Berkshire Hathaway Raises Lennar Stake Past 10%, Filing Shows, as Homebuilder Shares Jump

Berkshire Hathaway has built its stake in Lennar to roughly 23.72 million Class A shares plus 528,217 Class B shares, crossing the 10% ownership threshold and triggering Section 16 insider-reporting requirements, according to a regulatory filing reported by TradingView and CNBC. Lennar shares jumped after the disclosure, even as the homebuilder works through weaker orders, thinner margins and a full-year guidance cut.

The Filing and the Buying

According to TradingView, Berkshire added to its position between Sept. 17 and Sept. 21, buying 2.67 million Class A shares at weighted average prices ranging from $76.39 to $79.41, along with 75,021 Class B shares priced between $74.80 and $78.38. The Class B shares carry ten times the voting power of Class A stock, CNBC reported. Crossing the 10% ownership line made Berkshire subject to Section 16(a) reporting as a beneficial owner, and the conglomerate filed both a Form 3 and a Form 4, per TradingView; StockTitan separately confirmed the initial statement of beneficial ownership filed under that section.

Berkshire first disclosed a Lennar position in 2023 with a modest Class B stake, then began a much larger Class A buildup in the first quarter of 2025, according to The Real Deal. No public statement from Berkshire or Lennar on the latest purchases appears in the available reporting; Fortune noted that Berkshire, as a matter of practice, does not discuss its portfolio moves quarter to quarter.

Market Reaction

Lennar shares rose as much as 6.6% Tuesday to a high of $83.24, after trading up 2.32% at $79.89 in premarket hours, according to CNBC and TradingView citing Benzinga Pro data. The pop came against a difficult backdrop: the stock has plunged more than 32% over the past year and is down 22.8% year to date, per CNBC and Yahoo Finance. The broader SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) is down almost 16% since the end of June, CNBC reported.

Why Lennar Is Under Pressure

The Berkshire buying comes as Lennar works through a soft patch. Third-quarter new orders fell 9% year over year to 20,879 homes, while deliveries declined 3% to 20,840, per TradingView and Yahoo Finance. Using those two figures, orders exceeded deliveries by 39 homes, a gap of about 0.19% (our calculation: (20,879 - 20,840) / 20,840 x 100). Gross margin narrowed to 15.8% from 17.5% as the company leaned on incentives and pricing adjustments to move inventory, Yahoo Finance reported.

Lennar also trimmed its full-year 2026 delivery outlook to 80,000-81,000 homes from a prior 82,000-83,000, and guided for fourth-quarter new orders of 19,500 to 20,500 homes, deliveries of 22,000 to 23,000 homes, gross margins of 15.5% to 16%, and earnings per share of $1.30 to $1.65, according to Yahoo Finance and TradingView. The average selling price on new orders came in at $359,000, below the $370,000 consensus cited by Truist Securities, while the sales pace slowed to 4.1 homes per community per month, down 12% year over year, per TradingView. Backlog stood at 16,857 homes valued at roughly $6.3 billion, also per TradingView.

CEO Stuart Miller told analysts the operating environment "has deteriorated since our last earnings call," pointing to 30-year mortgage rates at 7% that constrain affordability and shrink the pool of qualified buyers, according to TradingView and CNBC. CNBC reported that the nationwide average 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached 6.95% last week, up from 6.76% the prior week and 6.26% a year earlier. Lennar's business model adds another wrinkle: recent SEC filings show it owns just 2% of its nearly 500,000 homesites, with the company saying it controls 98% of its land through third parties, per The Real Deal and TradingView.

Lennar's most recent quarter also missed on the bottom line: adjusted earnings came in at $1.23 per share ($1.19 on a GAAP basis), below the $1.30 consensus estimate, according to TradingView.

Analyst and Technical Picture

TradingView reported that Lennar carries a Sell consensus rating among analysts it tracked, with an average price target of $78. Citigroup maintained a Neutral rating but lowered its target to $85 on Sept. 21; RBC Capital kept an Underperform rating and cut its target to $69 on Sept. 18; and Barclays held an Underweight rating while trimming its target to $70, also on Sept. 18, per TradingView.

On a technical basis, TradingView noted shares were trading 3.7% below their 20-day moving average, 5.7% below the 50-day, and 17.6% below the 200-day, with resistance identified near $88.50. Those readings are a snapshot of recent trading momentum rather than a forecast of where the stock is headed next.

Berkshire's Broader Housing Footprint

The Lennar stake sits alongside a growing set of housing-related holdings at Berkshire. The company holds a much smaller D.R. Horton position worth $580,504 at the end of June, Fortune reported, after having exited a larger Horton stake the prior year, according to The Real Deal. Berkshire also completed a $6.8 billion cash acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison in July, per Yahoo Finance, and has owned manufactured-home maker Clayton Homes since 2003, a deal The Real Deal and Realtor.com put at $1.7 billion and CNBC described as costing "almost $2 billion."

CNBC reported that Berkshire's building-materials portfolio also includes paint maker Benjamin Moore and roofing manufacturer Johns Manville. Combined, the Lennar, D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison and Clayton stakes make Berkshire the fourth-largest homebuilder in the country, according to housing analytics firm ResiClub, as cited by Realtor.com.

CFRA Research analyst Catherine Seifert described the Lennar bet as a "classic Berkshire value play," telling CNBC that "Berkshire likes to buy undervalued assets," and adding that the move isn't a stretch for current CEO Greg Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett. The buying also comes just after a Berkshire leadership transition: Buffett stepped down as chairman effective Sept. 18, succeeded by his son Howard Buffett, according to CNBC and a Berkshire Hathaway release, which said Buffett becomes chairman emeritus and remains a director. CNBC also noted Berkshire was sitting on roughly $367 billion in cash at the end of June.

Bottom Line

Berkshire's move past 10% ownership in Lennar is now a matter of public record through Section 16 filings, and the market reaction was immediate, with shares jumping as much as 6.6% on the news. But the purchase lands on a stock still down sharply over the past year, with Lennar itself flagging a deteriorating order environment, thinner margins and a trimmed delivery outlook. Analysts covering the stock remain broadly cautious even as one of the market's most closely watched investors adds to its stake, leaving investors to weigh a value-oriented bet against a homebuilder still working through a tougher housing market.