Berkshire Hathaway stock steady after 5% drop follows Warren Buffett's succession announcement

Tue, May 6, 2025, 8:49 AM 2 min read

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) shares were little-changed on Tuesday, gaining about 0.2% in early trade following a 5% fall in the prior session after the conglomerate's board approved longtime CEO Warren Buffett's successor, vice chair Greg Abel.

On Tuesday Class A shares were hovering just below $765,000 each, while Class B stock was trading near $510. In premarket trade, the stock had lost as much as 2%.

The stock's extended fall on Monday followed news its board had unanimously approved the CEO change announced by Buffett on Saturday at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting. Abel will officially take over as CEO on Jan. 1, 2026. Buffett will still remain chair, the board said.

Though Wall Street expected Abel, who oversees the company's non-insurance businesses, would one day take over, the specific timeline was unknown to investors. Buffett's announcement Saturday also came as a surprise to Abel.

"I do think this still caught a lot of investors off guard," Edward Jones senior analyst Kyle Sanders told Yahoo Finance on Monday.

"There’s this bifurcation in the investment base, where some people own Berkshire because of the Berkshire model and what it’s done. Other people own the stock because of Buffett, and for those investors as Buffett is no longer involved I think some of the investors are exiting their positions as well," he added.

The stock has massively outperformed the S&P 500 since Buffett acquired the company in the mid-60's.

As Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer points out, from 1965 to 2024, Berkshire Hathaway stock has resturedn 5,502,284%. In that same time period, the broad-based index, with dividends included, has provided a return of 39,054%.

Berkshire Hathaway's compound annual gain over that period tallied 19.9%. The S&P 500's return was 10.4%.

Berkshire shares have even outperformed the market's latest rout. Year-to-date the stock is still up roughly 13% after Monday's drop while the S&P 500 is down nearly 4%.

Few analysts cover the entire company. The stock has has one Buy rating, three Hold, and one Sell

Ines Ferre is a Senior Business Reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.

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