One of Warren Buffett’s final big stock picks as boss of Berkshire Hathaway is looking like a rare misstep.
It emerged in August that Berkshire had quietly built a large stake in health insurance giant UnitedHealth, snapping up just over five million shares after the stock had dropped in value.
At the time, the move steadied the company’s shares and was seen as a classic Buffett bet on a bruised but dominant business.
But after a double-whammy of bad news, the investment has lost some of its lustre.
UnitedHealth shares plunged around 20 percent in a single session last week – and have stayed lower – after the company disappointed Wall Street with lower than expected earnings and issued a cautious outlook.
The sell-off came on top of mounting pressure from Washington, after the Trump administration proposed keeping Medicare Advantage payment rates nearly flat in 2027 – a blow to insurers that rely heavily on the government-backed program.
UnitedHealth has also been grappling with a string of problems, including federal scrutiny of its Medicare pricing, fallout from a major cyberattack and the shock killing of a senior executive late last year.
Buffett, now 95, announced last May that he would step aside as Berkshire’s chief executive at the end of 2025, making the UnitedHealth bet one of the final stock calls of his storied investing career.
In December 2024, UnitedHealth’s CEO, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed in Manhattan.
Stephen Hemsley, the CEO who led the company with a tight ship from 2006 through 2017, has returned to the position.
It is unclear exactly what price Berkshire paid. But investing bible Benzinga said the stock is now close to or below where Berkshire disclosed its investment, leaving Buffett’s last high-profile purchase as chief potentially underwater.
Any paper losses are immaterial for Buffett, who sits at No 10 in Bloomberg’s billionaires list with a fortune of $145billion.
This isn’t the first time Berkshire has owned the company’s stock. From 2006 to 2009, he kept 1.18 million shares of the healthcare company in his portfolio.
He sold the stake in 2010 amid a broader retreat from the health insurance industry.
Berkshire owns dozens of companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell, and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
In recent years, Buffett’s trades have been closely watched by Wall Street heavyweights and everyday investors alike, often triggering sharp moves as money rushes in behind him.
When Buffett increased his stake in five Japanese trading houses earlier in 2025 it sent their stocks rocketing.
The same happened in late 2024 after it had emerged Berkshire had scooped up $563 million of stock in Occidental Petroleum, Sirius XM and VeriSign.
His decision to sell stock also has a negative impact on the stock market. In February last year, filings showed he sold shares of DaVita, a healthcare company. The stock immediately dipped more than 11 percent.
Buffett released his final annual letter as CEO in November. In it, he wrote he’s ‘going quiet’ after nearly 60 years at the helm of Berkshire.
Under the direction of Buffett since 1965, Berkshire has outperformed the S&P 500 dramatically.
