Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) — Company Research

Last Updated: 31 July 2026

Berkshire Hathaway is the first company in this series to be researched under a new chief executive. Gregory Abel took over as CEO on 1 January 2026, ending Warren Buffett's 55-year run in the role, and the first seven months of his tenure have produced a record first quarter, the resumption of buybacks after a full year of inactivity, two completed acquisitions and the largest cash pile the company has ever held. This report sets out what the filings actually say about the business Abel inherited, using only Berkshire's own press releases, its FY2025 Form 10-K and its Q1 2026 Form 10-Q. No analyst opinions or price targets appear anywhere in it.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / Exchange	BRK.B (Class B) and BRK.A (Class A), New York Stock Exchange
Sector	Financials — diversified insurance and holding company
Headquarters	3555 Farnam Street, Omaha, Nebraska, USA (incorporated in Delaware)
CEO / Leadership	Gregory E. Abel, President and Chief Executive Officer since 1 January 2026. Warren E. Buffett remains Chairman of the Board. Ajit Jain is Vice Chairman — Insurance. Charles C. Chang became SVP and CFO on 1 June 2026, succeeding Marc D. Hamburg, who retires 1 June 2027.
Employees	Approximately 387,800 worldwide at 31 December 2025 (about 80% in the United States)
Revenue (FY2025)	$371,444m total revenues
Net income (FY2025)	$66,968m attributable to Berkshire shareholders; after-tax operating earnings $44,486m
Market cap	Approximately $1,099bn ($1.10 trillion) at the close on 30 July 2026
Share price	$509.68 (close, 30 July 2026)
Dividend	None. Berkshire has not declared a cash dividend since 1967.
Share classes	511,820 Class A and 1,389,605,139 Class B shares outstanding at 31 January 2026. Each Class A share converts at the holder's option into 1,500 Class B shares.

2. Bull & Bear Case

Bull Case

• Unrivalled scale and diversification: FY2025 revenues of $371,444m came from seven reportable segments spanning insurance underwriting, freight rail, regulated energy, manufacturing, food distribution, travel centres and retailing, with no single segment above 29% of revenue.
• A record and still-growing cash reserve: consolidated cash and US Treasury Bills stood at roughly $397bn at 31 March 2026, up from about $373bn at the end of 2025 — optionality that almost no other buyer of businesses possesses.
• Insurance float that funds itself: float reached $176.9bn at 31 March 2026, and FY2025 insurance underwriting produced a $9,460m pre-tax profit, meaning the investable capital carried a negative cost.
• The succession has been operationally uneventful: Q1 2026 operating earnings of $11,346m were 17.7% above the prior-year quarter, a record for a first quarter, and Abel completed the $9.5bn OxyChem purchase and the $8.5bn Taylor Morrison deal inside his first seven months.
• Capital return has restarted: after no repurchases at all during 2025, Berkshire bought back roughly $234m of stock in March 2026 under a programme now triggered by the CEO rather than by Buffett personally.

Bear Case

• Growth has stalled at the top line: FY2025 revenue of $371,444m was essentially unchanged on FY2024's $371,433m — an increase of $11m, or effectively zero, after +20.7% in FY2023.
• Operating earnings went backwards: FY2025 after-tax operating earnings of $44,486m were 6.2% below FY2024's $47,437m, with Q4 2025 down 29.8% year on year and insurance underwriting profit down 54% in that quarter.
• The cash pile is a symptom, not only a strength: Berkshire bought $16.9bn of equities against $30.7bn of sales in FY2025, a further year as a net seller, which is what happens when management cannot find assets at prices it likes.
• Concentration inside the equity book: Apple alone was $57.84bn of a $263.10bn portfolio at 31 March 2026, and FY2025 carried an $8,255m after-tax impairment on Kraft Heinz and Occidental.
• Key-person risk has been transferred, not removed: the FY2025 10-K states plainly that major capital allocation and investment decisions are now the responsibility of one person, Mr Abel, and he has no public multi-decade record of allocating at this scale.

