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It has been an up and down year for Warren Buffett’s portfolio. Many of his biggest positions have been trimmed aggressively. But according to recent filings, his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, is loading up on one of Buffett’s favorite stocks. Last quarter, it boosted its position by more than $500 million.

On paper, this stock has it all. It’s priced at a discount to the market, offers a compelling dividend yield, and could generate impressive growth over the next few years.

This has been one of Warren Buffett’s favorite stocks since 2020

Berkshire Hathaway first took a position in Chevron (CVX 0.94%) back in 2020, not long after the nadir of the COVID-19 flash crash. Buffett’s estimated purchase price was around $80. But over the years, he has managed the position aggressively. In early 2021, for instance, just one year after his initial purchase, Buffett slashed his Chevron stake by more than 50%. Towards the end of 2021, however, he began rebuilding his position. Several more purchases and sales occurred in 2022, including the massive acquisition of 121 million shares in the first quarter.

Notably, Berkshire has been a net seller in recent quarters. In six of the past seven quarters, for example, Berkshire has sold more Chevron stock than it purchased. But that all changed this quarter when Buffett purchased nearly 3.5 million shares worth roughly $520 million. It was one of the biggest stock purchases of the quarter for Buffett, giving Berkshire a 7% stake in the entire business.

Why did Buffett load up on this giant oil stock that he knows so well? The numbers below paint a compelling picture.

Chevron stock looks very attractive for certain investors

After several consecutive winning years, the stock market as a whole isn’t obviously a value right now. The S&P 500, for example, trades at 31 times earnings — well above its long-term average. Chevron stock, meanwhile, trades at just 19 times earnings. Revenue growth is stagnant right now, but free cash flow remains high, helping to support a 4.5% dividend yield.

Part of the challenge with Chevron stock right now isn’t under its direct control. Oil prices slid heavily this year, falling under $60 per barrel. Oil inventories continue to rise, with meaningful surpluses expected in 2026 due to rising production globally. In total, it’s a tough place to be for businesses that sell oil.

As an integrated producer, with interests in refining, chemical production, and even energy generation for artificial intelligence applications, Chevron has long been able to manage industry cyclicality with ease. Chevron’s CEO focuses on cost controls and capital efficiency to ensure profits remain stabilized even with low oil prices. But unless those oil prices move higher, expect so-so results from Chevron — a big reason why shares have traded sideways since 2022.

Here’s the thing: Chevron stock is still a very compelling purchase for certain investors. If you’re finding it difficult to find market values, are worried about a potential bear market, or believe geopolitical tensions are about to rise, allowing oil prices to recover quickly, Chevron shares could be a fit. While shares aren’t a steal, they are arguably fairly valued at 19 times earnings. The dividend yield and free cash flow consistency, meanwhile, can help offset losses during a market downturn. And given ongoing geopolitical disputes, it’s not unreasonable to expect sudden shifts in oil demand and supply.

All in all, this looks like a classic move for Buffett in this market environment. He understands Chevron’s business model well, and with a rising cash hoard, it’s clear that he’s finding it difficult to spot market bargains. Chevron is as close to a value stock in today’s environment as it gets.

On October 14, 2025, CCLA Investment Management disclosed it had sold its entire position in NICE (NICE -1.26%) in an estimated $120.03 million transaction.

What Happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 14, 2025, CCLA Investment Management exited its holding in NICE by selling all 710,865 shares, with an estimated trade value of $120.03 million.

What Else to Know

CCLA Investment Management sold out of NICE, reducing its post-trade stake to zero; the position now represents 0% of 13F AUM.

Top holdings following the filing:

• NASDAQ:MSFT – $369.63 million (5.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:GOOGL – $345.87 million (5.5% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:AMZN – $269.0 million (4.3% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:AVGO – $207.92 million (3.3% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NYSE:V – $180.65 million (2.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025

As of October 13, 2025, shares of NICE were priced at $132.00, marking a 23.8% decrease over the year ended October 13, 2025. Over the same period, shares have underperformed the S&P 500 by 35.5 percentage points.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

NICE Ltd. delivers AI-powered cloud software solutions designed to optimize customer experience and enhance compliance for enterprises and public sector organizations worldwide. The company leverages a broad portfolio of proprietary platforms and analytics tools to address complex business needs in digital transformation, financial crime prevention, and operational efficiency.

