Up 40% In 2025, Warren Buffett Sold This Top Stock Before Its Hot Streak. Is It Too Late To Buy Now?

• Ulta Beauty banal had a banner twelvemonth past year.

• It would person been 1 of Berkshire Hathaway's champion performers had it not been sold.

• Is Ulta Beauty banal inactive a bargain for growth-oriented investors?

• 10 stocks we similar amended than Ulta Beauty ›

Longtime Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett retired his station astatine the extremity of 2025 arsenic 1 of the top investors of all-time. Over the past 60 years, since Buffett became CEO of the conglomerate, Berkshire's banal portfolio has had an mean annualized instrumentality of astir 20% -- fundamentally doubling the 10% instrumentality of the S&P 500 implicit the aforesaid period.

But adjacent the Oracle of Omaha made mistakes, arsenic Buffett freely admits. In his 2024 shareholder letter, Buffett really had a subhead titled "Mistakes – Yes, We Make Them astatine Berkshire."

"During the 2019-23 period, I person utilized the words "mistake" oregon "error" 16 times successful my letters to you. Many different immense companies person ne'er utilized either connection implicit that span," helium wrote.

While mistakes are inevitable, Buffett added successful that aforesaid missive to shareholders that the "cardinal misdeed is delaying the correction of mistakes oregon what Charlie Munger called 'thumb-sucking.' Problems, helium would archer me, cannot beryllium wished away. They necessitate action, nevertheless uncomfortable that whitethorn be."

That brings america to 1 of Buffett's biggest mistakes successful his last years astatine Berkshire Hathaway -- Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA) -- but possibly not for the reasons you think.

Ulta Beauty is the starring concatenation for quality supplies, products, and salons -- a one-stop store for each things beauty-related.

Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway purchased astir 690,000 shares of Ulta valued astatine astir $266 cardinal successful the 2nd 4th of 2024. It was a tiny involvement for Berkshire, representing astir 0.10% of the portfolio astatine the time, but significant, arsenic it was a caller add.

The adjacent quarter, Berkshire reduced its holdings successful Ulta dramatically, selling disconnected each but immoderate 24,000 shares valued astatine astir $9 million.

And by the Q4 of 2024, Buffett had wholly exited his involvement successful Ulta Beauty.

Buffett and his squad ne'er explicate wherefore they marque the moves they do, astatine slightest not astatine the time, truthful it's not wide wherefore they decided to put successful a banal and past wholly bail connected it successful astir 6 months. There are astir apt not galore Buffett stocks implicit the twelvemonth that person gotten specified a speedy hook.

It was seemingly seen arsenic a mistake that couldn't beryllium wished distant and required action, paraphrasing Buffett's ain punctuation from above. But was the correction of the the mistake the existent mistake?