Business · Finance

Berkshire Hathaway Resumes Significant Stock Repurchases Under New Leadership

Berkshire Hathaway executed its largest stock repurchase in nearly two years during the second quarter, signaling a renewed confidence in the company's valuation under new CEO Greg Abel.

News AutomationCompiled 08:08 UTC · 1 min read

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Key Points

Berkshire repurchased about $4.5 billion of stock in the second quarter, 19 times what it spent in the first.
The company repurchased no shares at all in 2025.
Berkshire held about $365 billion in cash and Treasury bills at the end of June -- far above the $30 billion floor below which repurchases are barred.
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Berkshire Hathaway( BRKA +1.69%)( BRKB +1.37%) spent about $4.5 billion repurchasing its stock in the second quarter, the company said in Saturday's earnings report. It was Berkshire's biggest quarter of buybacks in nearly two years -- and 19 times the $235 million it spent in the first quarter. Measured against the company's roughly $1.12 trillion market value, three months of buying retired about 0.4% of Berkshire.

That market value comes from the 1,431,693 Class A equivalent shares Berkshire reported outstanding on June 30 and Friday's $521.80 close for the Class B shares (each equal to 1/1,500th of an A share).

Berkshire Hathaway stock on a smartphone.

Image source: Getty Images.

The pace is what's new -- and to me, it's the story. Berkshire repurchased no shares at all in 2025, Warren Buffett's final year as CEO. Not only did buybacks resume in March under CEO Greg Abel, but they accelerated sharply in the second quarter.

Berkshire's buyback rule leaves the decision to one person's judgment: The CEO, after consulting the chairman, must believe the shares sell for less than the company is conservatively worth. Abel evidently believes it, even with the stock trading near its 52-week high of $525.

The buying didn't stop when the quarter did. The new 10-Q filing lists share counts as of July 29 on its cover page. They show about 4,600 more Class A equivalent shares retired after June 30 -- shares worth about $3.6 billion at Friday's close.

Berkshire Hathaway Stock Quote

NYSE: BRKB

Berkshire Hathaway

Today's Change

(1.37%) $7.16

Current Price

$528.96

BRK.B

YTD1w1m3m6m1y5y

PriceVS S&P

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$1.1TMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day's Range

$523.00

$537.74

52wk Range

$463.50

$537.74

Volume

Avg Vol

4.8M

Gross Margin

23.70%

Could the buying keep scaling? The program's only hard limit is liquidity: No repurchases can be made if they would pull Berkshire's cash, cash equivalents, and Treasury bills below $30 billion. That war chest stood at about $365.5 billion on June 30, down from about $397 billion three months earlier, as Abel found other uses for it. So the binding constraint is Abel's judgment of value, not cash.

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Berkshire pays no dividend, so repurchases are the one way the company returns cash directly to its shareholders. For a shareholder, the arithmetic so far is modest. Retiring 0.4% of the shares in a quarter -- likely 1.5% to 2% a year if that pace holds -- nudges per-share figures rather than transforming them.

Of course, buybacks near a 52-week high can look like bad timing if the judgment on value is wrong. But Abel has kept at it, from the first purchases in March into July. That, more than the 0.4%, is probably the thing worth remembering from Saturday's report.

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