Berkshire Hathaway has seen its stock rally. The rise came off the back of the company trailing the wider market. In addition, the company also trades below last year’s richer valuation, holds almost $400 billion in cash, and may have bought back billions of dollars of its own shares.
Barron reported that the rally carried Berkshire Hathaway to an eight-month high this week. The gain also came while technology shares fell, drawing money toward a large defensive company with businesses in insurance, rail, energy, manufacturing, retail, and finance. The Class B shares closed Tuesday at $512.37, their best finish since November 28, when they ended at $513.81. They had closed Friday at $511.54, or 5.2% below the record close of $539.80 set on May 2, 2025. The record came one day before Warren Buffett said he would leave the CEO job at the end of 2025.
Berkshire Hathaway stock registers new high
The Class A shares ended Tuesday at $768,010, also their highest close since November 28’s $770,100. Friday’s Class A close of $766,600 was 5.3% under its record of $809,350. Both Berkshire Hathaway share classes are up only about 1% in 2026, compared with a return of roughly 9% for the S&P 500. The company has also trailed stocks connected to two of its largest operations. Union Pacific, the closest listed comparison for BNSF, has gained about 30% this year. Chubb, a major property and casualty insurer, has also posted a much larger gain.
UBS Group analyst Brian Meredith raised his Class A price target by 3%, taking it to $877,848 from $854,596, while keeping a Buy rating. That target is about 15% above the share price used in his report. Brian estimated Berkshire’s intrinsic value at nearly $800,000 per Class A share, around 5% above the current price. Brian also raised his profit forecasts. His 2026 estimate for the Class B shares increased 1.3% to $21.05, while his 2027 figure rose 0.8% to $21.32.
Brian cited “modestly higher earnings at BNSF and lower catastrophe losses” during the second quarter. The disaster-loss figure relates to Berkshire’s large property and casualty insurance business. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) now trades at about 1.4 times an estimated book value of roughly $535,000 per Class A share. The earlier estimate for the end of the second quarter was about $522,000. The current ratio sits near the lower end of its range in recent years and below the 1.8 times recorded in May 2025, when Class A traded near $810,000.
Berkshire Hathaway is due to publish its second-quarter results within the next two weeks. That report will include shareholder equity and an updated book-value figure. Berkshire’s cash balance is also helping the stock while traders cut technology exposure. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE Arca: XLK) fell another 2% Tuesday, and Berkshire has often traded against the tech sector’s direction this year. Brian said Berkshire appeared to repurchase about $8.5 billion of its stock during the second quarter.
The filing was done by Warren Buffett, and he called the possible purchase a “bullish sign.” It would rank among the company’s largest quarterly buybacks. Barron’s placed the likely total between $5 billion and $11 billion after reviewing the filing earlier this month. There is no peer comparison on the open market for Berkshire Hathaway since the stock is valued at around $1.1 trillion and consists of a diversified portfolio of businesses. However, there are some stocks related to Berkshire Hathaway that have performed much better than the latter.
