(This is the newsletter "Warren Buffett Watch", which reports and analyzes various topics related to Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can subscribe to receive this newsletter every Friday evening.)

Berkshire Hathaway continued to increase its stake in Lennar this week, raising its ownership to 11.2% in this home builder, but the pace of purchases seems to be slowing down.

In documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later on Wednesday, Berkshire disclosed that the company purchased a total of $53.6 million worth of Lennar A class shares, as well as an additional $329,000 worth of super-voting B class shares, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

This brings Berkshire's total holding of Lennar shares to 26.6 million, valued at $2.1 billion based on the closing price last Friday.

As of the end of the second quarter, Berkshire held a 5.4% stake in Lennar, amounting to 13.4 million shares, valued at $1.2 billion. This stake represents an increase of nearly 30% compared to the 10.3 million shares held at the end of the first quarter; and the stake at the end of the first quarter was in turn a 43% increase from the 7.2 million shares held at the end of last year.

As the stock continued to weaken in the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway kept buying secretly until its stake reached 10% in mid-September, triggering a rule SEC that required it to disclose further buying activities within two trading days.

This prompted Berkshire to submit two documents last week, disclosing that during the 7 trading days from September 17 to September 25, it bought nearly $349 million worth of Lennar shares on 6 of those days.

Calculated on a natural day basis, this is equivalent to an average of 58 million US dollars per day.

As of Wednesday this week, the average buying volume was only slightly below 18 million US dollars per day.

As of the time of publication of this newsletter on Friday evening, Berkshire Hathaway had not submitted any new documents, which indicates that they did not continue to make purchases on Thursday.

This means that the average buying volume over the past 4 days will drop to 13.5 million US dollars.

We won't know whether there will be any new transactions on Friday until after the reporting deadline on Monday.

Berkshire is betting that Lennar will benefit from a recovery in the long-term sluggish U.S. housing market; however, Morgan Stanley is more pessimistic about the short-term prospects for this stock.

Starting from Thursday, this position will cover Lennar, with a rating of "reduce holdings" and a target price of $65. Compared to today's closing price of $79.81, this target price is nearly 19% lower; Lennar fell 2.8% on the same day.

The U.S. housing market is still under pressure. According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages has risen for six consecutive weeks, reaching 7.30%, the highest level since the end of 2023.

According to a report from Diana Olick of CNBC, high interest rates have deterred potential homebuyers, who are also facing higher housing prices than last year.

Buffett Returns to the Top 10 of the Rich List

Warren Buffett has returned to the 10th place on Forbes' list of the world's richest people.

Forbes reported that due to the stock price of Spain's fast-fashion group Inditex falling by nearly 8% in the past month, its founder, Amancio Ortega, was surpassed by Buffett on Thursday afternoon. Inditex is best known for its Zara chain stores.

As of 5:15 p.m. Friday Eastern Time, Forbes estimated Buffett's net worth to be $143 billion, which is $3 billion more than Oltuga's $140 billion.

Buffett is the only one among the top ten richest people in the world who is not from the technology industry.

As of Friday, Bloomberg's Billionaires Index also listed the same top ten, but the rankings and net asset figures were slightly different.

However, at number 11 on the Bloomberg list is Jim Walton of Walmart, with a fortune of $134 billion.

Bloomberg estimates Ortega's wealth at $125 billion, placing him in 15th place on the list.

Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet

Some links may require a subscription:

• Bloomberg (subscription): Ackman plans to raise external funds, aiming to emulate Buffett

CNBC A Selection from Warren Buffett's Files

Buffett used a slot machine to teach a lesson to the children (2007)

Warren Buffett explained why, during the period when his children were growing up, he kept a slot machine on the third floor of his house.

Warren Buffett:Humans have a very strong tendency to gamble.

At that time, gambling was almost only legal in Nevada; if you wanted to gamble seriously, you had to travel a long distance, or you would be breaking some laws.

But as states gradually realized how good a source of revenue this could be, they made it increasingly easier for people to gamble step by step.

Believe me, the easier gambling is, the more people will be inclined to gamble.

I mean, at that time – my children were also here. Forty years ago, I bought a slot machine and placed it on the third floor of our house.

I told the kids that as long as it was a 10-cent coin, they could have whatever amount of pocket money they wanted. What I mean is, I’ll get all that money back before night falls. (Laughter)

At that time, I thought – I thought this would be a good lesson for them.

They don’t have to go to Las Vegas to play, but believe me, when the slot machines are placed on the third floor, they can still find their way to them, you know.

And my compensation rate is also terrible, but that's just in my style as a father. (Laughter)

However, people always have the urge to engage in gambling.

Therefore, I particularly believe that – from the perspective of "friendly gambling" or something similar – I am not against it.

But I truly believe that, to a large extent, gambling is a form of taxing ignorance.

What I mean is, if you want to tax people who are ignorant and still place bets when the odds are unfavorable to them, then as long as you set that in place, people like me wouldn’t have to pay taxes.

I really don't... I think that when the government exploits the weaknesses of its citizens instead of serving them, it is quite repulsive in society. Believe me, when the government... (Applause)

When the government makes it easier for people to use their social security checks to play slot machines, or participate in lotteries, or other similar activities, it is a rather cynical approach.

Berkshire Hathaway Stock Observations

Surrounding

Twelve months

BRK.A Stock Price: $754,790.00

BRK.B Stock Price: $502.65

BRK.B Price-Earnings Ratio ( TTM ): 12.64

Berkshire's cash as of June 30: $365.5 billion (a decrease of 8.0% from March 31)

After excluding railway cash and deducting treasury bonds payable: $359.2 billion (a decrease of 3.8% compared to March 31)

In the second quarter of 2026, Berkshire Hathaway repurchased $4.5 billion of its own shares.

Berkshire Hathaway Discloses Its Top Ten Stock Holdings – October 2, 2026

Berkshire's top ten holdings of listed stocks disclosed in the United States and Japan, valued at their latest closing prices.

As of June 30, 2026, based on Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing submitted on August 14, 2026, except for the following circumstances:

Mitsubishi's holdings as of April 30, 2026

The complete list of holdings and the current market value can be viewed in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio tracker at CNBC.com.

Questions or comments

If you have any questions or comments regarding this communication, please send them to alex.crippen @ cnbc.com. (Sorry, we will not forward your questions or comments to Warren Buffett himself.)

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Additionally, I highly recommend reading Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders, which can be found on the Berkshire Hathaway website.

—— Alex Crippen, Editor of Warren Buffett Watch