Lennar Corporation (LEN) closed Monday's session at $74.44, down 7% and sitting at a fresh 52-week low. The decline came even as a new regulatory filing showed that Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett, spent another $192.6 million adding to its stake in the homebuilder.

Berkshire now controls roughly 12% of Lennar, a position worth close to $2.2 billion. That is more than double what the firm held at the end of the second quarter, and it sets up a notable contrast: Wall Street has punished Lennar's stock even as Berkshire has kept buying.

Berkshire Extends Its Buying Streak

A new Form 4 filing — the SEC document that insiders and shareholders owning more than 10% of a company use to disclose share transactions — shows Berkshire picked up 2.4 million more Lennar shares across Thursday and Friday, October 1 and 2. The purchases totaled $192.6 million and spanned both Class A and Class B stock.

The buying has been steady. On October 1, Berkshire acquired 705,690 Class A shares at weighted average prices between $79.49 and $81.46, along with 4,852 Class B shares that same day. October 2 brought even more activity: Berkshire bought 1,655,866 Class A shares at weighted averages ranging from $78.37 to $81.90, plus another 10,176 Class B shares.

Add it all up and Berkshire's subsidiaries now hold 28.4 million Class A shares and 568,028 Class B shares. Warren Buffett is the controlling stockholder of Berkshire, though he disclaims personal beneficial ownership of the firm's holdings beyond his own financial stake.

Why Lennar Stock Sold Off

Monday's slide was not random. A report from Hunterbrook, a media and investment outfit, raised questions about Lennar's relationship with Millrose Properties, the land-banking company Lennar spun off in 2025. Land banking, broadly, is the practice of acquiring and holding land or finished lots for future homebuilding — a structure builders use to move land costs off their own balance sheets.

Lance Lambert of ResiClub highlighted the dynamic in a post on X:

Warren Buffett's successor makes third big housing market bet this year—now owning around 11% of Lennar

Wall Street has punished Lennar's stock

As the stock slid further this past quarter, Berkshire bought even more

My latest for @ResiClub_HQ : pic.twitter.com/UgGn9HUjfm

— Lance Lambert (@NewsLambert) October 6, 2026

Hunterbrook claims Lennar sold more than 700 homes to Millrose, which then rents them out. The report also says Millrose paid more for these homes than a typical individual buyer would. Both companies declined to comment when the report first circulated. That silence did not help the stock.

Berkshire has not said whether it kept buying on Monday itself. Because it owns more than 10% of Lennar, it has two business days to disclose any new purchases, meaning a Monday filing would need to land by Wednesday. Any disclosure — or the absence of one — by that deadline will be the next hard data point on whether Berkshire leaned into the decline.

The Earnings Backdrop

The sell-off did not happen in a vacuum. Lennar's fiscal third-quarter results missed on both lines. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.23 per share against a $1.29 estimate, and revenue landed at $8.05 billion versus the expected $8.31 billion. New orders also slipped from a year earlier, a sign that housing demand has cooled.

Wall Street has taken notice. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage with an underweight rating and a $65 price target, flagging margin pressure. Raymond James maintained its underperform call, pointing to Lennar's choice to hold production volumes steady even as mortgage rates swing. Truist stuck with a hold rating and a $75 target. Citizens kept a market perform rating but noted that incentive rates had ticked down slightly — a small bright spot.

Taken together, the calls capture the core tension for homebuilders in a softening market: holding production steady preserves scale and market presence, but it leaves margins exposed while incentives — rather than underlying demand — do more of the selling.

Lennar is still leaning on buybacks, dividends and debt paydown to keep shareholders happy. Berkshire's buying spree, meanwhile, has left the conglomerate sitting on paper losses, given that Monday's close marked the stock's lowest point since 2022.

Berkshire's Housing Bets Go Beyond Lennar

Berkshire's home-building bets do not stop at Lennar. According to ResiClub, the Lennar position represents the firm's third big housing market bet this year. The conglomerate also owns Clayton Homes and bought Taylor Morrison for $8.5 billion back in July. Taken together, the moves amount to a multi-pronged bet on American housing, arriving just as Lennar's shares sit at their lowest levels since 2022.

Some Berkshire watchers think portfolio manager Ted Weschler who oversees about 6% of the firm's $350 billion equity book, is the one behind the Lennar trades. Weschler reports to CEO Greg Abel.