Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) enters December 2025 in a rare position: Warren Buffett is weeks away from retirement, the company is sitting on a record cash hoard, and the stock is trading just below its all‑time highs while investors debate what a post‑Buffett era will look like. [1]
Class B shares (BRK.B) closed on Friday, December 5, at $504.34, up 0.22% on the day. Class A shares (BRK.A) finished at $755,800. [2] BRK.B is now roughly 7% below its 52‑week high of $542.07 set on May 2, 2025, but still posts a year‑to‑date total return of around 11%, trailing the S&P 500’s mid‑teens gain but outperforming many financial peers. [3]
At the same time, Berkshire has become the first non‑technology company — and the first financial firm — to join the elite club of trillion‑dollar U.S. stocks, underlining how central it has become to the modern market. [4]
Below is a deep dive into what’s driving Berkshire Hathaway’s stock right now, what the latest earnings and cash figures reveal, and how Wall Street and models are pricing BRK.B heading into 2026.
Berkshire Hathaway Stock Today: Where BRK.B Stands
- Latest close (Dec 5, 2025): $504.34 (BRK.B), $755,800 (BRK.A) [5]
- 52‑week high: $542.07 for BRK.B, set May 2, 2025 [6]
- Drawdown from high: ~7%
- 2025 YTD total return: ~11–11.3% versus ~17% for the S&P 500 [7]
In other words, Berkshire is having a solid but not spectacular year. It has outpaced inflation and delivered double‑digit returns, but it has lagged the megacap tech names that dominate the AI trade and the broader index.
MarketWatch data notes that BRK.B remains several percentage points below its 52‑week high despite a recent multi‑day winning streak, a sign that investors have cooled somewhat on the stock since early May even as fundamentals have improved. [8]
Q3 2025 Earnings: Operating Engine Still Firing
Berkshire’s third‑quarter 2025 results, released on November 1, confirmed that the underlying businesses are doing what Berkshire investors expect: grinding higher.
Key figures from Q3 2025:
- Operating earnings: up about 34% year over year [9]
- Operating earnings per Class B share:$6.26, beating consensus by more than 30% [10]
- Total operating earnings (all segments): about $13.5 billion, driven by insurance underwriting, BNSF railroad and manufacturing, service and retailing units [11]
Zacks and Nasdaq both highlight that the beat was substantial: operating EPS topped the Zacks consensus by roughly one‑third, and Q3 operating income rose sharply versus 2024, primarily due to stronger insurance and railroad results. [12]
GAAP net earnings, which include swings in the value of Berkshire’s massive stock portfolio, came in at $30.8 billion for the quarter, up from $26.3 billion a year earlier. [13] As usual, management cautioned that these unrealized gains make quarterly net income a noisy metric and urged investors to focus on operating earnings instead.
The takeaway: operationally, Berkshire is still in very good shape. The conglomerate’s collection of insurance operations, BNSF railroad, utilities and industrial businesses continues to generate robust cash flow, even as the stock itself has underperformed some high‑flying AI names this year. [14]
A Record $382 Billion Cash Pile and What It Signals
The single most striking number in Berkshire’s Q3 report wasn’t earnings — it was cash.
By September 30, 2025, cash and equivalents had swelled to roughly $381–382 billion, a fresh record and up from about $344 billion at the end of Q2. [15] That means Berkshire now holds more cash than the entire value of its publicly traded equity portfolio, which sits near $283 billion. [16]
Fortune notes that 2025 marks the third straight year in which Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks, and the company didn’t repurchase a single share of its own stock in Q3 — a sharp contrast to the heavy buybacks of 2020–2021. [17]
Commentary from investors and analysts tends to converge on two points:
- Valuation discipline: Buffett appears unwilling to pay what he sees as inflated prices for either whole businesses or public equities, preferring to let cash accumulate until bargains emerge. [18]
- Dry powder for a downturn: articles in financial media repeatedly frame the $380‑plus billion as “dry powder” that could be unleashed in the next major market dislocation, whether through large acquisitions or aggressive stock purchases. [19]
For shareholders, that mountain of cash is both a comfort and a frustration: it reduces risk and preserves optionality, but it also drags on returns when markets are rising.
