Visa Inc
Abel Sells Visa Stock Early
Abel sold off the entire position in Visa stock in the first quarter of 2026, a stock that previously represented the 13th largest position in Berkshire's investment portfolio at the end of 2025.
Berkshire Hathaway first bought Visa stock in the third quarter of 2011.
Taking the investment portfolio from 42 to 29 positions in the first quarter, Visa was one of many stocks cut in Abel's first quarter as the CEO of the conglomerate.
Berkshire sold 8,297,460 V shares sometime in the first quarter. The filing does not disclose exactly when or at what price the sale happened; it only has to report which quarter the transaction occurred in.
Visa stock traded between $294.32 and $358.62 in the first quarter and ended the first quarter trading at $302.24 per share.
Based on the quarter's trading range, the sale would have been between $2,441,278,681.20 and $2,975,635,105.20.
Today, the Visa position, if held, would be worth $3,264,220,764.
This means the Visa position sold in the first quarter cost Berkshire Hathaway $288.59 million to $822.94 million in profits compared with holding it now.
Visa Stake History
While that sounds like a big miss, Abel has invested in other stocks and increased positions in other winners, which may have offset the losses from selling Visa early.
The Visa position was also a big winner for Berkshire Hathaway and sometimes the best investors take profits before the positions become losers. So in this case, Abel didn't lose money on the Visa trade; he could have made even more if he'd held.
Berkshire Hathaway disclosed buying 2.29 million Visa shares on Nov. 14, 2011.
Over the years, Berkshire bought Visa stock nine times and sold it six times, according to data from Stock Circle.
This includes the conglomerate adding 573,000 more shares in the fourth quarter of 2011. The conglomerate then sold 2.53 million shares, or 88% of the position, in the first quarter of 2012.
The fund added to the Visa position in subsequent quarters, including a large 7.38 million-share purchase in the first quarter of 2015.
Before the recent sale, Berkshire's last Visa transaction was selling 1.27 million shares in 2021.
Going back to the initial purchase of 2.29 million Visa shares in the third quarter of 2011. Those shares were bought at an average price between $19.81 and $23.21, adjusted for a 2015 stock split.
The shares were sold in the first quarter of 2026 in a range of $295.52 to $357.56.
This means Berkshire Hathaway made between 1,173.2% and 1,704.9% on its initial Visa shares.
