Berkshire Hathaway has resumed repurchasing its own shares, the company and its new chief executive disclosed on Thursday. The repurchases began on Wednesday and represent the conglomerate's first buybacks since May 2024, ending what the company described as a nearly two-year pause.
Greg Abel, who took over as chief executive in January after succeeding Warren Buffett, said the repurchases are a mechanism to help create value for shareholders over the long term. Abel made the remarks on CNBC and framed the disclosure that repurchases had restarted as a one-time announcement, noting that Berkshire normally reports repurchase activity on a quarterly basis.
Abel also revealed a personal purchase tied to his role. On Wednesday he bought 21 Class A shares of Berkshire for roughly $15 million, which he said represented the after-tax value of his salary. He indicated he intends to make similar purchases going forward. Following this transaction, Abel's ownership stands at 249 Class A shares, which were worth about $182 million as of Wednesday.
Management and investors may also view the repurchase program as a way to shrink Berkshire's sizable cash position. At year-end, Berkshire held $373.3 billion in cash, a level that the company said had grown in part because it had been unable to find suitable companies or publicly traded stocks to acquire.
Market reaction to the news was modestly positive in early trading. Berkshire's Class B shares, which trade at about one-1500th the price of Class A shares, were up 1.2% in premarket trading on the disclosure.
The company has experienced underperformance relative to the broader market in the period following leadership change. Through Wednesday, Berkshire shares had lagged the Standard & Poor's 500 by more than 30 percentage points in the 10 months since Buffett unexpectedly announced he was stepping down as chief executive. Buffett remains chairman of the company.
Context and next steps
Berkshire will continue to report repurchases on its regular quarterly filings, the company said, and the disclosure that repurchases have resumed was presented as an isolated update rather than a change in reporting cadence. Abel's public purchase of Class A shares was presented as an alignment signal with long-term shareholders.