3. Business Segments

Berkshire reports seven segments. The percentages below are each segment's share of FY2025 consolidated total revenues of $371,444m, taken from Note 26 of the FY2025 Form 10-K. Investment gains of $39,078m pre-tax are reported separately and are excluded from revenue.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Insurance (total)	28.1%	GEICO ($44,481m premiums earned), Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group ($25,708m) and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group ($18,713m), plus $15,310m of insurance investment income. Produced $24,721m of pre-tax earnings in FY2025.
Manufacturing	21.1%	Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, Marmon, IMC, Clayton Homes and the building-products and consumer-products groups. $78,487m of revenue and $12,571m of pre-tax earnings.
McLane Company	13.7%	Wholesale distribution of groceries, non-food consumables and beverages to convenience stores, drug stores and quick-service restaurants. $50,998m of revenue on very thin margins.
Service and Retailing	11.5%	NetJets, FlightSafety, TTI, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, Nebraska Furniture Mart, See's Candies and the Buffalo News. $42,647m of revenue and $4,039m of pre-tax earnings.
Pilot Travel Centers	11.4%	Travel-centre and truck-stop network selling fuel, food and services across North America. $42,198m of revenue, down from $46,891m in FY2024 on lower fuel prices.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy	7.1%	Regulated electric and gas utilities in the US and Great Britain, interstate pipelines and renewable generation. $26,297m of revenue and $2,342m of pre-tax earnings.
BNSF Railway	6.3%	One of North America's largest freight railroads, hauling consumer products, coal, industrial products and agricultural commodities. $23,533m of revenue and $7,175m of pre-tax earnings — the highest margin of any operating segment.

4. Business Model & Moat

How it makes money. Berkshire earns from three distinct engines. The insurance businesses collect premiums today against claims paid later, and the difference — the float, $176.9bn at 31 March 2026 — is invested for Berkshire's own account. The wholly-owned operating businesses, from BNSF to Precision Castparts to See's Candies, generate cash that is remitted to Omaha rather than reinvested locally beyond what each business needs. The marketable equity portfolio, worth $263.10bn at 31 March 2026, produces dividends and, unpredictably, mark-to-market gains that flow through GAAP net earnings but not through the operating-earnings figure management prefers.

Where the moat sits. The durable advantage is structural rather than product-based. Berkshire can write insurance risk no other underwriter will accept because its balance sheet absorbs single-event losses that would impair a peer — the FY2025 10-K states that Berkshire has been and will continue to be willing to assume more risk from a single event than any other insurer has knowingly assumed. It can buy whole companies for cash without financing conditions, which is why sellers who care about permanence accept a lower price. And its cost of capital is unusually low because float is effectively borrowed money on which the lender has, in profitable years, paid Berkshire for the privilege.

What it does not have. Berkshire has no consumer brand pulling revenue across the group, no network effect and no proprietary technology. The FY2025 10-K risk factors acknowledge directly that competition and technology may erode the business franchises. Several subsidiaries — McLane in particular, on $50,998m of revenue — are low-margin distribution businesses with no moat at all; they are held because they generate cash, not because they are defensible.

How capital is allocated. Cash goes to one of four places: capital expenditure inside the subsidiaries ($20,927m in FY2025, concentrated in BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy), whole-company acquisitions, marketable securities, or buybacks. Dividends have never been an option since 1967. The buyback authorisation was amended in 2025 so that the CEO, after consulting the Chairman, sets the trigger, with a hard floor requiring cash and Treasury Bills to stay above $30bn.

5. Financial Health

All figures below are taken from Berkshire's own quarterly earnings press releases, the FY2025 Form 10-K filed 2 March 2026 and the Q1 2026 Form 10-Q filed 4 May 2026. Berkshire uses an unclassified balance sheet, so the debt column shows total notes payable and other borrowings, which carries no current/non-current split.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE, $m)
FY2021	276,094	+12.5%	$39.64	$12.12 †	Nil	114,262
FY2022	302,089	+9.4%	$(10.33)	$14.00 †	Nil	122,744
FY2023	364,482	+20.7%	$44.27	$17.19 †	Nil	128,271
FY2024	371,433	+1.9%	$41.27	$22.00 †	Nil	124,762
FY2025	371,444	+0.0%	$31.04	$20.62 †	Nil	129,081

