Berkshire Hathaway gains ground, but still trails the S&P 500 as '26 enters second half
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- Berkshire Hathaway's B shares are down 1.8% year-to-date, trailing the S&P 500's 10.7% gain by 12.4 percentage points (13.1 points including dividends)
- A strong June erased nearly a third of Berkshire's 17.5 percentage point deficit as of June 1, its widest losing margin of the year so far
- Berkshire gained just over 3% in Q2 (+10 days) versus the benchmark's 16% tech-driven advance, erasing a slim 1.8-point Berkshire lead held at the end of March
- Berkshire CEO Greg Abel and portfolio manager Ted Weschler were photographed at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference in Idaho, though they were not featured in Forbes' attendee coverage
- Berkshire sat on $397.4 billion in cash as of March 31, up 6.5% from December 31, and repurchased $234 million of its own shares in Q1 2026
- Berkshire's top disclosed holdings include a $10 billion direct Alphabet share purchase announced June 1, 2026 — a transaction the company has not yet formally confirmed as completed
- BRK.B traded at a P/E (TTM) of 14.70 against a market capitalization of roughly $1.06 trillion, well below the multiple investors currently assign to AI-heavy index leaders
Why it matters: Berkshire's 12.4-point lag behind a tech-driven S&P 500 exposes how its value-heavy, cash-rich portfolio has been bypassed by the AI rally, yet management continues loading up: $397.4 billion in cash and a fresh $10 billion Alphabet commitment suggest Abel and Buffett's successors see opportunity where the index's gains have gone — including, evidently, in their own stock at a 14.7 P/E.
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