So far in 2026, the S&P 500 has gained about 14%, while Berkshire Hathaway shares are up only about 3%. According to the article, since 1965 Berkshire has beaten the S&P 500 in 11 of the 13 years the index posted an annual loss, with a compounded annual gain of 19.7% versus 10.5% for the index. In 2022, the S&P 500 fell 18.1% while Berkshire gained 4%; in 2008, the index plunged 37% and Berkshire fell 31.8%. The exceptions were 1974 and 1990, when Berkshire lost more than the index, including a 48.7% drop versus 26.4% for the S&P 500 in 1974. The article attributes Berkshire's resilience to its diversified businesses and its roughly $365.5 billion in cash and U.S. Treasury securities, which allow it to invest when prices fall, though it is not necessarily a haven.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Read the original on aol.com ↗
Related news
- History Says Berkshire Hathaway Stock Holds Up When the Market Falls: It Beat the S&P 500 in 11 of 13 Down Years
Berkshire Hathaway stock has lagged in 2026, up only about 3% while the S&P 500 has gained roughly 14%. The article argues the stock has historically held up well in down markets: since 1965, it has beaten the S&P 500 in 11 of the 13 years the index posted negative annual returns. Over that period, Berkshire compounded at 19.7% a year versus 10.5% for the index, gaining 4% in 2022 when the S&P 500 fell 18.1%, and losing 31.8% in 2008 against the index's 37% drop. The exceptions were 1974 and 1990, when Berkshire fell more, including a 48.7% drop in 1974 versus 26.4% for the index. The author credits its diversified businesses and roughly $365.5 billion in cash and U.S. Treasuries from its second-quarter report, which could fund investments when prices fall.
- Berkshire Hathaway Shares Near Record High as Greg Abel Wins Investor Confidence
- Greg Abel's Berkshire Hathaway Collected $479 Million in Dividends Last Year from an American Express Stake That Cost $1.3 Billion. You Can Put the Same Principles to Work for Yourself.
Berkshire Hathaway, now run by Greg Abel, collected $479 million in dividends from its American Express stake in 2025, against a total cost of $1.3 billion for shares bought over several years ending in 1995. At the end of 2025 Berkshire owned 22% of American Express, a stake then worth $56 billion. The annual dividend rose from $1.22 per share in 2016 to $2.08 in 2022 and $3.54 more recently, even though the current yield is only 1.2%. The article notes that American Express's second-quarter EPS rose 11% and revenue rose 10%, and that its forward P/E of 15.3 is below its five-year average of 16.8. It uses this case to highlight the value of holding growing dividend payers over the long term.
- Berkshire Hathaway Has Piled $930 Million Into This Stock Since Its IPO. Should Investors Follow?
Berkshire Hathaway, under CEO Greg Abel, bought $600 million of the Bending Spoons IPO in July, when the Milan-based company raised $1.68 billion at a valuation of about $18 billion, and later added $330 million in a private placement for a 4% stake. The article links Bending Spoons' model of acquiring, overhauling and holding software businesses to Berkshire's long-term approach, citing an operating margin that rose to 34% from 32% and cash from operations that nearly tripled to $254 million last quarter. It flags $4.09 billion in net debt, 2.4 times adjusted EBITDA, as a risk as the cost of capital rises. Bending Spoons aims for an internal rate of return of 65% levered and 25% unlevered, and management says it has identified more than 1,000 potential acquisition targets.
- Warren Buffett’s Successor, Greg Abel, Has Over 45% of Berkshire Hathaway’s $356 Billion Portfolio Invested in 3 Undeniable Winners
Greg Abel succeeded Warren Buffett as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO after Buffett retired on December 31, keeping the company’s concentrated investment approach. More than 45% of Berkshire’s $160.6 billion in invested assets sits in three stocks: Apple ($76.73 billion, 21.6%), American Express ($46.72 billion, 13.1%) and Alphabet ($37.17 billion, 10.5%). Buffett had cut Berkshire’s Apple stake by 75% in the nine quarters before his departure, but Abel’s February letter described Apple as a concentrated holding expected to compound over decades. Abel more than tripled the Alphabet stake in the first quarter and added another $17 billion in the June-ended quarter, while Amex has been held since 1991 with a nearly 45% annual yield on cost.
- Bill Ackman Is Directing Up to $3 Billion Into Howard Hughes' Insurance Arm, Vantage, as Part of His Plan to Build a Modern Berkshire Hathaway. Is HHH Stock the Way to Play His Buffett Ambitions?
Bill Ackman, through Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH), agreed to acquire insurer Vantage for $2.1 billion, a price largely reflecting its roughly $1.8 billion book value. HHH plans to invest $2.5 billion to $3 billion of excess free cash flow into the insurance unit over five years, mostly in stocks, with Pershing Square managing the portfolio for free. Ackman also wants to charge third-party investors management fees on real estate investments, similar to Brookfield and Blackstone. Pershing Square raised its stake in HHH to 47% after investing another $900 million in 2025. Shares surged on Ackman's remarks before pulling back near the $66.95 book value per share, and the article notes that results will take years to judge, while Greenlight Capital, a similar model, lost money for investors.