The company offers AI-driven cloud platforms for customer experience, financial crime prevention, analytics, and digital evidence management, including flagship products such as CXone, Enlighten, and X-Sight.

NICE Ltd. serves a global client base of enterprises, contact centers, financial institutions, and public safety agencies seeking advanced automation, compliance, and customer engagement solutions. It operates a subscription-based business model, generating revenue from cloud services, software licensing, and value-added solutions for enterprise and public sector clients.

Foolish Take

In a recent regulatory filing, CCLA Investment Management revealed that it has completely sold out of its ~$120 million position in NICE, an Israeli software company. This move comes following a tough period for NICE stock.

Over the last five years, the company’s stock has consistently underperformed the broader market. Shares have logged a total return of (44%) over this period, equating to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of (11%). This compares quite unfavorably to the S&P 500, which has generated a total return of 105% over the last five years, equating to a CAGR of 15%.

All that said, NICE’s stock performance doesn’t reflect its underlying fundamentals. Total revenue, net income, and free cash flow have all increased significantly over the last five years, indicating strength in the company’s business model, which relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to power applications serving contact centers, financial institutions, and public safety organizations. Moreover, the company recently announced plans to buy back up to $500 million worth of its outstanding shares, which could help put a floor under its share price.

While CCLA’s recent sale does indicate the deterioration of some institutional support, retail investors may want to take a look at NICE — an under-the-radar AI growth stock.

Glossary

13F reportable assets: Assets disclosed by institutional investment managers in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings.

AUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed by a fund or investment firm on behalf of clients.

Quarterly average price: The average price of a security over a specific quarter, often used to estimate transaction values.

Post-trade stake: The number of shares or value held in a position after a trade is completed.

Flagship products: A company’s leading or most prominent products, often representing its brand or core offerings.

Cloud platforms: Online computing environments that provide scalable software and services over the internet.

Digital evidence management: Systems for storing, organizing, and analyzing electronic data used in investigations or compliance.

Financial crime prevention: Technologies and practices designed to detect and stop illegal financial activities, such as fraud or money laundering.

Compliance: Adhering to laws, regulations, and industry standards relevant to a business or sector.

TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Operational efficiency: The ability of a company to deliver products or services using minimal resources and costs.

PAYING close attention to your boiler can help you cut down on your energy bills.

In fact, one small change can save UK households up to £200 this winter.

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Experts have advised UK residents to take a closer look at their boiler dials before the winter weather sets in.

According to the pros, a simple adjustment could cut annual energy bills by as much as £200.

Boiler specialists at Your NRG, the UK’s leading independent fuel distributor, shared their expertise.

They explained that many families are paying more than necessary because their central heating flow temperature is set too high.

Around 80% of UK homes use a combi boiler, which heats water directly from the mains without a storage tank.

However, most homeowners do not realise that the flow temperature, which is the temperature of water circulating through radiators, is often set unnecessarily high.

Hidden dial

Locating the dial that controls this and reducing the setting from 75-80 degrees celcius, down to around 60 degrees can improve efficiency.

This will help to lower your bills by up to 8%, which could represent savings of around £200 a year for the average household.

But make sure you’re turning the correct dial and not confusing the flow temperature dial with the hot water temperature dial, which controls water used in taps and showers.

It is vital not to lower this dial as hot water must be stored at a minimum of 60 degrees to prevent the growth of legionella bacteria.

Adjustments should only be made to the dial marked with a radiator or thermometer symbol.

And for homes with heat-only or regular boilers that heat a separate hot water tank as well as the central heating, the advice differs.

Caution message

These boilers often have only one dial, which should never be set below 60 degrees for safety reasons.

Adjusting the central heating flow temperature on most combi boilers only takes a few minutes. 

Most models have a flap at the bottom to reveal the controls, and for boilers with a pointer rather than a digital display, setting it to the 12 o’clock position usually lowers the flow temperatures to 60 degrees. 

Homeowners who are unsure are advised to ask a heating engineer to make the adjustment during the next service.

More on home heating

Plus, an £18 buy from The Range that will keep your whole family warm.

An energy expert broke down the top ways to keep your home warm this winter.

And a completely free way you can keep your house warm, and it only takes minutes.

