Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares (NYSE:BRK.B) climbed 1.61% to 507.78 dollars, a fresh push toward the top of their 52 week range of 464.34 to 507.93, as investors size up the conglomerate's first year without Warren Buffett at the controls. Greg Abel took over as chief executive at the start of 2026, and the market is watching how he handles a record cash pile that stood near 397 billion dollars at the end of the first quarter.
| Price | 507.78 USD |
|---|---|
| Day change | +8.04 (+1.61%) |
| 52-week range | 464.34 – 507.93 |
| Market cap | $1.10T |
| RSI (14) | 67.3 |
| Volume | 4,389,647 |
That cash hoard, up from 373 billion dollars at the end of last year, equals more than a third of Berkshire's 1.10 trillion dollar market capitalization. The stock now carries a price to earnings ratio near 15, with earnings per share supporting a valuation that looks neither stretched nor bargain priced against the company's own history.
Abel's Early Moves Reshape the Portfolio
Abel has not wasted time putting his mark on the company. His first major transaction was an agreement to buy homebuilder Taylor Morrison for 6.8 billion dollars, or 72.50 dollars a share, a 24% premium over the prior price. He also directed Berkshire into a 10 billion dollar private placement in Alphabet, purchased at a discount, lifting the Google parent stake above 26 billion dollars, a notable pivot for a firm that historically kept technology at arm's length.
He halted the slow paring of the Apple position that had been underway before he took charge, keeping it the largest holding in the portfolio at roughly 22%. Buybacks resumed too, with about 234 million dollars repurchased in March after a 21 month gap. The through line is capital deployed with patience rather than capital simply parked. It echoes the discipline Buffett built the company on, but with a quicker trigger finger when a price looks right.
Valuation, Momentum and Dividend Yield at Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire's relative strength index sits at 67.3, a level that signals strong upward momentum without yet flashing the kind of overbought extreme that typically triggers a pullback. Shares trade around 1.5 times book value, close to the company's ten year average, while the price to earnings ratio near 15 places it in familiar territory rather than premium ground.
Berkshire pays no dividend, so the case for owning the stock rests entirely on capital appreciation and the value of what sits inside the company: an insurance operation that throws off steady underwriting profit, the BNSF railroad, a sizable energy business, and an equity portfolio worth more than 300 billion dollars. Add the cash reserve and the total resembles a coiled spring waiting on the right acquisition price.
The bull case leans on Abel's early record. He moved on Taylor Morrison to capture exposure to a housing shortage, pushed further into Alphabet as a way into artificial intelligence spending without buying a chipmaker outright, and restarted buybacks once he judged shares attractively priced. Buffett, who remains chairman, praised the Taylor Morrison deal publicly, saying Abel closed it faster than he himself could have.
The bear case is about pace and precedent. A cash pile this large sitting idle for stretches can weigh on returns if better opportunities keep failing to appear, and a management transition of this scale, even a smooth one, carries execution risk that only shows up over several years, not months. Investors have limited history yet to judge Abel's capital allocation against a full cycle.
Can Abel Sustain the Buffett Discipline
The lasting question is whether Abel can keep matching capital to opportunity with the same restraint Buffett showed for six decades. His first year offers encouraging signals: a housing bet, an AI adjacent stake, restored buybacks. Whether that pattern holds through a full market cycle remains the open test for Berkshire shareholders.