Berkshire Hathaway Stock Hits Eight-Month High, Still Trailing S&P 500 Since Buffett's Succession Announcement

Berkshire Hathaway's stock climbed to its highest level in eight months this week, according to CNBC's Warren Buffett Watch newsletter. The Class B shares closed Tuesday at $512.37, the best close since November 28, when they finished at $513.81.

The Class A shares closed Tuesday at $768,010, also their best close since November 28's $770,100. Both share classes cooled slightly by Friday, with the B shares settling at $511.54 and the A shares at $766,600.

Even at this eight-month high, Berkshire stock sits well below its all-time peak. The B shares' Friday close was down 5.2% from the all-time closing high of $539.80 set on May 2 of last year, the day before Warren Buffett revealed he would step down as CEO at the end of 2025. The A shares' Friday close was 5.3% below their all-time closing high of $809,350.

Still Trailing the Market, But Closing the Gap

A story in Barron's says Berkshire's rally "has room to run" since the stock remains well behind the S&P 500, which is 7.6 percentage points ahead of Berkshire, according to CNBC's reporting.

That gap looks better than it did recently. Berkshire has erased more than half of a 17.5 percentage point deficit to the S&P 500 that existed just two months ago, according to the same reporting. Berkshire is also lagging behind competitors in two key sectors it operates in directly: railroads and insurance, per the newsletter.

Apple, Coke and Bank of America Are Doing Heavy Lifting

Three of Berkshire's largest equity portfolio holdings have posted strong gains this year, feeding the recovery. Apple, still Berkshire's largest holding and now worth more than $70 billion, is up 13.6% year-to-date.

Coca-Cola, Berkshire's third-largest position at $35 billion, has jumped 25% year-to-date. Coca-Cola's most recent earnings came in ahead of expectations, and the company raised its full-year outlook, according to CNBC.

Bank of America, Berkshire's fourth-largest holding, is up 12.6% on the year, with that stake now valued at almost $32 billion.

A Buyback Question Mark Heading Into Earnings

Berkshire's gain of around 3% on Tuesday may have been partially fueled by UBS analyst Brian Meredith raising his price target on the B shares to $585 from $570, and on the A shares to $877,848 from $854,596, while maintaining a "buy" rating, according to CNBC.

Meredith also edged his earnings estimates higher and cited a Barron's report from two weeks earlier suggesting Berkshire appeared to have bought back as much as $11 billion of its stock in the second quarter. That figure is an estimate, not a confirmed number; Berkshire repurchased $234 million of its shares in the first quarter of 2026, according to CNBC.

Berkshire's second-quarter results are expected on Saturday, August 8, according to CNBC. That report will show the actual buyback figure, along with updated numbers on the conglomerate's cash pile, which stood at $397.4 billion as of March 31, insurance underwriting results, and railroad performance.

Berkshire hitting an eight-month high is a real, verifiable fact. But the stock is still down from its all-time peak, and that peak was set the day before Buffett's succession news broke.

Whether the market's initial reaction to Buffett's planned departure was an overreaction, a fair repricing of leadership risk, or something the market is only now correcting cannot be settled by these numbers alone.

The August 8 earnings report will be the next real data point. It will show whether Berkshire's cash deployment, including the rumored buyback activity, matches what analysts like Meredith are pricing in, and whether the company's insurance and rail segments are actually closing the gap with competitors or still falling further behind.