† Berkshire does not publish a per-share operating earnings figure. The Adjusted EPS column is derived here as after-tax operating earnings divided by weighted-average Class B-equivalent shares outstanding, using the totals Berkshire does disclose: $27,455m, $30,853m, $37,350m, $47,437m and $44,486m respectively. All EPS figures are on a Class B basis; each Class A share equals 1,500 Class B shares. FY2022's GAAP loss reflects mark-to-market losses on the equity portfolio, not an operating loss.

Quarter / Half	Revenue ($m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q1 2026 (reported 2 May 2026)	93,675	$5.26 †	$4.68
Q4 2025 (reported 28 Feb 2026)	94,232	$4.73 †	$8.90
Q3 2025 (reported 1 Nov 2025)	94,972	$6.25 †	$14.28
Q2 2025 (reported 2 Aug 2025)	92,515	$5.17 †	$5.73
Q1 2025 (reported 3 May 2025)	89,725	$4.47 †	$2.13
FY2025 total	371,444	$20.62 †	$31.04

The pattern worth noting is how far apart the two EPS columns sit. GAAP earnings swing on the mark-to-market value of the equity portfolio — $14.28 in Q3 2025 against $6.25 of operating earnings, then $4.68 against $5.26 in Q1 2026. Operating earnings are the smoother series and the one management points to. On that measure FY2025 was a down year: $44,486m against $47,437m, with the weakness concentrated in insurance, where underwriting profit fell and investment income declined from $13,670m to $12,513m after tax.

The balance sheet remains conservatively financed. Total borrowings of $128,886m at 31 March 2026 sit against $727,181m of Berkshire shareholders' equity and roughly $397bn of cash and Treasury Bills — Berkshire holds far more in short-dated government paper than it owes in total debt. Operating cash flow of $45,969m in FY2025 covered $20,927m of capital expenditure nearly two and a half times over.

6. Valuation

Raw metrics, July 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Market cap	~$1,099bn (2,156,854,500 Class B-equivalent shares at 31 Mar 2026 × $509.68 close on 30 Jul 2026)
Enterprise value	~$831bn (market cap ~$1,099bn + total borrowings $128.9bn − cash and Treasury Bills ~$397.4bn, per the 31 Mar 2026 balance sheet)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~15.2x (share price $509.68 / trailing twelve-month GAAP EPS $33.64). Distorted upward or downward in any period by mark-to-market equity gains, which are non-cash.
P/E (forward)	n/a — Berkshire does not issue earnings guidance of any kind
P/S (TTM)	~2.9x (market cap ~$1,099bn / trailing twelve-month revenue ~$375.4bn, being FY2025 $371,444m less Q1 2025 $89,725m plus Q1 2026 $93,675m)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~8.7x (EV ~$831bn / EBITDA ~$95.9bn; EBITDA = FY2025 earnings before income taxes $82,459m + D&A $13,476m). Heavily flattered by $39,078m of pre-tax investment gains sitting inside pre-tax earnings; stripping those out gives EBITDA of ~$56.9bn and EV/EBITDA of ~14.6x, which is the more representative figure.
P/FCF	~43.9x (market cap ~$1,099bn / FCF ~$25.0bn; FCF = FY2025 operating cash flow $45,969m − capital expenditure $20,927m). The capex figure is structurally high because BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy are capital-intensive regulated businesses.
Price/book	~1.51x (share price $509.68 / book value per Class B share $337.14 at 31 Mar 2026, being $727,181m of Berkshire shareholders' equity over 2,156,854,500 Class B-equivalent shares)
52-week high	$516.85
52-week low	$455.18
Short interest (% of float)	0.93% (13.03m shares, Finviz, 31 Jul 2026). Yahoo Finance reports 0.96% on 11.92m shares. Negligible on either source.
Days to cover	2.62 days (Finviz, 31 Jul 2026); 2.33 days per Yahoo Finance