New Bets on Alphabet and Artificial Intelligence
Despite Buffett’s long‑standing skepticism toward technology stocks, Berkshire has been quietly — and now very visibly — increasing its exposures to artificial intelligence via Alphabet (Google’s parent).
Regulatory filings and subsequent coverage show that Berkshire acquired around 17.8 million Alphabet shares during Q3 2025, a stake initially valued at roughly $4.9 billion. [20] Since the November 1 disclosure of the position, Alphabet shares have gained about 13%, generating billions in unrealized profits for Berkshire in just a few weeks. [21]
Newer articles note that Berkshire has continued buying since that filing, prompting headlines such as “Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Just Bought More of This Popular Stock – Should You?” and “Warren Buffett Bets Big on AI.” [22]
Analysts highlight several strategic angles:
- Alphabet gives Berkshire a direct play on AI infrastructure and cloud, as the company’s Gemini models and custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) increasingly power Google Cloud and ad products. [23]
- The position balances Berkshire’s earlier trimming of Apple and Bank of America, shifting some capital from mature holdings into a fast‑growing AI platform. [24]
- It signals that Buffett and his investment lieutenants are willing to embrace AI‑driven businesses — selectively.
This is part of a broader pattern: a recent analysis notes Berkshire has over $75 billion invested in a small cluster of what commentators call “magnificent AI stocks,” underlining that the conglomerate is not sitting out the AI wave entirely. [25]
Leadership Transition: Greg Abel and the End of the “Buffett Premium”
The biggest non‑numerical story hanging over Berkshire’s stock is leadership. Warren Buffett is set to step down as CEO at the end of 2025, with long‑time lieutenant Greg Abel — currently in charge of Berkshire’s energy operations — taking over in early 2026. [26]
Several recent analyses frame the transition this way:
- Continuity of philosophy: Buffett has praised Abel as a “tireless worker” and “honest communicator,” and commentators stress that Abel has been steeped in Berkshire’s decentralized, long‑term, value‑oriented approach for over two decades. [27]
- Market skepticism: The announcement of Buffett’s retirement triggered a roughly 5% pullback in Berkshire’s share price, a sign that investors expect some erosion of the intangible “Buffett premium” that has historically boosted the stock’s valuation. [28]
- Unease but not panic: Wealth management commentary notes that BRK.B has slipped about 11–12% from its May all‑time high amid the transition news, but most observers still see Abel as a capable steward rather than a radical change agent. [29]
Investopedia summarizes the mood succinctly: Buffett’s 5,500,000%+ return track record is simply impossible to replicate, and Abel will likely run a strong but more “normal” large‑cap company rather than the near‑mythic engine Berkshire has been under Buffett. [30]
How the Market Values Berkshire Today
Despite the leadership questions, valuation metrics for BRK.B remain broadly reasonable.
A recent bull‑case write‑up, summarized by InsiderMonkey, pegged BRK.B’s trailing P/E at around 16.3 and forward P/E just above 23 when the stock traded near $506.65 earlier this week — not cheap in absolute terms, but modest compared with many growth stocks and roughly in line with the broader market. [31]
Meanwhile, Simply Wall St.’s discounted cash‑flow (DCF) model estimates “fair value” at about $764.90 per share, implying that the stock could be roughly one‑third undervalued versus its recent ~$503–505 level. [32]
On the other hand, some institutional commentary emphasises that Berkshire’s share price has underperformed the S&P 500 in recent quarters — rising around 3.5% in Q3 versus more than 8% for the index — and argues that the enormous cash position is acting as a drag on returns. [33]
The net effect is a stock that is neither a screaming bargain nor obviously expensive: valuation depends heavily on how you treat the cash hoard and how much confidence you have in Abel’s stewardship.
Wall Street and Model Forecasts for BRK.B in 2026
Forecasts for Berkshire Hathaway stock heading into 2026 span a fairly wide range, but most point to moderate upside rather than dramatic moves.
