In October 2025, Berkshire acquired OxyChem, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, in a $9.7 billion cash deal. As part of the transaction, Berkshire reduced the purchase price of the company by any fees that it paid investment bankers. It appointed two Berkshire Hathaway Energy executives as CEO and CFO of the company, retaining Jimmy Haslam as chairman.
Warren Buffett’s Letters To Shareholders
In May 2008, Mitek acquired Hohmann & Barnard, a fabricator of anchors and reinforcement systems for masonry. In February 2001, Berkshire acquired Johns Manville, established in 1858 and a manufacturer of fiberglass wool insulation products for homes and commercial buildings, as well as pipe, duct, and equipment insulation products. In December 2000, Berkshire acquired Benjamin Moore & Co., headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey. In October 1999, Berkshire acquired Jordan’s Furniture for an estimated $200 million to $300 million. In addition to brokerage services, it provides mortgage loan originations, title insurance and closing services, home warranty, property insurance and casualty insurance and other related services. Berkshire paid for the acquisition with Class A shares valued at $58,400 each; Buffett later said he overpaid, despite strong performance by General Re.
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Buffett also receives approximately $300,000 worth of home security services from the company annually. The increased market liquidity resulted in the company’s inclusion in the S&P 500. Buffett was reluctant to create the class B shares but did so to thwart the creation of unit investment trusts that would have marketed themselves as Berkshire look-alikes.
The overall return of Berkshire Hathaway’s stock from 1965 to 2021. Buffett has long eschewed a diversified stock portfolio in favor of trusted investments that would be over-weighted in order to leverage the anticipated return. He focused on selecting stocks that would be held for the long term. Early in his career, Buffett came across the novel idea of using the float from his insurance subsidiaries to invest elsewhere.
- In 2013, Berkshire owned 1.74 million shares of Gannett; however, it sold its shares in the second quarter of 2013.
- GEICO, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, primarily offers private passenger automobile insurance marketed directly to individual consumers in the United States.
- Berkshire’s stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange in two classes—A shares and B shares.
- In October 2008, Berkshire invested $6.5 billion in Wrigley Company as part of a financing package to enable Mars Inc. to acquire the company.
Understanding Berkshire Hathaway: Market Cap, Ownership, and More
Berkshire sold its remaining bonds and preferred stock to Mars in 2016. Some shares were sold in 2023 and 2024, with Buffett motivated by the China–United States trade war. Berkshire later sold $1.4 billion worth of shares to Phillips 66 in exchange for Phillips Specialty Products. Berkshire sold most of its shares but held 472,000 shares until 2012.
- Berkshire Hathaway bought 5.62 million shares of Constellation Brands in the fourth quarter of 2024, worth $1.24 billion.
- As of June 30, 2025, the company had $344 billion in Treasury bills, which together with its reported cash of $44 billion made up the largest cash position of any U.S.-based public company.
- The company is known for its advertising characters including a gecko and the GEICO Cavemen.
- The purchase made Berkshire Hathaway the sixth-largest shareholder of Constellation Brands.
Share classes and aversion to stock splits
As Tesco’s problems mounted through 2014, Berkshire sold all the remaining shares with Buffett saying to shareholders that the delay in selling shares was costly. Buffett sold around 30% of this stake in 2013 when he “soured somewhat on the company’s then-management”, realizing a profit of $43 million. Buffett began investing in Wells Fargo in 1989; however, by the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire Hathaway had sold its entire interest in the company. In 2017, Berkshire acquired 38.6% of truck stop chain Pilot Flying J for $2.8 billion, followed by the acquisition of an additional 41.4% of the company for $8.2 billion in 2023, and the remaining 20% in 2024 for $3 billion. In February 2016, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Duracell from Procter & Gamble for $4.7 billion in stock in P&G previously owned by Berkshire Hathaway. In 2012, Berkshire acquired Oriental Trading Company, a direct marketing company for novelty items, small toys, and party items for around $500 million.
Analyzing Berkshire Hathaway’s Investment Approach
However, the company also manages hundreds of diverse businesses all over the world. Class A shares have never split and closed above $734,000 per share on October 10th of 2025 (its Class B shares traded at about $489 on the same date). Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company for a multitude of businesses, including GEICO and Fruit of the Loom, that is led by Warren Buffett. Other hockey teams in the county include Tadley, Yateley, Maidenhead, Windsor, and Newbury & Thatcham Hockey Clubs. Phoenix Reading Hockey Club, based at Reading University, has six adult teams and a large junior development section. There are several amateur and semi-professional football clubs in the county.
Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company run by Warren Buffett that owns a diverse range of businesses and minority stakes in public companies like Apple. Class A shares of common stock usually give shareholders a greater amount of voting rights than Class B and other classes of stock. In 2018, the company put Ajit Jain in charge of all of the insurance operations and made Greg Abel the manager of all other (noninsurance) operations. Berkshire’s stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange in two classes—A shares and B shares. As of 2025, Berkshire Hathaway had a market capitalization of over $1.05 trillion, making it one of the largest publicly traded companies worldwide. Its class A shares (BRK.A) are among the most expensive in the stock market and trade at over $700,000 dollars per share.
Warren E. Buffett first took control of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a small textile company, in April of 1965. He’s renowned not only for the jaw-dropping success of Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of which he’s been in charge since 1964. Abel’s official title is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice chair in charge of noninsurance operations. In annualized terms, Berkshire’s stock generated an average yearly return of 20.1% over that period, while the S&P 500’s annualized gain was 10.5%.
Berkshire Hathaway reduced its berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders Apple stake by nearly 50%, selling $75.5 billion worth of stock in the second quarter of 2024, increasing its cash reserves to a record $276.9 billion. By December 31, 2017, Berkshire owned 166 million shares (3.3% of Apple). By the end of June 2016, this stake had increased to 15.2 million shares (0.3% of Apple).
Major stock purchases and sales
In December 1998, Berkshire acquired Gen Re, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, for $22 billion. NetJets is the world’s largest provider of fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. In July 1998, Berkshire Hathaway acquired NetJets, formerly Executive Jet Aviation, for $725 million in cash.
The purchase made Berkshire Hathaway the sixth-largest shareholder of Constellation Brands. Berkshire Hathaway bought 5.62 million shares of Constellation Brands in the fourth quarter of 2024, worth $1.24 billion. In the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire acquired a $2.6 billion stake in Paramount Global.
It uses flight simulators and is the largest provider of professional aviation training services. The company is known for its advertising characters including a gecko and the GEICO Cavemen. GEICO, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, primarily offers private passenger automobile insurance marketed directly to individual consumers in the United States. It included Kirby Company, which was sold in 2021, Wayne Water Systems, and Campbell Hausfeld products. In 1986, Berkshire acquired Scott Fetzer Company, a diversified group of 32 brands that manufactures and distributes products for residential, industrial, and institutional use, including Ginsu knives and World Book Encyclopedia. In 2020, Lee Enterprises acquired BH Media Group’s publications and The Buffalo News for $140 million in cash, retaining WPLG.
Aside from its subsidiaries, Berkshire manages a portfolio of non-controlling stock investments into which its insurance companies invest policy premiums. In the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire acquired 121 million shares of HP Inc. valued at more than $4.2 billion; the shares were sold in 2023 and 2024. In June 2017, Berkshire invested $377 million in Store Capital, a Scottsdale-based real estate investment trust that owned more than 1,750 properties in 48 states; the company was sold to private equity firms in 2022. In October 2022, Berkshire Hathaway acquired insurance company Alleghany Corporation for $11.6 billion. Its class A shares have the highest per-share price of any public company in the world, reaching $700,000 in August 2024, because the board of directors has historically been opposed to stock splits. Browse the world’s largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader.
In 1976, Berkshire first invested in GEICO, at a time when it was facing financial difficulty and had a very low stock price. In 2012, National Indemnity acquired workers’ compensation insurer GUARD for $221 million. In 1963, Franklin Otis Booth Jr. invested $1 million in the company (equivalent to $10,300,000 in 2024), and in 1968 David Gottesman also invested in the company. As of the end of 2024, the company had only 27 employees at that corporate headquarters. He has estimated that had he invested the same money directly in insurance businesses instead of indirectly via Berkshire Hathaway (due to what he perceived as a slight by an individual), it would have paid off several hundredfold.
On August 26, 2011, Berkshire Hathaway bought $5 billion of preferred shares in Bank of America. In October 2008, Berkshire invested $6.5 billion in Wrigley Company as part of a financing package to enable Mars Inc. to acquire the company. Buffett defended Lloyd Blankfein’s decisions as CEO of Goldman Sachs and his efforts to improve the reputation of the company during the 2008 financial crisis. Profit on the preferred stock was estimated at $1.8 billion and exercising the warrants yielded a profit of more than $2 billion. Goldman had the right to re-purchase the preferred stock at a 10% premium, and in March 2011 exercised this right paying $5.5 billion to Berkshire.
Abingdon Abbey once had dairy-based granges in the south-east of the county,citation needed Red Windsor cheese was developed with red marbling. In March 1967, Berkshire acquired National Indemnity Company, based in Omaha, Nebraska, for $8.6 million in the first acquisition by the company under Buffett’s control and the company’s entrance into the insurance business. The company’s vast market capitalization, over $1.05 trillion, makes it one of the largest public companies globally. What is now Berkshire Hathaway started as a textile company and evolved into one of the largest companies in the world by market cap.