Berkshire Hathaway Crosses 10% of Lennar With $212 Million Buying Spree

Berkshire Hathaway has pushed its Lennar stake above 10%, spending $212.4 million across three trading days to amass 23.7 million Class A shares — roughly 11% of the homebuilder — and crossing the disclosure threshold that will force it to report future Lennar trades within two business days. Lennar shares rose 6.4% Tuesday to close at $83.06 after the filing.

The filing landed after Monday's close and re-priced the stock on Tuesday: Lennar shares finished at $83.06, up 6.38% from the $78.08 close, as the market absorbed the news that Berkshire — already a major holder — had kept buying through Monday and crossed the 10% line in the process. The stake is now worth roughly $1.97 billion at Tuesday's close.

A Form 4 filed with the SEC late Monday shows Berkshire bought 2,668,508 Lennar Class A shares on Sept. 17, 18 and 21 at weighted-average prices ranging from $76.39 to $79.41, plus 75,021 Class B shares at $74.80 to $78.38. The spree left Berkshire holding 23,719,109 Class A shares and 528,217 Class B shares. A companion Form 3 — the initial ownership statement filed when an investor crosses 10% — lists Sept. 17 as the event date.

The Class B shares punch above their count: Lennar's charter gives them ten votes apiece, versus one vote for Class A, so Berkshire's half-million Class B shares carry meaningful voting weight on top of the economic stake. Measured against the 210.5 million Class A shares Lennar reported outstanding in its May 10-Q, Berkshire now owns about 11% of the Class A stock; share repurchases since May could nudge the exact figure, which the filings do not state.

The buying extends a rapid housing build-up. Berkshire held 13.1 million Lennar Class A shares at the end of the second quarter, up from 10.3 million at the end of the first, according to its 13F filings. In July it completed the cash acquisition of Taylor Morrison at $72.50 a share — about $6.8 billion of equity value, $8.5 billion including debt — with CEO Greg Abel calling the builder the lead of Berkshire's vision for a unified site-built homebuilding operation. Its June-quarter 13F also shows a new D.R. Horton position.

Lennar shares rose after the disclosure, closing Tuesday at $83.06, up 6.38% from Monday's $78.08 close. The stock is still down about 19% this year, and the operating backdrop explains why: fiscal third-quarter earnings fell to $1.19 a share from $2.29 a year earlier, new orders dropped 9% to 20,879 homes, gross margin on home sales compressed to 15.8%, and management cut full-year delivery guidance to 80,000-81,000 homes. Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.95% as of Sept. 17 — just under 7%.

The pattern reads as a deliberate counter-cyclical bet: accumulating a rate-pressured builder while affordability is at its weakest. That is interpretation, not fact — the filings disclose what Berkshire bought and when, not why. What is factual is the consequence of crossing 10%: Berkshire is now a Section 16 insider in Lennar, so its future buys and sells must appear on Form 4 within two business days. Whether the buying continues is now a matter of public record, on a short clock.