Two cautions on the market-cap figure. Finviz publishes $989.65bn for BRK.B because it applies the Class B share count only; the arithmetically complete figure on the Class B-equivalent count, which includes Class A converted at 1,500:1, is approximately $1,099bn, and that is what is used throughout this section. Separately, book value is a more stable anchor than earnings for a company whose reported profit moves with the stock market. You can track the price action against these levels on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

7. What Are They Building

A homebuilding operation at national scale. Berkshire agreed to buy Taylor Morrison Home Corporation on 31 May 2026 for $72.50 per share in cash, an equity value of roughly $6.8bn and an enterprise value of roughly $8.5bn, at a 24% premium to the prior close. The deal completed on 24 July 2026. Combined with Clayton Properties Group's fifteen regional homebuilders, the enlarged operation delivered close to 23,000 site-built home closings in 2025 across 21 states, 52 housing markets and more than 700 communities — making Berkshire the fourth-largest homebuilder in the United States. Taylor Morrison continues under CEO Sheryl Palmer.

A chemicals platform. The $9.5bn all-cash purchase of OxyChem from Occidental Petroleum completed on 2 January 2026, Abel's first day in the job. OxyChem is a top-three North American producer of PVC, chlor-alkali and chlorinated organics, running 21 US plants across ten states plus operations in Canada and Chile with roughly 4,000 employees and contractors. Occidental retained the legacy environmental liabilities. It slots into the Manufacturing segment alongside Lubrizol and Marmon.

A materially reshaped equity portfolio. The 13F filed on 15 May 2026 — Abel's first as CEO — showed the portfolio cut from 42 positions to 29 and from $274.16bn to $263.10bn. Alphabet Class A was increased 204% to 54,249,798 shares with a new Class C position alongside it, and a new 39,809,456-share Delta Air Lines holding appeared, Berkshire's first airline position since it liquidated the four US carriers in 2020. Chevron was cut 35% and Constellation Brands 95%. Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth, Charter, Aon, Domino's Pizza, Pool Corp, HEICO and Lamar Advertising were exited entirely. Apple, at $57.84bn still the largest holding, was left completely untouched.

Buyback capacity. March 2026 saw the first repurchases in more than a year: 33 Class A shares at an average $729,701.17 and 431,462 Class B at an average $486.92, roughly $234m in total. Against a cash position near $397bn this is a rounding error, but the restart matters because the trigger now sits with Abel.

8. Peer Comparison

Peer	Market cap (July 2026)	Key 2025 metric
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)	~$1,099bn (30 Jul 2026)	FY2025 total revenues $371,444m; after-tax operating earnings $44,486m; GAAP EPS $31.04
Chubb (CB)	~$135bn (30 Jul 2026)	FY2025 revenues $59,402m; net income $10,310m; diluted EPS $25.68
Progressive (PGR)	~$124bn (30 Jul 2026)	FY2025 revenues $87,671m; net income $11,308m; combined ratio 87.4; 38.6m policies in force
Travelers (TRV)	~$78bn (30 Jul 2026)	FY2025 revenues $48,828m; net income $6,288m; diluted EPS $27.43
Loews (L)	~$24bn (30 Jul 2026)	FY2025 revenues $18,454m; net income $1,667m; diluted EPS $7.97
Markel Group (MKL)	~$23bn (30 Jul 2026)	FY2025 revenues $15,513m; net income $2,107m; diluted EPS $169.22

Market caps are as at the close on 30 July 2026; FY2025 figures are from each company's own annual filing. On market value Berkshire is roughly eight times Chubb, nine times Progressive and forty-seven times Markel — the comparison is really one of kind rather than degree, since none of these peers owns a Class I railroad or a regulated utility group. Progressive is the closest operating comparison to GEICO specifically, and its 87.4 combined ratio for FY2025 is the number to watch against GEICO's $6,824m of underwriting profit.