Traditional Wall Street targets
- MarketWatch data shows an average 12‑month target price of about $513.19 for BRK.B, based on seven analyst ratings, with an overall “Hold” recommendation. [34]
- TickerNerd aggregates four Wall Street analysts and finds a median target of $510, with a range from $481 to $595. The site characterizes the consensus as “neutral” but notes that the overall rating is effectively a Strong Buy (8/10), supported by two Buy and two Hold ratings. [35]
- StockAnalysis highlights a single analyst target of $595 for BRK.B, implying nearly 18% upside from current levels and labeling the stock a “Strong Buy.” [36]
Put simply, the standard analyst community expects low‑ to mid‑single‑digit percentage upside in the base case, with some outliers projecting high‑teens gains if Berkshire executes well and uses its cash efficiently.
Quant, AI and independent models
Outside traditional research desks, a variety of forecasting sites and AI models also weigh in:
- Benzinga, citing CoinCodex, projects an average BRK.B price of about $496.84 for 2026, with a forecast range of $478.54–$514.56, reflecting expectations for relatively muted moves in Buffett’s first year fully out of the CEO seat. [37]
- An AI‑driven model at Tradestie sets a 2026 target of $578.40, roughly 15% above recent prices, with interim targets of $521.82 at 90 days and $540.68 at six months. [38]
- PandaForecast, which focuses on shorter‑term pricing, pegs a target of $505.82 for December 12, 2025, essentially flat to the latest close, suggesting limited near‑term volatility. [39]
Forecasts are, of course, models layered atop assumptions. Most of them effectively assume:
- No major recession or credit shock that would make Berkshire’s cash wildly valuable overnight.
- A relatively smooth leadership transition to Greg Abel.
- Continued mid‑single‑digit growth in operating earnings.
Interestingly, one Nasdaq‑hosted analysis goes further and predicts that “not much is going to change” in 2026 — that Abel’s job is essentially to maintain the machine Buffett built rather than reinvent it. [40]
Sentiment Check: Is Berkshire Hathaway Stock a Buy Now?
Recent commentary splits roughly into two camps.
The bull case
- Q3 operating earnings growth of more than 30% shows that the core businesses remain strong. [41]
- A record cash hoard north of $380 billion gives Berkshire extraordinary optionality if markets stumble or valuations reset lower. [42]
- New investments in Alphabet and other AI‑adjacent companies suggest Berkshire is adapting — carefully — to the most important technological shift of this market cycle. [43]
- Long‑term return history remains excellent: Berkshire has compounded at nearly the same rate as (or slightly above) the S&P 500 over the past decade, and massively outperformed over the last half‑century. [44]
Analyses from Seeking Alpha, Morningstar and others generally argue that Berkshire “remains a core buy heading into 2026”, particularly for investors seeking a diversified, lower‑volatility way to gain exposure to both traditional industries and a curated portfolio of blue‑chip stocks. [45]
The cautious view
- Berkshire’s share price has lagged the S&P 500 in 2025, and some strategists worry that the giant cash position and cautious capital deployment mean the stock may continue to underperform in strong bull markets. [46]
- The loss of the “Buffett aura” could compress valuation multiples, especially if Abel is more operationally focused and less of a market‑moving figure. [47]
- Some quantitative models and forecast ranges see only modest upside, with targets clustered not far from today’s prices. [48]
For long‑term investors, the debate ultimately comes down to philosophy. Berkshire is increasingly being seen less as “Warren Buffett’s personal stock‑picking vehicle” and more as a massive, conservatively run financial and industrial holding company with built‑in diversification and a fortress balance sheet.
Bottom Line: Berkshire in December 2025
As of December 6, 2025, Berkshire Hathaway stock sits at an interesting crossroads:
- The business is strong, with double‑digit operating earnings growth and solid YTD returns.
- The balance sheet is stronger than ever, with a record cash pile that could become a powerful weapon in any future downturn.
- The leadership story is changing, as Warren Buffett prepares to exit and Greg Abel takes center stage.
- Market and model forecasts for 2026 generally see modest to mid‑teens upside, with a wide band of uncertainty around how quickly the market will re‑rate a post‑Buffett Berkshire.
For investors following Berkshire Hathaway today, BRK.B is neither a speculative AI rocket ship nor a sleepy bond proxy. It is a trillion‑dollar compounding machine entering a new chapter, priced at a level where reasonable people can disagree about its upside — but few doubt its durability.
References
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