THE APEX TIMES
London Company Income Equity Adds Berkshire Hathaway Shares, Citing Buyback Restart
The London Company’s first-quarter 2026 investor letter for its Income Equity Strategy says it increased its position in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), pointing to weakness in the stock and to a fresh announcement that Berkshire has resumed share repurchases.
The London Company’s “Income Equity Strategy” disclosed that it added to its position in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) in the first quarter, according to the firm’s first-quarter 2026 investor letter. The action highlights how Berkshire’s stock has re-entered the focus of income-oriented portfolio managers looking for defensive characteristics, particularly when a company’s valuation appears disconnected from its perceived underlying strength.
In its quarterly communication, The London Company described Berkshire Hathaway as a multinational conglomerate with operations spanning insurance, freight rail transportation, and utilities. The manager’s stated reason for the increase tied the purchase decision to “relative weakness” in BRK.B and to news about the resumption of Berkshire’s buyback program, which it said suggested the shares were trading below intrinsic value.
The London Company’s letter framed the buyback resumption as an important catalyst. Share repurchases, or buybacks, are when a company uses cash to buy its own stock, often aiming to return capital to shareholders and to support per-share metrics. The portfolio manager’s language indicated that the renewed buyback activity helped it justify buying more BRK.B rather than waiting on broader market confirmation of value.
Berkshire Hathaway itself has recently pointed to a restart in its repurchase activity. In early March 2026, reporting on a Berkshire securities filing said the company had begun repurchasing stock under its longstanding buyback policy. That development provided a timely external announcement for investors scanning for capital-return actions from large, mature conglomerates.
The London Company’s Q1 2026 discussion also leaned on balance-sheet optionality as part of the investment thesis. In the letter summary published online, the manager referenced Berkshire’s large cash position, describing it as a buffer that can be used flexibly. This type of optionality is often cited by long-only investors when markets become volatile, because it can reduce dependence on external financing and can support opportunistic investments or shareholder returns.
On the quarter, the broader market backdrop described in the same investor-letter recap included a sharp shift in sentiment, with declines in early 2026 for U.S. equities and a rotation toward commodities and hard-asset exposure. The recap said large-cap growth underperformed amid pressure around Big Tech and AI-related software themes, while energy and related sectors gained. In that context, adding to a diversified, cash-generating conglomerate was presented as a defensive pivot within an environment characterized by high dispersion across sectors.
Notably, the published investor-letter recap did not provide granular trading details, such as the number of shares purchased, the average purchase price, or what portion of the portfolio BRK.B represented after the increase. It also did not disclose any specific target allocation, valuation model outputs, or a timeline for additional changes to the position. Those omissions mean the exact impact of the trade on the strategy’s total performance cannot be confirmed from the available disclosure.
Why It Matters
- Berkshire’s buyback activity can act as a capital-return announcement that may influence how income-focused and value-oriented strategies view the stock’s valuation.
- The London Company’s framing suggests portfolio managers are using conglomerate balance sheets and buyback visibility as anchors during periods of market dispersion.
- If other managers interpret the buyback restart similarly, it could add incremental demand for BRK.B independent of the near-term earnings cycle.
- The lack of position sizing and purchase-price detail limits the ability to infer how significant the trade was to the strategy’s overall performance.
Sources
Key Facts
- The London Company’s first-quarter 2026 investor letter for its “Income Equity Strategy” says it increased its position in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B).
- The increase was attributed to “relative weakness” in BRK.B and news around the resumption of Berkshire’s buyback program.
- The letter characterized Berkshire as operating across insurance, freight rail, and utilities.
- Recent reporting on Berkshire filings indicated the company began repurchasing stock under its buyback policy in March 2026.
- The investor-letter recap referenced Berkshire’s large cash position as supporting optionality, though it did not detail how cash would be used.
- The available disclosure did not include post-trade position size, purchase prices, or allocation targets.
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