Berkshire shares buck market sell-off, rally to highest since Buffett said he would step down as CEO

Berkshire Hathaway shares closed Friday at their highest level since Warren Buffett told shareholders at the May 2025 annual meeting he planned to step down as CEO at the end of that year.

The day before that Saturday surprise, both the Class A and Class B shares had closed at all-time highs.

Over the next three months, they lost more than 14% of their value as investors worried a "Buffett premium" was dissolving.

It's been more than a year since their post-meeting low in August of 2025, and the recovery has not been a straight line, but BRK.A ended Friday at $798,000, just 1.4% below its all-time closing high of $809,350.

The B shares finished at $532.02, also 1.4% under their all-time closing high of $539.80.

A loss Thursday broke a 10-session winning streak that added 5% to Berkshire's stock prices but they rebounded with gains of more than 1% Friday.

CNBC Pro thinks investors may be happy Berkshire is spending some of its big cash pile under CEO Greg Abel, with $4.5 billion of buybacks in Q2, investments in Alphabet, Taylor Morrison Home, Lennar, (although there haven't been any buys of that stock since October 2), and now, Bending Spoons.

It also notes Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields believes higher short-term interest rates are helping to lift the shares.

Berkshire still has roughly $360 billion in cash, "a good symbol of continued patience under the new CEO," and those higher rates mean "they'll be making more money" on that money.

In addition, its insurance operations have benefited from a quiet hurricane season so far.

Higher oil prices are good for its $19 billion stake in Chevron, which closed Friday at an all-time high after gaining almost 36% since the start of July. Berkshire's energy-related subsidiaries are also getting a tailwind.

And recently, Berkshire may be getting a boost as investors shift away from high-flying AI and tech stocks and turn to "old" economy names.

For example, Coca-Cola, a long-time Buffett favorite and now a $37.6 billion holding, also closed Friday at an all-time high, perhaps with some extra help from KFC's switch from Pepsi to Coke. It's up 34% year-to-date.

Berkshire's position has gained $2.4 billion since last Friday, overtaking Alphabet to become the third largest stake in its portfolio.

Berkshire's B shares have cut their June 1 deficit of 17.5 percentage points versus the S&P 500 by almost two-thirds.

They are now 6.0 percentage points behind the benchmark for the year.

Berkshire Hathaway's surprising bet of close to $1 billion on Bending Spoons is paying off big, at least in the short term.

The Italian company, which began trading on Nasdaq in the U.S. in July, buys cast-off internet names like AOL, Evernote, and Vimeo, uses AI to cut costs, and deploys the savings to make more acquisitions.

But before Wall Street's open Wednesday morning, a Bending Spoons news release revealed Berkshire is investing a "further" $330 million in the company by purchasing 10 million newly issued shares at $33 per share in a private placement.

That was already an almost 12% discount from Tuesday's closing price of $37.86 and the news sent Bending Spoons shares even higher.

They hit an intraday high of $58.56 before closing up 41% at $53.46 on Wednesday.

Bending Spoons shares are up 24.3% over the three trading days since the revelation, after giving up a chunk of their earlier gains in Friday's tech sell-off to end at $47.07.

That's a solid 42.6% higher than Berkshire's $33 purchase price for a profit, on paper, of nearly $141 million.

The release also disclosed, apparently for the first time, that Berkshire invested $600 million at Bending Spoon's IPO more than three months ago.

That puts Berkshire's holding now at close to 30.7 million shares, which would be worth more than $1.4 billion at Friday's close, a gain of 55.3% for its overall investment of $930 million.

Bending Spoon's release also says the "new investment brings Berkshire Hathaway's ownership to 4%."

Using those numbers, Berkshire's presumed 30.7 million shares are a 4.5% stake.

We may learn more next month about exactly how many shares Berkshire bought in the IPO when its portfolio snapshot as of September 30 is due to be disclosed.

Morningstar's Greggory Warren writes the Bending Spoons buy, along with Berkshire's now $36 billion stake in Alphabet, show "the firm is finally moving out of its comfort zone to find places to put capital to work, which should be viewed as a positive for long-term investors."