Berkshire shares set records after Buffett succession selloff

Berkshire Hathaway's Class A and Class B shares set closing highs of $820,500 and $546.97 on Thursday, CNBC's Warren Buffett Watch newsletter said on Oct. 24.

The new highs reversed a post-succession slide that reached 14.3% for Class A and almost 15% for Class B after Warren Buffett said on May 3, 2025, he would step down as CEO.

The selloff began after Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha. Class A shares had closed at $809,350 on Friday, May 2, 2025, and Class B shares at $539.80, both records before the announcement.

On Monday, May 5, 2025, Class A shares dropped 4.9% and Class B shares fell 5.1%, according to CNBC. The outlet said a 14% decline in first-quarter operating earnings, also announced that weekend, may have added to the pressure.

UBS analyst Brian Meredith said at the time that Berkshire's culture and strategy would “remain unchanged” under Greg Abel, CNBC said. Meredith also said, “Buffett leaves a company that is less reliant on his investing capabilities, with an array of leading businesses with strong cash flows.”

The recovery accelerated this month. CNBC said Berkshire's Class B shares have gained almost 9% since the start of October, compared with a 0.4% decline in the S&P 500 and an almost 4.8% drop in the equal-weight NYSE Fang+ index, which tracks 10 megacap technology stocks.

The move narrows Berkshire's year-to-date lag against the S&P 500 to less than four percentage points, according to CNBC. The shares lost almost 1% on Friday but remained roughly one-half of a percentage point above their pre-meeting highs.

Part of the market backdrop has shifted away from technology shares. CNBC said investors have been rotating out of high-performing tech and artificial-intelligence stocks in recent weeks because of concerns that heavy computing-infrastructure spending may not generate the sustained profits companies expect.

Adam Patti of VistaShares, which runs an exchange-traded fund tracking Berkshire's portfolio, said on CNBC's “Morning Call” on Monday that the market had spent a year adjusting to Berkshire without Buffett as CEO. “The market spent a year pricing Berkshire without Buffett. I think it’s finally decided Abel can, in fact, run it,” Patti said.

Berkshire is not fully insulated from the AI investment cycle. CNBC said Abel has said that supplying power to AI data centers is a “significant opportunity for Berkshire and Berkshire Hathaway Energy” as long as rates do not rise for other customers. CNBC also said Berkshire has a $34 billion position in Alphabet.

The succession has also changed Berkshire's governance structure. Atlas360 said in September that Berkshire named Howard Buffett chairman after Warren Buffett stepped down, separating the chair and CEO roles at the $1 trillion conglomerate.

Barron's said Berkshire had more than $350 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet and close to $50 billion of annual after-tax earnings from a diverse group of businesses.

Source: CNBC Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, Oct. 24, 2026