Warren Buffett retired as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) at the end of 2025, but he still remains chairman of the holding company. Moreover, since taking over as CEO at the start of 2026, Greg Abel has largely kept Berkshire’s investing strategy the same as his predecessor.
Although Abel jettisoned positions in financial stocks such as Mastercard and Visa, Berkshire continues to hold large stakes in numerous other financial services companies. In fact, there may be as much opportunity, if not more, with some of these companies today as there is with Berkshire itself.
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Three Berkshire holdings worth mentioning are American Express (NYSE: AXP), Chubb (NYSE: CB), and Moody’s (NYSE: MCO).
1. American Express benefits from robust spending by affluent customers
American Express was one of the earlyBuffett investments. Back in 1964, Buffett’s investment funds made a big contrarian wager on the company following its involvement in the “Salad Oil Scandal.” However, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the stock, commonly known as Amex, became part of the Berkshire stock portfolio.
Berkshire has held on to it since then, with its 22.5% stake in the payments and financial services company accounting for about 13.5% of the overall portfolio. In recent years, the shares have performed well, doubling in price since 2021, but the mixed recent performance may have many investors thinking twice about buying right now.
However, this recent turbulence may work in your favor if you have a long investing time horizon. Even as the company, which profits from both its closed-loop payments network and fee revenue on its famed payment cards, continues to benefit from robust spending by high-income households, investors reacted negatively to Amex’s latest quarterly earnings release in July. While earnings of $4.53 per share came in ahead of forecasts, a slight shift in revenue mix and lukewarm outlook led to post-earnings weakness.
Considering some green shoots, such as CEO Stephen Squeri’s post-earnings commentary regarding successful membership growth among young and affluent spenders, the market’s recent reaction could prove overblown in hindsight. While not necessarily “cheap” at about 16 times forward earnings, the shares could rise in tandem with improved results. In the recent past, the stock, thanks to its affluent, spending-driven growth, has traded at well above 20 times earnings.
