If there were any doubt that Greg Abel intends to run Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A，BRK.B)’s $327 billion portfolio with his own playbook, the first-quarter earnings filing has erased it.
Buried in the notes to Berkshire’s financial statements, released alongside its May 2 annual meeting, is a telling data point: the cost basis of holdings in the “banks, insurance, and finance” bucket shrank by roughly $770 million over the first three months of the year. That decline — from $15.454 billion to $14.685 billion — all but confirms that Abel kept the selling pressure on Bank of America (BAC) for a seventh consecutive quarter, picking up right where Warren Buffett left off.
Berkshire’s exodus from BofA began in the summer of 2024. Over six straight quarters through the end of 2025, Buffett trimmed the once-massive stake by half, unloading more than 515 million shares. When he retired as CEO on December 31, the market wondered whether the new chief might pause — out of deference, or simply to reset. Abel didn’t blink.
For Buffett, BofA was never just another trade. He famously built the position during the post-financial-crisis gloom in 2011, when the bank’s stock could be picked up at a 62% discount to tangible book value. It was the ultimate “cigar butt” — unloved, undervalued, and ripe for a comeback. He spent years publicly championing CEO Brian Moynihan, forging the kind of relationship that makes selling a holding feel like a betrayal.
For Abel, the calculus is simpler. There is no sentimental ledger — just a P&L and a price-to-book ratio.
By the end of the first quarter, Bank of America shares were trading at roughly 1.43 times book value. That isn’t dangerously expensive by banking standards, but it’s a universe removed from the deep-value label that first drew Berkshire in. Add the headwind of narrowing net interest margins as the Federal Reserve cuts rates, and the risk-reward profile no longer screams “buy” — or even “hold” — to a manager whose mandate is unemotional capital allocation.
Abel’s professional DNA is wired differently from Buffett’s. He is a career operator and capital-allocation specialist, not a celebrity investor with personal ties to the CEOs whose stocks he holds. Where Buffett’s selling cadence occasionally seemed deliberate, almost reluctant, Abel’s appears mechanical — dictated by the numbers alone.
Investors can wait for the official 13F filing, due May 15, for the precise share count. But the earnings footnotes already broadcast what’s happening. The shrinking cost basis, combined with a drop in net unrealized gains in the same category, indicates that BofA — once a top-two holding — is being systematically demoted.
Abel’s first solo act as steward of Berkshire’s investment portfolio wasn’t a flashy new buy. It was a quiet statement: the Buffett era is over, and the filter in Omaha is now colder, harder math. In that world, a bank stock trading with a 43% premium to book value gets shown the door — no matter who once loved it.
