📊 Warren Buffett’s Cash Pile Skyrockets

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Happy Monday!

The markets were closed this past Monday for President’s Day, but that didn’t stop a flood of news from rolling in during the shortened week.

And this week is shaping up to be just as big, with Nvidia, Salesforce, Snowflake, Hims & Hers, and Dell all set to report earnings.

Quick update: For the next few weeks, the newsletter will be sent out on Monday instead of Sunday. I expect to return to the usual schedule by mid-March.

Some key data bites from this week that you should know:

• Most shareholder value over the past decade was created by these 15 stocks.

• Meta approved bonuses of up to 200% for executives while trimming stock awards for employees.

• Ryan Cohen increased his stake in Alibaba to $1B.

• Uber and Lyft could lose 72% of customers if prices increase further.

• Celsius is acquiring Alani Nu for $1.8B.

• Delta is offering plane crash survivors $30,000 each.

• Tesla is recalling 376,000 vehicles in US over power steering issue.

• X is raising funds at a $44B valuation—the same price as Musk’s takeover.

• VOO is now the world’s largest ETF with $632B in assets.

• Elon Musk claims DOGE has reached $55B in total savings so far.

• Bill Ackman submitted a new $900M offer to boost Howard Hughes ownership.

• Citi gave CEO Jane Fraser a 33% pay boost to $35M.

• Southwest Airlines plans to cut 15% of corporate workforce, or 1,750 jobs.

• Goldman Sachs increased its year-end gold price forecast to $3,100.

• Ford is cutting bonuses for 50% of middle managers.

• Elon Musk’s companies have added $613B in value since election.

• Ilya Sutskever is raising $1B at a $30B valuation for his pre-revenue startup.

In today’s newsletter:

• 🆚 Palantir’s Valuation Compared

• ✂️ 9 Potential Stock Splits

• 📈 MercadoLibre’s Growth

• 💰 Warren Buffett’s Cash Pile

• 📦 Amazon Leaps Walmart

Let’s jump right in.

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Palantir has been in the spotlight lately—and for good reason.

• Its explosive run over the past two years has propelled it into the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies.

Last week, the stock briefly touched a $300B market cap before pulling back, following reports that the Defense Department plans to reallocate 8% of the current budget.

• Adding to the pressure, CEO Alex Karp adopted a new trading plan to sell up to $1.23B in stock (roughly 10M shares)—though this comes after canceling a prior plan to sell 49M shares.

Even after the dip, Palantir’s $231B market cap now surpasses defense giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris Technologies—despite generating 46x less revenue than the three combined.

To be fair, Palantir is rapidly expanding its commercial business and diversifying beyond government contracts, but its valuation remains a key point of contention.

Stock splits don’t change a company’s fundamentals—they’re purely cosmetic.

But investors don’t seem to see it that way.

Historically, the broader market averages a 12% return over the next 12 months. 

• Meanwhile, stocks that undergo splits tend to return up to 25%, doubling the market’s average, according to BofA research.

BofA identified nine potential split candidates, selecting companies with:

• A share price above $500

• Higher-than-average returns over a 1-to-5-year period compared to stocks that previously split.

Some big names on the list? FICO, Netflix, Eli Lilly, and Meta.

South America's largest company just got even bigger.

MercadoLibre surged to all-time highs after delivering a blowout Q4 earnings report.

The e-commerce and fintech giant shattered expectations:

• Adj. EPS: $12.61 vs. $7.90 Est.

• Revenue: $6.1B vs. $5.8B Est.

• Gross Merchandise Volume: $14.5B (+8% YoY)

• Unique Active Buyers: 67.3M (+24% YoY, new record)

CFO Martín de los Santos called it “probably the best year in our history” as the company continues to fire on all cylinders.

Warren Buffett’s cash pile keeps climbing.

• Berkshire Hathaway’s total cash and short-term investments hit $334B at the end of 2024, roughly doubling from 2023 (+99%).

• Despite trimming marketable equity holdings, Buffett highlighted that the value of Berkshire’s privately owned businesses continues to far exceed its stock portfolio.

In his 2024 annual letter, he reassured investors, "Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities… Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses, whether controlled or partially owned."

Beyond the cash hoard, Berkshire had a strong quarter.

• Operating earnings soared 71%, fueled by a 302% jump in insurance underwriting.

Amazon just dethroned Walmart in quarterly sales—for the first time ever.

• Walmart reported $181B in revenue this week, while Amazon, which reported earlier in the month, posted $187.8B.

According to CNBC, Walmart had held the title of highest quarterly revenue since surpassing Exxon Mobil in 2012.

That said, Walmart may still retain the crown for annual revenue, with projections of $709B for the fiscal year.

• Meanwhile, Amazon is on its heels, with FactSet estimating $701B in revenue for 2025.

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Notable Companies Reporting Earnings Week of February 24th, 2025:

I use EarningsHub to track earnings, estimates, and receive AI summaries of investor calls.

If you’d like an all-in-one earnings tool and see all other companies reporting, I definitely recommend you check it out!

Buys

• Tim Moore (R)

  • Company: Harley-Davidson Inc ($HOG)

    • Amount Purchased: $195K - $450K

• Ron Wyden (D)

  • Company: Eli Lilly ($LLY)

    • Amount Purchased: $50K - $100K

Sells

• Tim Moore (R)

  • Company: Harley-Davidson Inc ($HOG)

    • Amount Sold: $365K - $800K

  • Company: Ford ($F)

    • Amount Sold: $150K - $350K

• Ron Wyden (D)

  • Company: Eli Lilly ($LLY)

    • Amount Sold: $50K - $100K

Buys

• CompoSecure ($CMPO)

  • Insider: John Cote (Director)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 233,070

    • $ Amount: $3,861,970

    • SEC Forms: [1]

  • Insider: Thomas Knott (Director)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 233,070

    • $ Amount: $3,861,970

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Wynn Resorts ($WYNN)

  • Insider: Philip Satre (Director)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 22,200

    • $ Amount: $2,046,396

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• CVS Health ($CVS)

  • Insider: Michael Mahoney (Director)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 30,000

    • $ Amount: $2,001,000

    • SEC Forms: [1]

Sells

• JPMorgan Chase & Co ($JPM)

  • Insider: Jamie Dimon (Chairman & CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 866,361

    • $ Amount: $233,776,513

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Reddit ($RDDT)

  • Insider: Steve Huffman (CEO & President)

    • # of Shares Sold: 110,408

    • $ Amount: $20,725,318

    • SEC Forms: [1]

🤝 Review of the Week