Companies live and die by the decisions made by Warren Buffett and his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A). The latest 13F filings, which reveal the moves of the largest investment funds, show which companies are swimming — and sinking. Berkshire’s latest filings unveiled that the Oracle of Omaha’s company took a stake in Ulta BeautyULTA

while increasing its positions in ChubbCB

and Occidental PetroleumOXY

during the second quarter.

A beautiful addition: Ulta shares soared as much as 12% yesterday following the news of Berkshire’s endorsement. The cosmetics retailer, known for its steady revenue growth and commanding market share, had seen its stock drop by a third in 2024 due to disappointing annual guidance and margin pressures. Berkshire’s vote of confidence, in the form of a ~$266M investment at the end of June, could be the catalyst Ulta needs to regain its luster.

• Berkshire also boosted its holdings in insurance giant Chubb by ~4.3%, building on a previously confidential position first revealed in May — and added a stake in aerospace company HeicoHEI
  .
• The company continued to trim its stake in Bank of AmericaBAC
  over several days beginning in July, a change not reflected in the Q2 filing.

Magnificent Seven Shakeup

While Buffett was busy building positions, other prominent investors were taking profits in the “Magnificent Seven” stocks ahead of the summer tech rout. George Soros’ Soros Fund Management and Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office reduced their stakes in companies like AlphabetGOOG

, AmazonAMZN

, and NvidiaNVDA

during Q2.

• Soros Fund Management sold ~$58M worth of Alphabet shares and ~$15M of Amazon stock, while David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management trimmed its holdings in Amazon, MicrosoftMSFT
  , and Meta PlatformsMETA
  .
• Duquesne reported new positions in Mid-America Apartment Communities, a real estate investment trust that acquires multi-family apartments worth $92M, and in cigarette maker Philip Morris InternationalPM
  valued at $90M.

Apples and oranges: As Berkshire made headlines for halving its stake in AppleAAPL

, Soros Fund Management and Third Point LLC saw opportunity in the tech leader’s shares. These firms initiated new positions in Apple during the second quarter, with Soros’ stake valued at $179M and Third Point’s at $411M as of June 30. While the exact timing of their investments is unclear, Apple’s 34% surge from its low in mid-April suggests these bets have likely paid off handsomely thus far.