A luxury gadget will cocoon you on winter nights, and only costs 4p to run.

We’ve rounded up the best heated throws to keep you cosy without racking up your energy bills.

When Anduril’s YFQ-44A drone flies for the first time, it will do so in a semi-autonomous fashion as part of a broader plan to get the design to an actual operational state as fast as possible. The company says this self-imposed requirement is why the type, one of two currently being developed for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, has yet to take to the skies. A first flight for the YFQ-44A, also known as Fury, is expected soon, and more of the drones are in production to help steadily expand the future testing regimen.

Diem Salmon, Vice President of Air Dominance and Strike at Anduril, and Jason Levin, the company’s Senior Vice President of Engineering for Air Dominance and Strike shared updates on the state of Fury’s development to TWZ and others today at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. Fury’s story traces back to the late 2010s and an aggressor drone concept from a company called Blue Force Technologies, which Anduril acquired in 2023, as you can read about in extensive detail in this past War Zone feature. The Air Force picked Fury, as well as a design from General Atomics now designated the YFQ-42A, to proceed in the first phase, or Increment 1, of the CCA program last year. The YFQ-42A flew for the first time in August.

“We have multiple vehicles at our test facility in ground testing right now, and we’re in the final stages before first flight,” Anduril’s Salmon said. “All in all, we’re still well ahead of the program schedule in terms of getting YFQ-44A into the air. [We] feel really confident in our ability to do so and still feel really good about the program schedule.”

Anduril’s Levin indicated that the plan is for all of the “vehicles ” currently undergoing ground testing to eventually fly, rather than some of them staying non-flying test articles.

Neither Salmon nor Levin would offer a specific timeline for when the YFQ-44A’s first flight is now set to occur. At a separate roundtable on the sidelines of the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told TWZ and others that the service was hoping to see the drone fly by the middle of October. In a keynote address at the conference earlier today, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin described the testing milestone as “imminent.”

“We also have several vehicles currently in various stages of manufacturing,” Salmon continued. We are “working on multiple tails right now to support the more expansive flight test profile that we’re getting into in the next year.”

Anduril’s Salmon also provided some more specific details on developmental goals for the YFQ-44A around its first flight, especially when it comes to autonomy. Semi-autonomous takeoff and recovery of uncrewed aircraft is not new, with other U.S. and foreign designs, like Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk and General Atomics Reaper, having this capability to varying degrees. Anduril’s position is that it is something of a first for a clean-sheet design to make its initial takeoff, flight, and recovery in this mode.

“The goal for Anduril has always [been] to make this an actual semi-autonomous CCA, and so that’s been the emphasis since day one,” she said. “Taxi has been semi-autonomous, which basically means, we hit a button, it goes to the points that’s been designated by that vehicle, completes a taxi, [and] returns.”

“The goal is to also [to] get to a semi-autonomous first flight, which means takeoff and landing will be done by a push of a button. There is no stick and throttle,” Salmon added. “It will be able to execute the actual first flight profile, pre-planned, using autonomy software on the vehicle.”

Further software development to enable that level of autonomy is currently the main schedule driver when it comes to YFQ-44A’s first flight.

“I think that’s going to allow us to kind of leapfrog the overall test plan, because we are kind of tackling that hard part first, which is getting to a semi-autonomous first light,” Salmon noted.

“So the aircraft’s been moving very fast, from PDR [Preliminary Design Review] last year to getting into ground testing a year later, and then same as the software as well,” Anduril’s Levin added. “So the software’s had to be clean-sheet to get to the semi-autonomous capability. We’re able to leverage a lot of the work you see on other products that are flying similar software, but to get to the level of rigor and complexity needed for CCA has just been a different piece to kind of handle.”

Levin further explained that Anduril is currently developing what he called the “platform autonomy” package for the YFQ-44A, which will handle things like taxing and takeoff and landing, in-house. The company plans to work with other vendors on the “mission autonomy” side, which will enable the drone to perform various tasks once airborne. Anduril’s own Lattice proprietary artificial intelligence-enabled autonomy software package is expected to factor into the mission autonomy equation, as well.

“So it’s really been a parallel effort. Both the hardware team’s working everything from [the] electrical system, avionics, fuel system, and the jet itself, and then, as well as the software in parallel,” he continued. “And then rigging that out through “iron bird,” hardware-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, and then all the actual aircraft itself.”