9. Insider Activity

Berkshire insiders filed nine Form 4s in 2026 to 31 July. The pattern is unusual: no open-market sales at all, two open-market purchases, and a series of charitable gifts. Chief Executive Gregory Abel's March purchase is the single most significant transaction. None of the filings reviewed carried a Rule 10b5-1 plan notation.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Gregory E. Abel (CEO, Director)	04 Mar 2026	Open-market purchase	21 Class A (18 separate fills)	Avg $728,970.11	~$15.31m	Not a 10b5-1 plan; held via revocable trust
Warren E. Buffett (Chairman, 10% owner)	14 Jul 2026	Conversion then charitable gift	8,000 Class A converted to 12,000,000 Class B, all gifted to five charities	$0.00 (gift)	~$5.89bn at the $491.09 close	Not a 10b5-1 plan
Warren E. Buffett (Chairman, 10% owner)	18 May 2026	Conversion then charitable gift	25 Class A converted to 37,500 Class B; 37,292 Class B gifted	$0.00 (gift)	~$18m	Not a 10b5-1 plan
Michael J. O'Sullivan (SVP & General Counsel)	06 May 2026	Open-market purchase	483 Class B plus 53 Class B	$467.13 and $470.22	~$250k	Not a 10b5-1 plan; held via living trust
Charlotte Guyman (Director)	14 May 2026	Charitable gift	574 Class B	$0.00 (gift)	~$275k	Not a 10b5-1 plan
Warren E. Buffett (Chairman, 10% owner)	17 Mar 2026	Charitable gift	2 Class A	$0.00 (gift)	~$1.46m	Not a 10b5-1 plan
Ajit Jain (Vice Chairman — Insurance)	27 Mar 2026	Charitable gift	22 Class B	$0.00 (gift)	~$11k	Not a 10b5-1 plan

Two points stand out. First, CEO Gregory Abel committed roughly $15.31m of his own money to Class A stock across eighteen fills on 4 March 2026, taking his personal holding to 249 Class A shares — the clearest signal an incoming chief executive can send, and it was not made under a pre-arranged plan. Second, Buffett's 14 July conversion and donation of 12,000,000 Class B shares, worth roughly $5.89bn, is the continuation of an annual pledge rather than a view on price; it leaves him with 188,290 Class A shares. Separately, Berkshire filed Form 4s as a greater-than-10% owner of DaVita, selling 1,658,480 shares at $120.5561 on 29 January 2026 and 1,220,376 shares at $149.8429 on 1 May 2026 — portfolio disposals, not insider dealing in Berkshire stock.

10. Key Risks

• Concentrated capital-allocation authority: the FY2025 10-K states that major capital allocation and investment decisions are the responsibility of Mr Abel. The company's entire method depends on one person's judgement, and the record of the current holder of that authority is seven months long.
• Underwriting tolerance by design: Berkshire discloses that it has been and will continue to be willing to assume more risk from a single event than any other insurer has knowingly assumed. A single catastrophic loss could produce an underwriting result far outside the normal range.
• Equity concentration and impairment risk: the 10-K notes that a high percentage of the insurance subsidiaries' equity investments sit in a relatively small number of issuers. FY2025 carried an $8,255m after-tax other-than-temporary impairment on Kraft Heinz and Occidental, and large fair-value declines also reduce statutory surplus and therefore underwriting capacity.
• Geopolitical and trade exposure: the 10-K states that risks of adverse effects from geopolitical events are rising, and names international trade policies, tariffs and other barriers as a specific potential negative to operating results.
• Regulated-business capital intensity and policy risk: BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy require heavy continuing capital investment and are subject to rate, safety, environmental and labour regulation. BNSF derives significant revenue from hauling coal, and policies that displace coal as a generation fuel hit that revenue directly.
• Climate and wildfire liability: the 10-K flags hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other extreme weather as impacting both the insurance and energy businesses, with Berkshire Hathaway Energy carrying disclosed exposure from the 2020 and 2022 wildfires.
• Cybersecurity: Berkshire states directly that certain of its information systems have been subject to cyber threats, and that attacks could impair operation of facilities and business systems across a decentralised group of nearly 400,000 employees.
• Regulatory change including AI and data privacy: the 10-K expressly identifies data privacy and artificial intelligence laws and regulations, enacted or under development across US and global jurisdictions, as a source of adverse impact on future operating results.

