchmark **S&P 500** has risen by approximately 44,000%, including dividends, over the same 60-year stretch. Buffett's knack for finding value hiding in plain sight has earned him a huge following -- in case the 40,000-plus people flocking to Omaha annually for Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting didn't give it away. Some investors even choose to mirror his buying and selling activity. But in a strange twist, Warren Buffett has gone cold turkey on his favorite stock -- a company he's spent approximately $78 billion buying spanning seven years -- and can't seem to stop buying shares of one of Wall Street's few publicly traded legal monopolies. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. Image source: The Motley Fool. ## Warren Buffett hasn't purchased shares of his favorite stock in at least 13 months Usually, the easiest way to track which stocks the Oracle of Omaha is buying and selling is to refer to Berkshire Hathaway's latest Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a required quarterly filing for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management. The portfolio Buffett oversees at Berkshire clocked in with a value north of $302 billion, as of this writing. Investors can also receive updates on buying and selling activity when Berkshire holds a 10% or greater stake in a public company via Form 4 filings with the SEC. All buying and selling activity, including the average acquisition/disposition price, is required to be filed within two business days of the transaction. But the interesting quirk with Warren Buffett's favorite stock is you won't find it listed in Berkshire's quarterly 13F or its Form 4s. Rather, you'll need to peruse the company's quarterly operating results to see if Buffett has been a buyer. Just prior to the executive certifications, you'll find a detailed month-by-month breakdown of Berkshire Hathaway's share repurchase activity... because there's no stock Warren Buffett has spent more of his company's capital buying than Berkshire Hathaway! Prior to July 2018, buybacks were only allowed if Berkshire Hathaway stock fell to or below a price-to-book ratio of 120% (i.e., no more than 20% above listed book value). Since it never fell to this threshold, not a penny was spent on buybacks. On July 17, 2018, Berkshire's board amended its share repurchase rules to allow Buffett and then right-hand man Charlie Munger to authorize buybacks as long as the company had at least $30 billion in combined cash, cash equivalents, and U.S. Treasuries, and Buffett believed shares were intrinsically cheap. For 24 consecutive quarters (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2024), Buffett spent close to $78 billion purchasing his own company's stock and reducing Berkshire's outstanding share count by more than 12%. For companies with steady or growing net income (like Berkshire), buybacks can boost earnings per share (EPS). But for 13 consecutive months (June 2024 through June 2025), Buffett has gone cold turkey on his favorite stock. The reason most likely has to do with valuation. Berkshire's billionaire boss is a diehard value investor, and apparently not even shares of his own company are an exception. Whereas Berkshire stock vacillated between a 30% and 50% premium to book value from mid-2018 to mid-2024, it's spent much of the last 13 months at a 60% to 80% premium to book value. Even with Berkshire's cash pile (including U.S. Treasuries) at a near-record $344.1 billion, Buffett has no desire to buy back his own company's stock at the moment. Image source: Sirius XM. ## This legal monopoly has become the new apple of the Oracle of Omaha's eye In addition to not buying shares of his favorite stock, Warren Buffett has been a net-seller of stocks for 11 consecutive quarters, to the cumulative tune of $177.4 billion. Yet amid this persistent selling activity, he has found one stock that he can't stock buying -- and it's a bona fide legal monopoly. Based on 13Fs and Form 4s, we know the Oracle of Omaha can't seem to get enough of satellite-radio operator **Sirius XM Holdings** (SIRI -0.52%). Buffett oversaw the addition of more than 5 million shares from July 31 to Aug. 4, as well as the purchase of more than 2.3 million shares in late January and early February. All told, Berkshire Hathaway holds around 124.8 million shares of Sirius XM stock, which is good enough for a 37.1% stake in the company. Warren Buffett is a huge fan of companies with sustainable competitive moats, and Sirius XM delivers. Although it still competes for listeners with terrestrial and online radio, it's the lone holder of satellite-radio licenses. This affords the company a level of subscription pricing power that traditional radio providers typically lack. However, Sirius XM's biggest edge has to do with its revenue mix. Most traditional radio operators generate the lion's share of their sales from advertising. While there's nothing wrong with an ad-driven model, things can get dicey for radio companies during economic slowdowns and recessions, which is when advertising revenue can shrink considerably. Meanwhile, Sirius XM brought in only 19.6% of its net sales from advertising (via Pandora) through the first-half of 2025. In comparison, 76.8% of its net revenue traced back to subscriptions. When recessions inevitably arise, Sirius XM's subscribers are far less likely to cancel their service than businesses are to reduce their marketing budgets. In other words, Sirius XM's operating cash flow tends to have fewer peaks and valleys than its competitors, which is something Buffett can definitely appreciate. Additionally, Sirius XM has a fairly predictable cost structure. Though talent acquisition and royalty expenses will fluctuate on a quarterly basis, equipment and transmission costs remain close to static regardless of how many subscribers the company has. This adds another level to Sirius XM's operating cash flow predictability. The final piece of the puzzle with this legal monopoly is its eyebrow-raising valuation. With the S&P 500's Shiller price-to-earnings (P/E) Ratio hitting its third-priciest multiple when back-tested more than 150 years, Sirius XM stands out for its historically low forward P/E of just 7.6. ### Related Stocks - [SIRI.US - Sirius XM](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SIRI.US.md) - [BRK.B.US - Berkshire Hathaway B](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BRK.B.US.md) - [BRK.A.US - Berkshire Hathaway](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BRK.A.US.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | 股神巴菲特再現「神準」操作 亞馬遜急跌前大減倉 再沽蘋果美銀 買入一隻媒體股 | 股神巴菲特在卸任巴郡 CEO 後，繼續調整投資組合。根據 SEC 13F 文件，巴郡大幅減持亞馬遜 770 萬股，持倉減少 77%；同時出售約 5,080 萬股美國銀行和 1,030 萬股蘋果，連續第三季減持蘋果。巴郡首次增持傳統媒體股，購 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276191227.md) | | 沃倫·巴菲特的收益曾是市場的兩倍——直到監管改變了遊戲規則 | Chamath Palihapitiya 討論了監管變化，特別是 2000 年的公平披露條例（Reg FD），如何影響沃倫·巴菲特的投資表現。在 Reg FD 之前，由於信息不對稱，巴菲特的回報是市場的兩倍。該法規禁止選擇性披露後，巴菲特的 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276003396.md) | | 伯克希爾哈撒韋在第四季度購入了紐約時報的股票。你是否也應該將紐約時報納入你的投資組合中呢？ | 伯克希爾哈撒韋在第四季度購買了紐約時報的股票。你也應該將 NYT 加入你的投資組合嗎？ | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276265837.md) | | 伯克希爾哈撒韋公司披露了對紐約時報的投資 | 伯克希爾哈撒韋披露了對紐約時報的新投資，重新進入了該公司在 2020 年退出的領域。該公司報告稱，截至 2025 年底，擁有約 507 萬股紐約時報的股票，價值 3.517 億美元。此次提交的文件包括截至 12 月 31 日伯克希爾在美國上 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276173033.md) | | 伯克希爾哈撒韋重返報紙行業，並加大對達美樂比薩的投資 | 在新領導 Greg Abel 的帶領下，伯克希爾哈撒韋正在重返報業，通過投資紐約時報來實現這一目標，這距離其出售報紙帝國已有六年。該公司購買了超過 500 萬股紐約時報的股票，價值約為 3.7 億美元。此外，伯克希爾還增加了對達美樂比薩和雪 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276177186.md) | --- > **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.