$Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.B)$ Bullish news

Earnings momentum is strong. The 2026Q2 report (filed 2026-08-10) showed revenue of ~$101.8bn, up ~10% YoY, and attributable net profit of ~$256.7bn... more precisely, net profit of $25.67bn versus $12.37bn a year earlier (roughly +107%), with operating profit of ~$12.98bn, up ~16% YoY

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. For H1 2026 as a whole, revenue was ~$209.96bn (+15.25%) and net profit ~$35.95bn (+109.88%) . The key point: the operating-profit line — the part driven by wholly owned businesses rather than mark-to-market on the equity book — grew steadily, and roughly half of Q2 net profit came from those private operating units .

Buybacks have restarted under new CEO Greg Abel. After Buffett authorised no repurchases in 2025, Abel authorised $235m in Q1 2026 and $4.2bn in Q2 2026

Tonghuashun

. With cash and equivalents above $365bn, the repurchase capacity is large

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Xueqiu

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A decisive AI/tech pivot via Alphabet. Berkshire built a position in

Alphabet (GOOGL)

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starting ~15 months ago, including a ~$10bn block bought at a 6.5% discount, taking the stake to roughly $38bn and making it the third-largest US equity holding

East Money

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. Abel framed this as Berkshire having "extremely high insight" into AI deployment through its own subsidiaries

East Money

. This addresses a long-standing criticism that Berkshire missed the tech era.

Leadership transition executed cleanly. Buffett stepped down as CEO on 2025-12-31 and as chairman on 2026-09-18, moving to chairman emeritus, with Howard Buffett as chairman and Abel running the company

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. Abel has publicly said he and Buffett talk daily

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— the succession risk that hung over the stock has been partly de-risked.

Relative safe-haven bid. Berkshire has been a beneficiary of rotation out of crowded tech: it logged a ten-session winning streak while the Nasdaq fell nearly 2% on an AI-infrastructure scare .

Bearish news

The core critique: persistent underperformance. Berkshire has lagged the S&P 500 over the last decade — one widely circulated figure cites ~70% underperformance from 2016 to 2026 . The stock is up 5.88% over the past year and 7.54% over 60 days, versus a market that has been driven by AI names. Berkshire's own holders debate this openly .

Insider selling by a key executive. Director Ajit Jain (the insurance chief) sold 39,700 shares on 2026-09-28 at $503.09, worth ~$19.97m . This follows his sales in 2025 (15,000 shares at $501, and 2,000 shares at $464.73) . It's a scheduled-looking pattern rather than a red flag, but it's the most prominent insider sale in the recent flow, and the only insider buying has been small ($25k–$205k scale) by another executive .

The cash pile cuts both ways. ~$365bn in cash and equivalents

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is a fortress, but it's also a persistent drag on returns — Buffett's own stated reason is that US equities look expensive and lack attractive opportunities . If the market keeps rising, that cash is a performance headwind.

Valuation is no longer cheap. At $532.23, P/E TTM is ~13.3 and P/B ~1.52, with ROE of 12.12% . Note that Berkshire's P/E is distorted by unrealized investment gains and is not comparable to an operating company's multiple; P/B is the more meaningful anchor. At 1.52x book, the stock is not in the deep-value zone it has historically offered at cycle lows.