11. Recent Developments

• 01 Jan 2026 — Gregory Abel becomes Chief Executive Officer. Abel succeeded Warren Buffett after a unanimous board vote formalised in May 2025. Buffett remains Chairman. Michael J. O'Sullivan also joined as SVP and General Counsel on the same date.
• 02 Jan 2026 — OxyChem acquisition completes. Berkshire closed the all-cash purchase of Occidental's chemicals arm; the Q1 2026 10-Q puts the price paid at approximately $9.5bn. Occidental retained the legacy environmental liabilities.
• 28 Feb 2026 — FY2025 results and Abel's first shareholder letter. FY2025 operating earnings of $44,486m were 6.2% below FY2024; Q4 operating earnings fell 29.8% to $10,200m with insurance underwriting profit down 54%. GAAP net earnings of $66,968m included an $8,255m after-tax impairment on Kraft Heinz and Occidental.
• 04 Mar 2026 — Abel buys 21 Class A shares personally. Roughly $15.31m at an average $728,970.11 per share, via his revocable trust, across eighteen separate fills.
• 31 Mar 2026 — buybacks restart after a full-year pause. All Q1 2026 repurchases occurred in March: 33 Class A at an average $729,701.17 and 431,462 Class B at an average $486.92, roughly $234m in total. There were no repurchases at all during 2025.
• 02 May 2026 — Q1 2026 results and the annual meeting in Omaha. Operating earnings of $11,346m were up 17.7% year on year, a first-quarter record. Net earnings were $10,106m against $4,603m. Cash and Treasury Bills reached roughly $397bn, an all-time high.
• 15 May 2026 — first 13F under the new CEO shows a major overhaul. The portfolio fell from 42 positions to 29. Alphabet was increased 204%, a new Delta Air Lines stake appeared, Chevron was cut 35% and Constellation Brands 95%, and ten positions including Amazon, Visa, Mastercard and UnitedHealth were exited outright. Apple was untouched.
• 31 May 2026 — Taylor Morrison agreed at $72.50 per share in cash. An equity value of roughly $6.8bn and enterprise value of roughly $8.5bn, a 24% premium to the 29 May close of $58.50. Abel's first major acquisition.
• 14 Jul 2026 — Buffett's annual charitable donation. He converted 8,000 Class A into 12,000,000 Class B and gifted all of it to five charitable organisations, worth roughly $5.89bn at that day's close, leaving him 188,290 Class A shares.
• 24 Jul 2026 — Taylor Morrison acquisition completes. The company delisted from the NYSE. Combined with Clayton Properties Group, Berkshire becomes the fourth-largest homebuilding operation in the United States.

12. Key Dates

• Expected 03 Aug 2026 — Q2 2026 results. Not officially announced as at 31 July 2026: there is no press release, no filed 10-Q and no advance notice on berkshirehathaway.com. Berkshire's pattern is a Saturday-morning posting with roughly two days' notice, and third-party trackers point to Monday 3 August.
• 14 Aug 2026 — statutory deadline for the Q2 2026 Form 13F, which will show the second portfolio constructed under Abel.
• Expected Nov 2026 — Q3 2026 results. Not yet announced. Q3 2025 was released on Saturday 1 November 2025 and Q3 2024 on 2 November 2024.
• 16 Nov 2026 — statutory deadline for the Q3 2026 Form 13F.
• Expected Feb 2027 — FY2026 results and the 2026 Annual Report, including Abel's second shareholder letter. Not yet announced; FY2025 was released on 28 February 2026.
• 01 May 2027 — 2027 Annual Shareholders Meeting, CHI Health Center, Omaha. Confirmed in Berkshire's own 2026 meeting visitor guide.
• 01 Jun 2027 — Marc D. Hamburg retires, completing the CFO transition to Charles C. Chang, who took the role on 1 June 2026.

Berkshire pays no dividend, so there are no declaration, record or ex-dividend dates to track. Scheduled macro releases that move the insurance and rail businesses are listed on the ChartsView Economic Calendar, and you can discuss this research with other members in the ChartsView Forum.

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