It is a new era in Omaha, as investing legend Warren Buffett retired at the end of 2025 after roughly 60 years leading Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) and growing it into one of the biggest companies in the world.
The new CEO, Greg Abel, is now at the helm, but the transition has been in the works for years, so it’s not exactly an abrupt handoff.
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Under the leadership of Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway has been a staple in many portfolios for years. Has that changed under new leadership? Is Berkshire Hathaway stock a buy right now?
Berkshire Hathaway stock has pretty much been a buy since Buffett came aboard as CEO in 1965. But this year, the stock price has sputtered, down about 4.2% year to date and around 8% over the past 12 months. Some of that has to do with the uncertainty about the changeover from Buffett. Those are big shoes for anyone to fill.
And change is not just at the CEO level, as new management has been installed to lead insurance and non-insurance operations, while a change is in the works for the chief financial officer as well.
The most recent earnings release late last month was from Buffett’s last quarter as CEO. Berkshire remained a net seller once again and continued to hoard cash, with a whopping $373 billion at the end of the year.
We still haven’t seen the results yet with Abel at the helm. That will likely be coming on May 2 with the Q1 earnings release. Abel will also lead his first shareholders’ meeting around that time.
Many things will likely remain the same this year. Abel has been with Berkshire Hathaway since 1992, so he has decades of tutelage about investing and the culture under Buffett and his longtime partner, Charlie Munger. In the annual shareholder letter, Abel said Berkshire’s “culture and values remain unchanged and will continue into perpetuity.”
Abel added that the company’s culture is its most treasured asset and that risk management is the CEO’s most important duty. He wrote in a letter to employees:
We think in decades, act with discipline, and uphold our commitments. Stewardship is embedded in how we operate, reinforcing that our culture is a system for generating long-term performance, not just a set of beliefs.
Abel has been preparing for this role for decades, so the culture and investing principles won’t change. But some things will likely change. Buffett had been holding back from deploying the company’s mountain of cash, mainly due to being uncomfortable with high valuations. But it also may be, in part, to let Abel and Co. make their mark.
