Berkshire stock hits record high despite tech slump

Berkshire Hathaway shares closed Monday at a record high of $821,931 for the Class A stock. The widely held Class B shares also set a new record closing price of $548.56 on the same day. Although the Class B price reached $550.47 during Friday trading, it did not surpass the intraday high of $549.96 set the previous Thursday. The Class A stock peaked at $822,929 on Friday, falling short of its all-time intraday high of $824,765.

The company finished October with an 8.9% gain. This performance stood in sharp contrast to major benchmarks. The S&P 500 fell 0.9% for the month, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.3%. The Nasdaq suffered its worst one-day drop since June on Friday, losing 2.9% as investors moved money out of artificial intelligence and technology stocks due to spending concerns. Berkshire stock appears to be benefiting from this shift toward traditional value investments.

Berkshire's position relative to the market improved during the month. The Class B shares narrowed their year-to-date deficit against the S&P 500 from 3.5 percentage points to 2.8 percentage points. Over the past 12 calendar months, the stock has outperformed the S&P 500 by more than two percentage points. The company's market capitalization stood at approximately $1.16 trillion at the close of trading.

One major holding in Berkshire's portfolio took a severe hit. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw its market value fall by roughly $500 billion on Thursday. The stock plunged almost 13%, marking its worst single-day performance since its 2004 initial public offering. Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion for the third quarter. This figure was more than triple the $2.7 billion analysts had projected, raising fears about the cost of building AI infrastructure. Revenue from web searches also missed estimates for the second consecutive quarter.

Berkshire's stake in Alphabet, which reached a value of $40 billion in early August, has lost a quarter of its worth. The position is now valued at $29.6 billion, making it the company's fourth largest equity holding. Barron's estimates that Berkshire paid more than $300 per share for the stock, possibly close to $320. This puts the investment in the red for now. Coca-Cola has moved into third place among Berkshire's top holdings, with its value increasing by nearly 16% from a low of $32.5 billion in late July to $37.6 billion currently.

In other portfolio moves, Berkshire disclosed the sale of $69 million in DaVita shares on Tuesday. The remaining 28.3 million shares are worth $5.3 billion. This reduction follows a 2024 agreement requiring Berkshire to keep its stake in the dialysis provider at 45% or lower. DaVita shares are up 65% year-to-date despite a sharp drop in August. Berkshire also completed a $330 million investment in Bending Spoons, a deal announced last week.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger recently criticized the Robinhood trading app during an investor Q&A session. Buffett noted that 12% to 13% of Robinhood participants trade options, describing the platform as part of the "casino aspect" of the stock market. He expressed concern about how the company generates revenue when it claims to charge customers nothing. Munger called the model "deeply wrong," stating that civilized men should not draw investment from such practices. Both men suggested that American corporations remain a better place for money than short-term gambling chips.

Berkshire's cash position as of June 30 stood at $365.5 billion, down 8.0% from the end of March. Excluding rail cash and subtracting T-bills payable, the figure was $359.2 billion. The company repurchased $4.5 billion of its shares in the second quarter of 2026. The next major update on the company's portfolio will be the release of its September 30 snapshot, scheduled for the coming two weeks.