Berkshire Hathaway stock is at a 52-week high and nearing its record set just before the 2025 annual meeting as investors rotate out of artificial-intelligence plays into more defensive stocks.
With more than $350 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet and close to $50 billion of annual after-tax earnings from a diverse group of businesses, Berkshire arguably is the most defensive megacap stock in the market.
Berkshire also is a defensive play within the financial sector, and bank stocks have been weak recently. A giant conglomerate with a market capitalization of over $1.1 trillion, Berkshire is classified as a financial company in the S&P 500.
Berkshire's $360 billion equity portfolio, led by Apple and Coca-Cola, also has been having a nice run recently.
The company's Class A shares are up 0.9% to $805,757 Tuesday after hitting a 52-week high of $808,000 earlier in the session.
The closing record is $809,350 on May 2, 2025 -- the day before the Berkshire annual meeting, when Warren Buffett surprised shareholders by saying he would step down as CEO at the end of 2025.
That news prompted a selloff in Berkshire stock. Buffett, 96, remained chairman of the board as Greg Abel took over as CEO and Buffett recently stepped down as chairman in favor of his older son, Howard Buffett.
Berkshire's Class B shares are up 1.1% at $537.80 Tuesday.
Berkshire stock had been languishing for much of this year as investors gravitated toward AI-related stocks. But with the recent reversal of that trend, Berkshire is benefiting with its shares up 5% over the past month and now up about 7% so far in 2026, still about seven percentage points behind the S&P 500 index.
Berkshire stock is ahead of the S&P 500 over the past five years with a 13.3% annualized return against 12.8% for the index. The S&P 500 is winning during the past 10 years with a yearly return of 15.3%, versus 14% for Berkshire.
Barron's estimates that Berkshire's book value rose about 3% to $540,000 on Sept. 30 from $522,000 on June 30. The gain would be driven by higher prices of many of Berkshire's stocks including Apple, its leading holding at more than $75 billion. The other contributor to book value growth is operating profits.
Apple has hit a record recently as has Coke, which Berkshire has owned for almost 40 years. The Coke stake is worth about $37 billion -- in line with the current value of Berkshire's interest in Alphabet.
Berkshire stock now trades for 1.5 times our Sept. 30 estimate, in line with its price/book range of 1.4 to 1.5 times for much of the past few years. Berkshire's price/book ratio peaked at about 1.8 times in May 2025.
Barron's wrote that Berkshire stock looked appealing at lower prices in July because stocks in similar industries to Berkshire like railroads and industrials were gaining.
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