Omaha — April 25, 2026, 13:04 CDT.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders get their first look at Greg Abel in the chief executive seat next week, as he steps in for Warren Buffett at the company’s annual meeting. The spotlight shifts away from Buffett’s trademark stage presence as Abel faces investors still gauging his leadership. On May 2, Berkshire’s agenda has the Q&A kicking off at 9:30 a.m., another session at 11:45 a.m., with the formal meeting set for 2 p.m. Central in Omaha.
Timing’s key here. Since Buffett announced his unexpected retirement last May, Berkshire shares are down 14%. The S&P 500? Up 26%. David Kass, who teaches finance at the University of Maryland and tracks Berkshire closely, said he’s looking for Abel’s “explanation for Berkshire underperforming the S&P 500.” Business Insider
Money’s another sticking point. Berkshire finished 2025 holding $373.3 billion in cash, so Abel has plenty of firepower for acquisitions, fresh stock bets or buybacks—buying back Berkshire’s own shares. But operating profit dropped 30% in the fourth quarter, and the company hasn’t repurchased its own stock for six quarters running. Berkshire’s operating profit metric removes portfolio fluctuations.
Berkshire’s setup brings Greg Abel some backup, but it also puts more of the leadership team under the spotlight. According to the company, Abel and insurance chief Ajit Jain will take questions during the first round. After that, Abel comes back to the stage, this time joined by BNSF Railway CEO Katie Farmer and Adam Johnson—he heads up NetJets as well as the consumer products, service, and retailing group. Becky Quick from CNBC is set to curate questions submitted by shareholders who can’t attend, and those on the floor will be chosen via random draw.
Kass wasn’t just looking for assurances about succession. He pressed further: “What are his plans to invest $373 billion in cash?” Brett Gardner, author of “Buffett’s Early Investments,” wondered aloud if Berkshire would ever buy out Buffett’s stake directly, posing, “Does Berkshire plan on buying Warren’s stake in a negotiated transaction someday?” Larry Cunningham, who heads the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center, weighed in on the company’s new subsidiary-CEO approach, calling it “a new practice that I hope will add tremendous value to the meeting.” Business Insider
Buffett’s kept his distance from the spotlight, but he has pushed to clear things up. Back in January, in snippets aired by CNBC, Buffett made it clear he’d be in the directors’ section, not up front. “Greg will be the decider,” he said then. His confidence in Abel is unwavering: “I’d rather have Greg handling my money than any of the top investment advisers or any of the top CEOs in the United States.”
Abel’s debut letter for shareholders stuck closely to the company’s established playbook. He emphasized that Berkshire’s decentralized structure “will not change,” pointed to more than $370 billion in cash and U.S. Treasuries on hand, and reiterated the preference: Berkshire would “always aim for ownership of productive businesses over U.S. Treasuries.” Buybacks, he noted, remain on the table whenever shares dip below intrinsic value—Berkshire’s own assessment of what the stock should be worth, not just where it trades. Berkshire Hathaway
BNSF could face tougher scrutiny with Farmer appearing on stage. The railroad, according to Berkshire, generated $8.1 billion in net operating cash flow in 2025, returning $4.4 billion to the parent. Yet Abel’s letter called BNSF’s 34.5% operating margin insufficient. That margin reflects the percentage of revenue left after operating expenses; Berkshire noted that bumping up the margin by one point would mean about $230 million more in operating cash flow.
This isn’t theory—Berkshire puts Union Pacific right up against BNSF as its key rival in the West. Union Pacific posted a 59.9% adjusted operating ratio this week—a key railroad efficiency metric, with lower numbers signaling leaner operations. Freight revenue climbed 4%. The company reiterated it’s still aiming to submit revised paperwork by month-end for its planned Norfolk Southern buyout, a move that could shift the industry’s scale equation.
Some investors are calling the recent selloff excessive. On Friday, Barron’s highlighted a note from UBS’s Brian Meredith, who sees close to 25% potential upside for Berkshire. Chris Bloomstran at Semper Augustus Investments put intrinsic value up to 21% higher than where shares are trading now. But the piece also flagged persistent worries—slowing revenue and ongoing operational problems at BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy remain built into the stock.
Still, a single meeting might leave big questions lingering. With acquisition prices elevated, Abel might just park the cash in Treasuries instead. But if he starts micromanaging, Berkshire risks shedding the hands-off, permanent owner image Buffett pitched to families. Chris Ballard at Check Capital Management thinks Abel’s more pointed remarks about Pilot “could deter such owners from approaching Berkshire in the future.” Business Insider
The official script sticks to basics: board elections, advisory pay votes, and a shareholder measure if it’s on the table. But the real test isn’t on paper. What matters is whether shareholders walk out of Omaha convinced that Abel can put Berkshire’s cash to work, protect its culture, and keep the place recognizably Berkshire—even with Buffett no longer fielding every question.
