As of 1:27 a.m. in New York (ET) on Saturday, December 27, 2025, U.S. stock markets are closed—and Berkshire Hathaway investors are heading into the weekend with two big realities in view: the broader market is hovering near record territory, and Berkshire is days away from its most watched leadership transition in decades.
Latest prices (last reported trade):
- Berkshire Hathaway Class B (BRK.B): $498.30, down $3.02 (-0.60%) versus the prior close.
- Berkshire Hathaway Class A (BRK.A): $747,000, down $3,861 (-0.51%) versus the prior close.
Because it’s the weekend, these quotes reflect the last recorded trading activity (including any late prints after Friday’s regular session), not live price discovery.
The market backdrop: “Santa Claus rally” season, thin volume, and a market near all-time highs
Berkshire stock doesn’t trade in a vacuum. The last U.S. session (Friday, Dec. 26) was a light-volume, post-Christmas day in which the major indexes finished fractionally lower, with the S&P 500 down about 0.03% and still sitting close to all-time highs. [1]
Reuters quoted Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, describing Friday as essentially a pause after a strong run and noting the market had just entered the seasonal “Santa Claus rally” window (late-year strength that traders watch closely as a sentiment signal heading into the new year). [2]
That matters for Berkshire because when the market is near highs, Berkshire’s capital allocation question gets louder: What do you do with a mountain of cash when “easy” bargains are scarce? (More on that below.)
The headline risk (and opportunity): Berkshire’s CEO transition is days away
The defining near-term catalyst for Berkshire Hathaway stock isn’t a product launch or a single-quarter beat—it’s succession.
Greg Abel becomes CEO on January 1, 2026
Berkshire confirmed that Greg Abel will assume the role of President and CEO on January 1, 2026. [3]
Reuters has framed it as one of the toughest follow-on acts in corporate history, explicitly noting the “halo effect” Berkshire has long enjoyed under Warren Buffett. [4]
Buffett’s own message: he’s stepping back from the “show,” not from Berkshire
In a November 10 shareholder message released by Berkshire, Warren Buffett wrote that he will no longer write Berkshire’s annual report or speak at length at the annual meeting, and that Abel “will become the boss at yearend.” [5]
Investors should take this seriously not because Berkshire needs a celebrity CEO, but because Berkshire’s shareholder base has historically been unusually influenced by Buffett’s communication and credibility—which can affect the so-called “Buffett premium.”
The December management reshuffle: who’s in, who’s out
Berkshire’s December 8 announcement mapped out several consequential executive moves: [6]
- Todd Combs will conclude his tenure at Berkshire and join JPMorgan (a development Reuters also highlighted as part of a broader shake-up). [7]
- Nancy L. Pierce was appointed CEO of GEICO, effective immediately. [8]
- Marc D. Hamburg (CFO) will retire on June 1, 2027, with Charles C. Chang set to succeed him as CFO on June 1, 2026. [9]
- Berkshire created a new in-house legal leadership role, appointing Michael J. O’Sullivan as Senior VP and General Counsel effective January 1, 2026. [10]
Reuters quoted Michael Ashley Schulman (Running Point Capital) describing these moves as positioning “trusted lieutenants and fresh talent” to balance continuity with modernization—importantly, with Buffett still as chairman during the transition. [11]
Associated Press also underscored that Combs’ exit changes the texture of investor expectations around who might manage Berkshire’s immense equity portfolio going forward. [12]
The fundamentals: what Berkshire’s latest earnings actually said
Berkshire’s most recent official quarterly release (Q3 2025) is a reminder of why many long-term investors treat BRK.B less like a “stock” and more like a financial organism.
From Berkshire’s Q3 2025 earnings release: [13]
- Operating earnings:$13.485 billion in Q3 2025 vs $10.090 billion in Q3 2024. [14]
- Insurance was a major driver: insurance underwriting profit was $2.369 billion (after tax) in Q3 2025. [15]
- Berkshire also reported insurance float of approximately $176 billion as of Sept. 30, 2025. [16]
- Berkshire recorded an other-than-temporary impairment tied to Kraft Heinz (listed in the release as $3.760 billion in the first nine months of 2025). [17]
The key Berkshire nuance—emphasized directly in its release—is that GAAP net earnings can swing wildly due to market-driven investment gains/losses, so the company pushes readers toward operating earnings and toward reading the 10‑Q for full context. [18]
The cash mountain: a feature, not a bug—and a market signal
If you only remember one Berkshire storyline from late 2025, it’s this: Berkshire is awash in cash, and it’s not hiding the caution.
Reuters reported that Berkshire’s cash holdings rose to a record $381.7 billion, even as operating profit rose (helped by fewer insurance losses), and that Berkshire has continued selling more equities than it buys—while refraining from buybacks for multiple quarters. [19]
Financial Times similarly described Berkshire’s continued net selling and pointed to the firm’s cash building while it did not repurchase shares for five quarters, framing it as a read-through on Buffett’s view of market pricing. [20]
Why this matters right now:
- In an environment where the S&P 500 is near all-time highs, holding an enormous cash buffer can look like discipline or opportunity cost, depending on what happens next. [21]
- Berkshire’s cash also has a “rates” component: higher yields can turn idle liquidity into meaningful investment income, and yields have been sitting around mid-4% on benchmark ten-year measures in late December. [22]
Deal watch: the $9.7 billion OxyChem acquisition and what it signals
Berkshire doesn’t make many large acquisitions anymore—mainly because it’s so big that meaningful deals are rare. That’s why the OxyChem announcement was treated as a real tell.
