(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter with news and analysis about Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday evening.)
Berkshire shares lagged as the S&P 500 rose to a record high
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At the close of trading on March 31, Berkshire shares were almost on par with the S&P, with a loss of around 4.7% since the beginning of the year.
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The day before, Berkshire B was ahead of the S&P by 1.8 percentage points, its largest lead of the year.
On Friday, it closed 9.7 percentage points behind the index, its widest gap so far in 2026.
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Individually, Berkshire shares have not performed well since closing at record highs on May 2, 2025, shortly before Warren Buffett announced he would step down as CEO at the end of the year.
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While they are around 3% above their early August lows, both classes are now down just over 12% since Buffett’s announcement.
Berkshire’s financial history is updated
BUFFETT & BERKSHIRE ON THE INTERNET
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM CNBC’S BUFFETT ARCHIVE
“We don’t begrudge ourselves the taxes we pay” (2014)
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger explain why they don’t try to avoid paying US taxes.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: “Berkshire paid $8.9 billion in taxes in 2013. Pfizer is currently considering a takeover that would allow the company to move its engineering holding company offshore, thereby saving on income tax expenses and creating value for shareholders. Would you and Charlie ever consider that if it created value for Berkshire shareholders?”
WARREN BUFFETT: I think the answer to that is no.
What do you say, Charlie? (applause)
CHARLIE MUNGER: I think it would be – I think it would be crazy to be as wealthy as Berkshire and cut our taxes to zero while remaining as wealthy. That would not be a legitimate ideal. (applause)
WARREN BUFFETT: Yes.
We couldn’t have done Berkshire in any country other than the United States. You know, and just look at what we acquired and everything.
America helped Charlie and I become very, very, very rich in a very, very, very big way. (Laughs). Charlie?
CHARLIE MUNGER: I have no complaints. And when I look around this group, I see you at breakfast, it’s a very happy group of people.
I don’t think many people grind their teeth because someone else has something more.
WARREN BUFFETT: But we don’t pay – I don’t want to make it holier than thou, this stuff. On top of that, we don’t pay anything – once we figure out the taxes on our 20,000+ page tax return, we just don’t do that – we don’t add a 20 percent or 15 percent tip or anything like that. (Laugh)
And we engage in certain transactions that are subject to tax. We have low-income housing tax credits, which George Bush actually congratulated me on. So it’s non-partisan.
We – the wind deals that we do, the solar deals that we do, they’re tax driven – I mean, they wouldn’t make economic sense otherwise.
So we follow the rules.
But we don’t begrudge ourselves the taxes we pay. We made a lot of money paying US taxes. (applause)
BERKSHIRE STOCK CLOCK
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BRK.A share price: ~$711,558.8
BRK.B share price: $474.58
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 15.29
Berkshire market cap: $1,023,449,080,531
Berkshire Cash as of December 31: $373.3 billion (down 2.2% from September 30)
Excluding Rail Cash and deducting T-Bills payable: $369.0 billion (up 4.1% from September 30)
Berkshire resumed share repurchases on March 4, 2026, but has not said whether it made additional purchases after that date.
(All figures are as of the date of publication unless otherwise stated)
BERKSHIRE’S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS – April 17, 2026
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Berkshire’s largest holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the US and Japan, by market value based on recent closing prices.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reflected in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing dated November 14, 2025, except for:
For the full list of holdings and current market values, visit CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send me questions or comments about the newsletter to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (We’re sorry, but we don’t forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
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Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders are also highly recommended reading. They are collected here on Berkshire’s website.
– Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
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