Warren Buffett's Latest 13F Filing Reveals a Bold Strategic Shift: Exiting Bank of America While Building a Major Position in Domino's Pizza

The Numbers Tell a Compelling Story

When Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway submitted its third-quarter 13F filing in November, investors got a rare glimpse into the Oracle of Omaha’s recent portfolio moves. The filing painted an intriguing picture: aggressive trimming of one legacy holding, coupled with methodical accumulation of another. Over just 15 months, Berkshire has liquidated nearly 465 million Bank of America shares—a staggering 45% haircut—while simultaneously building an 8.7% ownership stake in Domino’s Pizza from scratch.

This bifurcated strategy raises a fundamental question: what does Buffett see that others don’t?

Why Bank of America Lost Its Shine

For a decade, Bank of America sat comfortably as one of Buffett’s crown jewels. When he first invested back in 2011, BAC stock traded at a 68% discount to book value—a textbook margin-of-safety scenario. Fast-forward to today, and that advantage has evaporated. Bank of America now commands a 38% premium to book value, fundamentally altering the risk-reward calculus.

The timing of Buffett’s exit carries deeper significance. He’s faced 12 straight quarters of net stock selling (totaling $184 billion in disposals), but BofA’s reduction stands out for its scale and deliberation. Beyond simple profit-taking, Buffett appears positioned for an environment where interest rate cuts erode the net interest margin that propelled BofA’s earnings during the hiking cycle of 2022-2023. As the Fed pivots toward easing, money-center banks like BofA face structural headwinds.

In Buffett’s calculus, a mediocre valuation paired with deteriorating fundamentals doesn’t justify holding.

The Unlikely Winner: Domino’s Pizza

Contrast this with Domino’s Pizza, where Buffett has been quietly accumulating shares every quarter for a year and a half. The cumulative purchases paint a picture of conviction: 2.98 million shares acquired, representing an 8.7% position. This wasn’t a one-time impulse buy—it was a deliberate, multi-quarter campaign.

Why Domino’s? The pizza chain’s track record speaks volumes. Since its 2004 IPO, DPZ shares have delivered a staggering 6,600% total return (including dividends). That’s not luck; it’s the byproduct of relentless execution.

Management’s pivot to transparency in the late 2000s—when they publicly acknowledged past mistakes and laid out their turnaround plan—rebuilt consumer trust. Today, Domino’s continues outpacing its five-year strategic targets. Their emerging initiative, “Hungry for MORE,” integrates artificial intelligence to optimize production and supply chain efficiency while doubling down on franchise partner relationships.

Equally compelling is Domino’s international expansion, which has now registered 31 consecutive years of positive same-store sales growth overseas. That runway remains far from exhausted. Combined with a shareholder-friendly capital allocation model (consistent buybacks, 10+ years of dividend increases), Domino’s checks every box on Buffett’s playbook.

What This Shift Signals

Berkshire’s recent Form 13F tells an old story in new clothes: quality matters more than price, and yesterday’s bargains often become tomorrow’s traps. Bank of America fell into the latter category. Domino’s exemplifies the former—a business that compounds shareholder value through brand loyalty, innovation, and disciplined capital deployment.

For investors tracking Buffett’s moves, the lesson is clear. When the world’s greatest allocator shifts capital away from a household-name bank toward a pizza company, it’s worth pausing to ask why. His two-decade history suggests he usually knows something others are still figuring out.