The iron bird is a non-flying test article that Anduril, and Blue Force Technologies before it, have been using for years to support the development of Fury.

“We have very high fidelity simulations where we develop the software, we put it through software-in-the-loop, but then once we put it on the actual hardware, in the integration, there’s always something that maybe didn’t match correctly, and then we have to go back and validate that as we update it,” Levin explained. “There’s not a lot of playbooks on how you go from basically clean sheet to a semi-autonomous capability right off the bat. I don’t know if there’s any aircraft that have really done that. So basically, figuring out how we’re going to do this. We’ve had to kind of create some of the path there.”

TWZ has repeatedly highlighted that the Air Force’s CCA program, as well as parallel efforts ongoing within the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, still have many questions to answer about how drones in this category will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated, as well as utilized during actual tactical operations. Building trust among the human aviators that will be expected to operate with these uncrewed wingmen will also be vital, as you can read more about here.

“For Anduril, since we did not have a ground control station takeoff and landing, we would have to develop that capability,” he also noted when asked to further explain the decision to pursue a semi-autonomous first flight. “And so that would have had to be a new capability to develop. And actually, we thought it would have been a step backwards, because we really want to get to the semi-autonomous thing and bring out that problem.”

“Just to clarify terms, there is gonna be a control element for [our] CCA, where there will be humans on the ground, some kind of oversight of the platforms,” Salmon said. “The distinction here is that they’re not going to be remotely piloted.”

Anduril’s Salmon also said that the company’s focus has been on meeting the Air Force’s aggressive timeline for fielding an actual CCA capability, not just getting YFQ-44A into the air. The current stated goal is for Increment 1 CCAs to be at least starting to enter operational service before the end of the decade. The Air Force has said it is looking to acquire between 100 and 150 Increment 1 CCAs, and hundreds more through further increments. It remains unclear whether the service expects to pick a single winning design in the program’s first phase or pursue production of both the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A.

“It was not a race to get to first flight as fast as humanly possible. It was, how do we field this really advanced and novel capability as fast as we can,” she said. “And with that comes the recognition that the autonomy is the hard part here, and so that’s the thing that you actually need to burn down from a technical development, testing, and risk perspective. And so that’s how we’ve approached our program.”

Levin pointed out that achieving a semi-autonomous first flight is not a hard Air Force requirement, but also that the service has “very few hard requirements” for the CCA program. He also said that Anduril’s development schedule

Once the YFQ-44A does makes its maiden flight, the initial testing plan is set to include things like checking out the drone’s handling qualities, avionics, and other systems, as well as starting to expand its performance envelope, according to Levin. He would not provide any specific timeline for when Anduril might get to munition testing or more advanced systems integration.

Salmon and Levin were also asked about what plans Anduril might have in regard to the expected follow-on Increment 2 of the Air Force’s CCA program, as well as the Navy’s separate CCA efforts, but declined to provide hard specifics. The Navy just disclosed earlier this month that it had hired Anduril, as well as Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, to work on conceptual carrier-based CCA designs, as you can read more about here. Lockheed Martin has received a separate contract to provide the Navy with an accompanying common command and control architecture.

“The way we would approach other air vehicle development efforts is they would not be Fury derivatives, but instead they would use a lot of the capabilities inside Fury, which might be some of the avionics boxes, maybe some of the software, and then basically the design process and build process we would leverage. But if we were to build a Navy CCA, it would probably look nothing like a Fury … a future CCA that had a different mission, it probably would not be a Fury derivative.”

When pressed on this in light of Anduril’s recently disclosed contract with the Navy, Levin further stressed that any carrier-based design the company might develop would not be a direct Fury derivative.

Levin did say that Anduril is pursuing export sales of Fury variants, including in Europe, as part of a partnership with Rheinmetall in Germany that was announced back in June.

Regardless, “if there’s any autonomous air vehicle program, we’ll compete. If there are any autonomous software program [sic], we will compete on that as well, whether it’s for the Air Force, the Navy, or for whoever, you can imagine that we’re going to compete.”

When it comes to the YFQ-44A, the drone now looks set to fly for the first time within a matter weeks, and in a semi-autonomous mode that Anduril hopes will help put it on a path to being a real operational asset within the next few years.

Contact the author: [email protected]