Berkshire Hathaway shares closed slightly lower on Warren Buf
ett’s final day as chief executive, with the legendary investor set to hand the reins to Greg Abel on Jan. 1.
The price of Berkshire Class A shares edged down $600, or 0.1%, to $754,800 on Dec. 31, while the Class B share p
rice fell $1.06, or 0.2%, to $502.65. The Standard & Poor’s 500 .SPX fell 0.7%.
Investors fortunate enough to own Berkshire since 1965, when Buffett took over, realized a return of about 6,10
0,000%, far above the S&P 500’s approximately 46,000% return including dividends.
The index outperformed in 2025 and over the last decade, though Ber
d to find acquisitions for his $1.08 trillion conglomerate.
Berkshire subsidiaries include the insurer Geico, the BNSF railroad, dozens of manufacturing and energy businesses, and retail brands such as Brooks, Dairy Quee
n, Fruit of the Loom and See’s Candies. It ended September with $381.7 billion of cash and equivalents.
Abel, 63, joined Berkshire in 2000 when it bought MidAmerican Energy, now known as Berkshire Hathaway Energy. He
has been a vice chairman managing Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses since 2018.
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Buffett, 95, will remain chairman and plans to keep going every d
ay to Berkshire’s office in Omaha, Nebraska, about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of his home, and help Abel.
Vice Chairman Ajit Jain will retain day-to-day oversight of Berkshire’s insu
rance businesses, while Abel will continue monitoring the BNSF, manufacturing and energy businesses.
Adam Johnson, chief executive of luxury plane unit NetJets, will directly oversee Berkshire’s consumer prod
ucts, service and retail businesses, which Abel has been doing.
Berkshire has not said who will take over its equity portfolio, whose $283.2 billion of stocks as of September 30 included Apple and American Express.
It was long thought that Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who helped run that portfolio, might take over, but Com
bs left this month for JPMorgan Chase and Buffett said in May 2024 that Abel could handle the job.