Berkshire Hathaway Shares Soar

Berkshire Hathaway Hits New Highs in 2026: What's Driving the Surge The ticker hit $742,000 on a Tuesday morning in July. Class A shares. No fanfare. No press release.

Just the quiet accumulation of value that Warren Buffett has been preaching about for six decades. If you blinked, you missed the milestone. But the chart didn't lie. Berkshire Hathaway had officially crossed a threshold that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago. That's the whole idea.

What Is Berkshire Hathaway Today Most people still think of it as Buffett's stock portfolio. That hasn't been true for a long time. Berkshire is a conglomerate of operating businesses — railroads, utilities, insurance, manufacturing, retail, services — that happen to sit alongside a $350 billion equity portfolio. The insurance float funds the acquisitions.

The operating earnings fund the buybacks. The portfolio provides optionality. Class A shares (BRK. A) have never split.

Class B shares (BRK. B) exist for mere mortals who want exposure without mortgaging a house. Both track the same underlying value. Both hit all-time highs this month.

The Two-Share Structure Still Matters Class A carries more voting power. One Class A share equals 1,500 Class B shares economically, but the voting ratio is 10,000 to 1. That's by design. Buffett wanted to keep control concentrated while letting smaller investors participate.

the spread between the two classes rarely exceeds a fraction of a percent. Arbitrageurs keep it tight. If you're buying for the long haul, either class works. Just know what you own.

Why It Matters Now The S&P 500 is up roughly 14% year to date. Berkshire is up 22%. That outperformance isn't noise. Insurance Float Is Doing Heavy Lifting Geico, General Re, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group — these aren't side businesses.

They generate the float that lets Buffett deploy capital without borrowing. In a higher-rate environment, that float earns real money. Short-term Treasuries yielded 5.3% at the last auction. Berkshire holds over $150 billion in T-bills.

Do the math. That's $8 billion a year in risk-free income before a single claim is paid. The Apple Position Has Shrunk — And That's Healthy Buffett trimmed Apple aggressively in late 2024 and early 2025. The stake dropped from 915 million shares to roughly 300 million.

Critics called it a mistake when Apple rallied. They're quieter now. The sale locked in gains. It reduced concentration risk.

It freed up dry powder. And it signaled discipline — the same discipline that kept Berkshire out of the dot-com bubble, the housing bubble, and the SPAC mania. Operating Earnings Are Finally Getting Respect For years, the market valued Berkshire as a closed-end fund with a management fee. That's changing.

BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Pilot Travel Centers, the manufacturing group — these businesses generated $37 billion in pre-tax earnings last year. At current multiples, the operating businesses alone justify a significant portion of the market cap. The portfolio is the bonus. Not the thesis.

How the Valuation Works Now You can't value Berkshire with a single P/E ratio. It's a sum-of-the-parts story. Always has been. The Standard Framework Start with per-share operating earnings.

Apply a multiple appropriate for each segment — 12x for utilities, 14x for railroads, 10x for manufacturing, maybe 8x for retail. Add the per-share value of the equity portfolio (marked to market). Add the per-share value of the cash and T-bill pile. Subtract debt.

Divide by share count. As of the June 30 filing, that math lands around $715,000 per Class A share. The market is pricing in a modest premium to intrinsic value. Not irrational.

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Just confident. Buybacks Are the Silent Compounder Berkshire repurchased $9.2 billion of stock in Q1 2026. Another $7.8 billion in Q2. The authorization is open-ended — "when price is below intrinsic value, conservatively calculated.

" That's Buffett's language. He's the sole decision-maker on buybacks now. No committee. No board vote required.

Each buyback increases every remaining shareholder's claim on future earnings. It's the closest thing to a free lunch in finance. Common Mistakes / What Most People Get Wrong Waiting for a Pullback That Never Comes "I'll buy when it dips to 1.2x book. " People have been saying that since 2018.

Book value hasn't been the right metric since the accounting rules changed in 2018. Mark-to-market portfolio gains flow through net income now. Book value understates reality. The stock hasn't traded below 1.3x book in six years.

It probably won't again. Treating It Like a Mutual Fund Berkshire isn't an ETF. You can't replicate it by buying the top 10 holdings. The float put to work, the tax deferral on unrealized gains, the ability to deploy insurance capital into operating businesses — none of that exists in a fund wrapper.

You're paying for Buffett's capital allocation. That's the product. Ignoring the Succession Plan Greg Abel runs the non-insurance operations. Ajit Jain runs insurance.

Both are in their early 60s. Both have been in place for years. The board has endorsed Abel as CEO successor. The culture is codified.

The decentralized model means subsidiaries run themselves. The "key man" discount that used to exist has largely evaporated. The market believes the machine works without the founder. Practical Tips / What Actually Works Dollar-Cost Average Into Class B Shares Don't try to time the entry.

Set a monthly allocation. Buy BRK. B automatically. The bid-ask spread is tight.

Liquidity is deep. You'll get fair fills. Over 20 years, the entry price matters less than the holding period. Use It as a Core Portfolio Anchor Berkshire correlates moderately with the S&P 500 (around 0.7 historically) but with lower drawdowns in bear markets.

In 2022, the S&P fell 19%. Berkshire rose 4%. That diversification benefit is real. A 10-15% allocation replaces a slice of large-cap blend and a slice of value.

Simplifies the portfolio. Watch the Cash Pile, Not the Headlines When cash builds above $200 billion, Buffett is telling you he sees few opportunities. When it drops below $100 billion, he's deploying. The June 30 number was $167 billion.

Down from $189 billion in March. He's putting money to work. Quietly. That's the signal.

Read the Annual Letter Every February Skip the financial news summaries. Read the letter. It's 20 pages of the clearest thinking in business. You'll learn more about capital allocation in those pages than in most MBA programs.

FAQ Is Berkshire too expensive at these levels? By historical metrics, it's fully valued. By intrinsic value estimates, it's modestly premium. The question isn't "is it cheap" — it's "will compounding at 10-12% annually beat your alternatives?

" For most investors, yes. What happens when Buffett dies? The shares convert to a charitable trust over time. The voting control passes to the three trustees he's named.

Abel becomes CEO. The operating structure doesn't change. The market has priced this transition for years.