Berkshire Hathaway concentrates 68% of stock portfolio in five names
New CEO Greg Abel has narrowed Berkshire's equity portfolio to under 30 holdings, putting 68% of its value into five core companies to capitalize on durable, wide-moat businesses.
Greg Abel has significantly condensed Berkshire Hathaway’s public equity portfolio since assuming the chief executive role, narrowing the total number of holdings to under 30. Approximately 68% of that capital is now concentrated in just five stocks: Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and Chevron.
This aggressive consolidation signals that Abel plans to run the Berkshire investment playbook exactly as Warren Buffett did for decades. For institutional investors tracking Berkshire, the message is clear that spreading capital too thinly across mediocre businesses is viewed as a greater risk than holding a concentrated basket of deeply understood, wide-moat enterprises.
The structural makeup of these top holdings reveals a strict filter for predictable earnings. American Express stands out as a prime example of this criteria in action. Rather than operating as a traditional lender that relies on net interest margins and bears direct credit risk, the company runs a closed-loop payment network.
In this closed-loop system, American Express simultaneously issues the cards, processes the transactions, and serves the merchants. This structure allows the company to capture a percentage fee on nearly every dollar its cardholders spend, creating a revenue stream that is far less cyclical than standard consumer lending.
To sustain this model, the company has focused heavily on high-income, loyal consumers who generate consistent transaction volumes. A major driver of this recent growth is the comprehensive overhaul of the Platinum card, which ranks as the largest refresh in the company's history.
The redesign has already yielded millions of new card sign-ups. Crucially, the vast majority of these new customers are paying annual fees, immediately contributing to the bottom line rather than just inflating transaction volume.
Perhaps the most consequential metric for long-term investors is the shifting age demographic of this new customer base. Millennials and Gen Z now account for roughly 65% of new global consumer accounts at American Express, and they represent a rising share of total spending on the network.
The company is actively courting this younger, high-earning demographic with targeted lifestyle perks. Benefits like priority dining reservations through Resy and Tock, alongside quarterly credits at Lululemon Athletica, are designed to lock in users early. By capturing these customers at the start of their wealth accumulation years, American Express is positioning itself to grow its fee revenue in tandem with their rising incomes over the coming decades.
