Berkshire 2026 AGM: $397B Cash, $235M Buyback
Berkshire Hathaway's cash pile hit a record $397.4 billion at the end of Q1, up from $381.6 billion at the prior peak. In the same quarter, the company bought back $235 million of its own stock — and roughly $226 million of that hit the tape in a single day on March 4. The remaining 60-odd trading sessions of Q1 produced $9 million of repurchases. That is the entire window in which Greg Abel could have signalled what kind of capital allocator he intends to be. He used Saturday's annual meeting in Omaha — his first as CEO — to answer that question directly. The answer is patience. Berkshire is not breaking up. The cash hoard is not being deployed at current prices. Buybacks have resumed but at a token pace. And the equity portfolio is being modestly reshuffled around what Abel now calls the "core four" — Apple, American Express, Moody's and Coca-Cola — plus the Japanese trading houses. The pragmatist read on this AGM: Abel has codified continuity, not reinvented it. Shareholders who wanted aggressive deployment, a special dividend, or a structural rethink will not get one. Shareholders who own Berkshire for the framework — patience, balance-sheet flexibility, owner-operator discipline — got their thesis confirmed. The 30-percentage-point gap to the S&P 500 since Buffett announced his step-down is the price of that patience. Whether it pays is the only question that matters now.