The Zhitong Finance App learned that Berkshire Hathaway's stock price hit a record high on Wednesday, indicating that investors' confidence in Buffett's successor Greg Abel (Greg Abel) is growing. Since officially taking over as CEO on January 1 of this year, Abell has gradually used the company's huge cash reserves to promote capital allocation through corporate acquisitions, technology stock investments, and stock buybacks to help Berkshire gradually overcome market concerns caused by management handover.
In early trading on Wednesday, Berkshire Class B shares (BRK.B.US) rose 3.2% to hit $543.06, surpassing the all-time high of $543.02 set on May 2, 2025. Meanwhile, Berkshire Class A shares (BRK.A.US), which have relatively low liquidity, also set a new historical record, hitting an intraday high of $814027.80. Over the past year, Berkshire's Class A shares have accumulated a cumulative increase of 9.8%, while Class B shares have risen by about 10%.
For Berkshire, this record high in stock prices is of special significance. As one of the most influential investors in the world, Warren Buffett has long been a central figure in the company's investment philosophy and market appeal, and management transitions after his retirement have raised investors' concerns about the company's future development.
On May 3, 2025, Berkshire announced a management handover plan. Abell will succeed Buffett as CEO in early 2026. After the news was announced, Berkshire's stock price weakened overall for the rest of 2025, with a cumulative decline of 1.9%, while the S&P 500 index rose 21% during the same period, showing a clear gap in performance between the two.
This gap is now gradually narrowing. Over the past year, Berkshire Class B shares rose about 10%, and the S&P 500 index rose 15% during the same period. Although Berkshire still lags behind the market, market expectations for its future development have improved compared to previous performance.
One of the most notable changes since Abel took office was the beginning of more active use of Berkshire's huge cash reserves.
Since this year, Berkshire has taken a number of major capital allocation actions, including spending $6.8 billion to acquire American homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home, investing $10 billion in Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.US), and buying back over $4.5 billion of Berkshire shares.
The total capital involved in the above three investment and repurchase actions exceeds US$21.3 billion, indicating that Abell is deploying capital through various methods such as acquisitions, stock investments, and repurchases. Among them, the acquisition of Taylor Morrison Home further expanded Berkshire's business layout in the US residential construction sector, while the $10 billion investment in Alphabet reflects the company's capital allocation actions in the technology industry.
At the same time, Berkshire is once again stepping up its share repurchase efforts, which also shows that the company is willing to use part of its capital to invest in its own shares to create long-term value for shareholders.
These measures have attracted market attention because Berkshire has accumulated large cash reserves over a long period of time, and how to find attractive investment opportunities while maintaining financial stability has always been an important issue for investors.
After Abel took over as CEO, investors not only needed to evaluate his ability to manage Berkshire's vast business system, but also wanted to know how the company would continue its capital allocation strategy after the Buffett era.
Judging from recent stock price performance, the market seems to be gradually approving Abel's business direction. Berkshire Class B shares have broken through previous all-time highs, which means that the stock price has recovered from losing ground since the announcement of the management handover.
However, whether Berkshire can continue to close the performance gap with the S&P 500 index still depends on the profitability of its core business, portfolio performance, and the efficiency of the new management's future capital allocation.
Next, investors will have an important window to test Berkshire's operating performance under Abell's leadership. According to the current schedule, Berkshire is expected to announce financial results for the third quarter of 2026 on November 7. At that time, the market will focus on the operating conditions of the company's insurance, railway, energy and other businesses, as well as capital allocation trends such as changes in cash reserves, stock repurchases, and new investments.