Berkshire Shares Climb to Eight-Month High
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- Berkshire Hathaway B shares closed Tuesday at $512.37 and A shares at $768,010—both their highest closes since November 28, 2024, though still roughly 5.2% below all-time highs set May 2, 2025, the day before Buffett announced he would step down as CEO at year's end.
- Berkshire has erased more than half of its 17.5 percentage point S&P 500 deficit in just two months but still trails the benchmark by 7.6 points, per Barron's, which says the stock's rally 'has room to run.'
- UBS analyst Brian Meredith raised his price target to $585 on B shares (from $570) and $877,848 on A shares, maintained a 'buy' rating, edged up earnings estimates, and welcomed a Barron's report that Berkshire may have bought back as much as $11 billion in Q2.
- Apple, Berkshire's largest holding at over $70 billion, is up 13.6% year-to-date, while Coca-Cola (25% YTD, $35 billion stake) beat earnings expectations and raised its full-year outlook, and Bank of America (12.6% YTD, ~$32 billion stake) also rallied.
- Berkshire disclosed $234 million in Q1 2025 buybacks and held $380.2 billion in cash (excluding rail cash and T-bills payable) as of March 31, with the actual Q2 buyback figure due when Berkshire releases second-quarter results on Saturday, August 8.
Why it matters: Berkshire's $1.1 trillion market cap and $380 billion cash hoard give incoming CEO Greg Abel enormous firepower heading into the August 8 earnings release, where the reported $11 billion Q2 buyback pace and the stock's 7.6-point gap to the S&P 500 will both get fresh scrutiny from investors deciding whether to chase the catch-up rally.