Berkshire and Occidental announced a definitive agreement for Berkshire to acquire Occidental’s chemical business, OxyChem, for $9.7 billion in cash, with the deal expected to close in Q4 2025 subject to approvals and conditions. [23]
The Financial Times called it Greg Abel’s first major deal as CEO-elect and highlighted it as Berkshire’s largest transaction since the Alleghany acquisition—also noting the context: Berkshire is already Occidental’s largest shareholder, and OxyChem adds to Berkshire’s industrial footprint. [24]
As of this weekend, investors should treat the OxyChem transaction as announced and pending (Berkshire’s own release described an expected Q4 close). A closing update—if/when announced—can be an important near-term headline because it changes Berkshire’s earnings mix and signals how aggressively Abel intends to deploy capital early in his tenure. [25]
Valuation: what Wall Street forecasts say—and what Buffett says matters more than “book value”
Berkshire valuation is famously slippery because it’s part insurer, part operating-company federation, and part investment portfolio. Still, investors watch sell-side targets as a reality check.
MarketWatch’s published analyst snapshot for BRK.B shows a wide range of targets, with a high target near $595 and an average around the low $500s, and it flags an earnings date in late February 2026 for the next report. [26]
Nasdaq (via Zacks) also cited a cluster of short-term targets, with one compilation putting an average target in the high-$500s (based on a small sample of analysts). [27]
One useful sanity check here comes straight from Buffett’s own long-running messaging: don’t worship book value as “the” yardstick. Investopedia recently summarized Buffett’s view that book value often fails to capture intrinsic value—either overstating or understating what a business is really worth—and that investors should think in terms of intrinsic value and economic performance rather than a single accounting metric. [28]
Meanwhile, Reuters has been blunt about the narrative challenge in 2026: Berkshire without Buffett-as-CEO is still Berkshire, but some investors may test whether a Buffett-era premium should persist. Reuters quoted Buffett scholar Lawrence Cunningham describing a “huge halo effect,” and emphasizing that Abel’s challenge is to convince skeptics Berkshire thrives without Buffett making final investment calls or providing the marquee shareholder communications. [29]
The weekend checklist: what Berkshire investors should know before the next session
Because it’s Saturday, the next regular U.S. stock market session is Monday, December 29, 2025 (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET). Here’s what matters heading into that open.
1) Expect thin year-end liquidity (and faster mood swings)
Reuters described Friday’s tape as light-volume and catalyst-thin—classic end-of-year conditions. That can amplify price moves for reasons that have nothing to do with Berkshire fundamentals. [30]
2) Watch the Monday macro calendar anyway
Even in a quiet holiday stretch, scheduled data can move yields and financial stocks—which matters to Berkshire through insurance, credit exposure, and the opportunity set for deploying cash.
MarketWatch’s U.S. economic calendar flags Pending Home Sales (Nov.) at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday, Dec. 29 as a key item in the coming week. [31]
3) The “Abel era” begins in days—positioning can get emotional
The CEO transition to Abel is set for January 1, 2026, and the management changes are already in motion. [32]
In practical terms, that means headlines about Berkshire in early 2026 may be interpreted through a single lens: “What would Buffett have done?” Markets love narratives; Berkshire investors should keep dragging the conversation back to cash generation, underwriting discipline, and capital allocation.
4) Know the next major Berkshire catalyst: late-February earnings season
Multiple market calendars point to Berkshire reporting its next earnings in late February 2026 (often listed around Feb. 23, though exact timing can vary by source and confirmation status). [33]
Between now and then, investors will likely focus on:
- Whether buybacks remain absent (a valuation signal),
- Whether OxyChem closes and how it’s financed/integrated,
- Whether Berkshire’s cash level keeps climbing—and at what yield.
5) Don’t get scammed: Buffett impersonation is now an official risk
Berkshire issued a specific warning that AI-generated or impersonated videos have circulated using alleged Buffett comments, cautioning investors not to trust such content. [34]
That’s not a price driver, but it is absolutely “investor relevant” in 2025’s information ecosystem.
Bottom line: Berkshire is still Berkshire—but 2026 will test what the market is really buying
Berkshire Hathaway stock remains, at its core, a bet on three things: insurance underwriting and float economics, durable cash flows from a sprawling set of operating companies, and capital allocation discipline. The market entering 2026 near highs raises the stakes for that discipline. [35]
The twist is that the next chapter is being written under Greg Abel, not Warren Buffett. If Berkshire’s stock wobbles around headlines in early 2026, long-term investors will want to separate narrative volatility from business reality—and pay special attention to any sign that Berkshire’s cash pile is finally being deployed into opportunities that clear the company’s famously high bar. [36]
References
1. www.reuters.com, 2. www.reuters.com, 3. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 6. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 7. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 8. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 9. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 10. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. apnews.com, 13. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 14. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 15. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 16. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 17. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 18. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 19. www.reuters.com, 20. www.ft.com, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. ycharts.com, 23. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 24. www.ft.com, 25. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 26. www.marketwatch.com, 27. www.nasdaq.com, 28. www.investopedia.com, 29. www.reuters.com, 30. www.reuters.com, 31. www.marketwatch.com, 32. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 33. www.investing.com, 34. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 35. www.berkshirehathaway.com, 36. www.reuters.com
