Key Points
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Investors closely watch which stocks Berkshire Hathaway buys and sells because of its strong track record.
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If a company reports strong earnings each quarter, it can often drive its stock higher, depending on its valuation.
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Led by Warren Buffett for six decades until his recent retirement, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA)(NYSE: BRKB) has long maintained a large stock portfolio that has performed exceptionally well.
Buffett has always run a concentrated portfolio, in which Berkshire’s investment team takes big swings and buys large positions in stocks they think will perform well over the long term. In his first letter to shareholders as the new CEO of Berkshire, Greg Abel said this approach will continue. That means when Berkshire buys a stock, it’s at least worth investigating, though investors should always do their own due diligence and not buy blindly.
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Here are two Berkshire Hathaway holdings to buy after record third-quarter earnings reports.
Chubb Limited: Record YTD results
The property and casualty insurer Chubb (NYSE: CB) reported diluted earnings per share of $7.30, up roughly 4.4% from the same quarter in 2025. Revenue was roughly $16.8 billion, up about 4.3% year over year.
For the nine months ending Sept. 30, net income and core operating income hit record levels at $8.02 and $8.6 billion, respectively. Net investment income in the quarter hit nearly $1.8 billion, up from roughly $1.65 billion.
Net investment income is the money Chubb takes from insurance premiums and invests in various assets, mostly bonds and other short-term investments.
“On the investment side of our business, adjusted net investment income is a record $1.9 billion, supported by rising interest rates and an excellent fixed-income investment environment, which we have been anticipating for some time, given government deficits and the capital investment cycle,” CEO Evan Greenberg said in an earnings statement.
Furthermore, Chubb has a holding company partnership with KKR, which agreed to sell its investment in an insurance firm, resulting in a realized gain of $460 million in the quarter.
Now, Chubb reported net catastrophic losses of $705 million in the quarter, up from $205 million in the prior year’s quarter. The increase was due to weather-related events and an earthquake in Latin America.
However, Chubb still had a P&C combined ratio of roughly 84% in the quarter, meaning that total claims paid out were 84% of earned premiums. Berkshire first initiated a position in Chubb in 2023. It’s not a small position, either, accounting for 3.4% of Berkshire’s massive equity portfolio.
Investors can join Berkshire in adding this insurance name to their portfolios.
American Express: Record third-quarter revenue
If the fact that Berkshire has owned the credit card and payments company American Express (NYSE: AXP) since the 1990s wasn’t enough to convince you, perhaps the company’s record third-quarter revenue of $20.1 billion might do the trick.
Amex reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.42, up 31% year over year. However, the stock struggled because record revenue missed Wall Street consensus estimates, which management ascribed to the company exiting some co-branded partnerships with small businesses, resulting in lower spending on its cards than expected.
Amex also announced it would lay off 5% of its workforce to streamline the organization and better prepare for the future, including further leveraging artificial intelligence across its business. Management also raised its full-year EPS guidance to $18.30 to $18.60, up from a prior range of $17.30 to $17.90. On an adjusted basis, the recent guidance is for $17.60 to $17.90 per share.
Meanwhile, credit metrics remained benign, with projected loan losses and loans 30- and 90-days past due both declining slightly or remaining flat from the prior quarter.
“Importantly, we continue to grow balances from our premium customer base while maintaining best-in-class credit results,” Amex’s CFO Christophe Le Caillec said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “This is very much by design, reflecting our focus on attracting highly credit-worthy customers who both spend and borrow with us.”
This is one of the reasons Amex stock has consistently traded at a premium. The company runs a high-return credit card business that lends to high-quality borrowers who tend to be more resilient during economic downturns.
Amex is also unique in that it operates a closed-end payments network facilitating transactions between its users and businesses that work with the company. This creates durable, recurring annual fee income, which few lenders can boast, at least on this scale.
Since Berkshire completed its 151.6 million-share purchase of Amex stock in the 1990s, the large conglomerate hasn’t sold any shares. Amex is now the second-largest holding in Berkshire’s portfolio, consuming 13.4% of capital.
While the stock has struggled this year, it’s always been one of Buffett’s favorite stocks, so I wouldn’t bet against the company.
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American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends American Express, Berkshire Hathaway, and KKR. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
