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.
Understanding Berkshire Hathaway: Market Cap, Ownership, and More
- It appointed two Berkshire Hathaway Energy executives as CEO and CFO of the company, retaining Jimmy Haslam as chairman.
- In 2016, it was the fifth-largest auto dealership group, with ownership of 81 dealerships and revenues of $8 billion.
- Other hockey teams in the county include Tadley, Yateley, Maidenhead, Windsor, and Newbury & Thatcham Hockey Clubs.
- What is now Berkshire Hathaway started as a textile company and evolved into one of the largest companies in the world by market cap.
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%.
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.
What Is a Class A Share?
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.
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.
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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.
In February 2010, the remaining portion that it did not already own was acquired for $26 billion. In April 2007, Berkshire acquired 10.9% of BNSF Railway for $3.23 billion. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, TTI is the largest distributor specialist of passive, interconnect, and electromechanical components.
Ice hockey
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.
Berkshire Hathaway reduced its 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).
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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.
Share classes and aversion to stock splits
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 berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders of unit investment trusts that would have marketed themselves as Berkshire look-alikes.
- In January 2010, as part of the acquisition of BNSF Railway, Berkshire completed a 50-to-1 stock split of its class B shares.
- This wood, perhaps no longer extant, was west of Frilsham, near Newbury.
- In February 2002, Berkshire acquired Albecca, headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, operating under the Larson-Juhl name.
- Berkshire sold its remaining bonds and preferred stock to Mars in 2016.
Also in December 2007, when stresses that led to the 2008 financial crisis were forming, Berkshire created a government bond insurance company to insure municipal bonds, starting with New York State bonds. In July 2005, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Forest River, the world’s largest seller of recreational vehicles, from Pete Liegl for $800 million. The company later acquired Professional Datasolutions and Salado Sales. In October 2002, Berkshire acquired The Pampered Chef, the largest direct seller of kitchen tools in the United States. In January 2001, Berkshire acquired 87% of Dalton, Georgia-based Shaw Industries. In June 2000, the company acquired Justin Brands, the parent company of Justin Boots, Acme Boots, and Acme Brick for $600 million in cash.
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.
This area of West Berkshire is the largest centre of racehorse training in the UK after Newmarket, and is known as the ‘Valley of the Racecourse’. Newbury Racecourse is in the civil parish of Greenham, adjoining the town of Newbury. Berkshire hosts more Group 1 flat horse races than any other county. The county’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Berkshire, Heart South and Greatest Hits Radio Berkshire & North Hampshire. London Heathrow Airport, in the neighbouring London Borough of Hillingdon, is a major contributor to the economy of Slough in east Berkshire. Since 2019, it has merged with a Swiss company called Biosynth AG to form a key global organisation within the fine chemical industry and operates under name Biosynth Carbosynth®.
In October 1997, Berkshire acquired Dairy Queen, based in Edina, Minnesota, for $585 million. In February 1997, Berkshire acquired FlightSafety International (FSI), a pilot training company founded in 1951 by Albert Lee Ueltschi and headquartered at LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, New York. In January 1996, Berkshire acquired full ownership of GEICO, acquiring the 49% of the company that it did not then own for $2.3 billion. In January 1986, Berkshire acquired Fechheimer Brothers, owner of Flying Cross, which manufactures public safety uniforms, and Vertx, a civilian tactical clothing company. In 2014, Graham Holdings Company sold its Miami television station, ABC affiliate WPLG to BH Media in a cash and stock deal. In 2013, the company bought the Tulsa World, the Greensboro, North Carolina-based News & Record, Virginia’s Roanoke Times, and Press of Atlantic City.
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.