Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has had a successful year, with its top ETFs outperforming the S&P 500, driven by holdings like Tesla, Kratos Defense, and Rocket Lab, with some funds gaining over 50% in 2025.
Activist investor Carl Icahn has reduced his stake in FirstEnergy Corp, an Ohio utility company involved in a federal corruption scandal, and has given up a board seat he controlled. Icahn's firm, the Icahn Group, trimmed its stock holdings in FirstEnergy below the 1.5% threshold that entitled them to hold board seats. Andrew Teno, a portfolio manager at Icahn Group, resigned from the board. FirstEnergy thanked Teno for his contributions and stated that it has a solid strategy in place. Icahn had been assisting FirstEnergy in moving past the corruption case involving a $1 billion state bailout for nuclear power plants.
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's long-time business partner and vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, would have a net worth of over $10 billion today if he had kept all of his Berkshire stock. Munger has sold or donated more than 75% of his shares since 1996, resulting in a current stake worth $2.1 billion. Buffett, on the other hand, holds a much larger Berkshire stake and ranks among the top 10 wealthiest individuals with an estimated fortune of $116 billion. Munger's intentional reduction of his Berkshire stake is primarily to fund his charitable giving.
Berkshire Hathaway, led by Warren Buffett, reported its highest ever quarterly operating profit, driven by rising interest rates and improved performance at its insurance businesses. However, the company's Clayton Homes and building products businesses, as well as its Forest River unit, were negatively impacted by the higher rates. Profit also declined at the BNSF railroad due to lower shipments and increased competition. Berkshire sold more stocks than it bought during the quarter and ended with a near-record $147.4 billion in cash. Buffett remains cautious about high stock valuations and the lack of attractive investment opportunities.
Analysts expect Berkshire Hathaway's second-quarter earnings to fall 8% compared to the previous year, with revenue expected to increase nearly 6%. Investors will be looking for information on the company's operating income, whether there were any changes in its equity holdings, the amount of Berkshire stock bought back, and if the cash hoard grew during the quarter. Berkshire Hathaway has been adding to its stake in Occidental Petroleum and recently agreed to buy out Dominion Energy's stake in a Maryland liquefied natural gas export project. Specific Q2 stock buys and sells will be released in a few weeks.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has reduced its stakes in several publicly traded firms, including Robinhood, 23andMe, and Duolingo. Alphabet sold off nearly 90% of its stake in Robinhood, which has faced challenges since its IPO but recently reported stronger-than-expected earnings. Alphabet also trimmed its positions in Duolingo and 23andMe, selling hundreds of thousands of shares in each company.
The top Republican on the Senate Energy panel, John Barrasso, has called for an investigation into Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm after she admitted to mistakenly providing false information about her family's stock holdings in testimony earlier this year. Granholm revealed that she owned financial stocks as recently as May, contradicting testimony she gave to the panel in April. She also said her husband owned previously undisclosed stock in Ford Motor Co., a key player in the Biden administration's efforts to improve fuel efficiency for cars and trucks and boost sales of electric vehicles. Granholm said she takes ethical conduct seriously and regrets the accidental omission of her spouse's interest in Ford.