Related markets
Latest news
- Roblox Is Now Down 38% in 2026: Is RBLX Stock Dead Money or Poised for a Comeback?
Roblox stock is down 38% year to date to $50.41, with a late-September court ruling letting a Los Angeles County child exploitation lawsuit proceed and a Jefferies downgrade to Underperform adding pressure. Jefferies argued the rally after the Q2 report priced in too much bookings growth, which rose only 8% to $1.6 billion in Q2 even as daily active users grew 10% to 123 million. Safety changes, including a mandatory age check, had already led Roblox to cut its full-year revenue growth forecast to 20% to 25% earlier this year. For Q3 2026, Roblox forecasts a year-over-year bookings decline of 14% to 18%. Take-Two (down 20%) and GameStop (up 31%) year to date suggest the pressure is specific to Roblox, and the article frames the key test as whether bookings stabilize while user growth continues.
- Super Micro (SMCI) Won Over $60 Billion in Orders, Is the Discount Deserved?
A contractor linked to Super Micro Computer (SMCI) pleaded guilty earlier this month to helping ship servers with advanced Nvidia chips to China, a case prosecutors say involved billions of dollars of U.S. AI technology, though the company says it was not named as a defendant and its operations are unaffected. Sales for the fiscal year ended June reached $39.1 billion, up from $22.0 billion, with CEO Charles Liang citing more than $60 billion in new orders, several hundred added enterprise customers, and a record backlog. Management guides to $65.0 billion to $72.0 billion in fiscal 2027 sales, and sales have grown about 61.5% a year over five years. Gross margin was 10.8% for the full year but rose to 17.5% in the June quarter, with net income of $1,178 million, while the trailing 12-month operating margin was 7.09%. The article notes the stock trades at a much lower multiple of expected earnings than the sector, and that one strong quarter does not yet prove a new margin level.
- Is Nvidia Stock Really Trading for Just 8 Times 2030 Earnings?
Nvidia is the market's most valuable company, with a market cap above $5 trillion. It trades at 27 times adjusted trailing earnings, but only about 8 times analysts' estimate for fiscal 2030 earnings, a figure the author stresses is a moving target. Revenue growth accelerated from 56% in Q2 FY 2026 to 106% in Q2 FY 2027, though guidance points to a slight slowdown in the current quarter. The stock trades at 13 times next year's earnings, and the board recently authorized a record $150 billion in share repurchases. The author also acknowledges risks such as slower growth or contracting net margins.
- California billionaire tax could backfire, Stanford study says
Stanford economists Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh argue in an NBER working paper that California's proposed one-time 5% tax on billionaire wealth could raise far less than projected and ultimately reduce state revenue. Seven billionaires, including Peter Thiel, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have publicly left the state, removing about $540 billion, or 30%, of California's billionaire wealth from potential taxation. The authors estimate the measure could generate only about $30 billion, versus the $100 billion projected by proponents, while losing $1 billion to $3.5 billion a year in income tax revenue could leave the state about $39 billion worse off in present-value terms if those losses persist. The measure, Proposition 40, goes to voters next month, and a Citrin-Politico poll found 46% of likely voters in favor and 43% opposed. Supporters, including Nobel laureates Daron Acemoglu and Joseph Stiglitz, argue the tax will fund health care and that California has attracted more venture funding since the proposal was announced.
- US Orders Civilian Agencies to Rip DeepSeek Out of Government Systems
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday ordered civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products and third-party services built on the model from their IT systems, and to stop buying them. The notice warns that using DeepSeek may transfer sensitive data to China and could produce intelligence on U.S. persons and agencies. The Commerce Department, the Navy, and the states of New York, Tennessee and Virginia had already restricted DeepSeek. The FCC votes on October 29 on barring Chinese labs from testing electronics for U.S. use.
- NVIDIA Stock And 2 Other Undervalued Stocks To Own
Rising interest rates have pushed down bond prices, with 10-year U.S. Treasuries recording one of their steepest multi-year declines since the 18th century. The article highlights three U.S. stocks that a Simply Wall St cash flow screen considers attractively priced relative to their future cash flow potential: NVIDIA, Wells Fargo and J.B. Hunt Transport Services. NVIDIA generated about US$275.4b from Compute & Networking and US$27.6b from Graphics, with a market cap of US$5,170.6b, and the piece notes that an open-source or cheaper alternative to its CUDA platform could weaken its moat. Wells Fargo, with a market cap of US$251.7b, grew average loans 12% and average deposits 10% year over year in 2Q26 after the removal of its asset cap, while J.B. Hunt, with a market cap of US$21.3b and US$13.3b in revenue, recorded record intermodal volume of over 578,000 loads in Q2 2026.
Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo
Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.