Start here if you're new
what it is
Berkshire owns insurance, railroads, utilities, and a pile of other businesses.
how it gets paid
Last year Brkb made n/a in revenue. Manufacturing, service and retailing was the main engine at $91.4B, or 37% of sales.
what just happened
Berkshire missed by 12.75% as EPS came in at $4.72 versus $5.41 expected.
At a glance
A++ balance sheet — fortress balance sheet — as safe as it gets
90/100 earnings predictability — you can trust these numbers
22.0x trailing p/e — priced about right
xvary composite: 77/100 — average
$24.00 fy2026 eps est
What they do
Berkshire owns insurance, railroads, utilities, and a pile of other businesses.
Berkshire runs on 383,000 employees and 30.7% voting control in the hands of officers and directors. That means control stays sticky, and your money sits inside a machine that does not need hype. Earnings predictability → profits that usually land near plan → so your ride is less violent.
How they make money
n/a
annual revenue
Insurance underwriting
$76.6B
0.0%
Insurance investment income
$29.7B
+8.0%
BNSF Railway
$27.2B
2.0%
Berkshire Hathaway Energy
$22.2B
+6.0%
Manufacturing, service and retailing
$91.4B
0.0%
The products that matter
property and casualty insurance
Insurance Underwriting
$94.2B · -0.7%
it's the largest operating segment at $94.2B. when insurance is healthy, Berkshire gets cash to invest elsewhere without needing outside capital.
largest segment
rail freight transportation
BNSF Railway
$70.6B · flat
this $70.6B railroad is expensive to build, hard to replicate, and still essential to moving goods across North America. tracks are a decent moat.
hard to replace
regulated utilities and energy
Berkshire Hathaway Energy
$47.1B · flat
the $47.1B utilities arm gives you steadier cash flow than the rest of the portfolio. boring is useful when you own everything else.
stability layer
industrial and consumer subsidiaries
Manufacturing & Retail
$23.6B · flat
a $23.6B collection of businesses makes Berkshire look less like a fund and more like a small economy. diversification is not elegant, but it works.
diversification
public stock investments
Equity Portfolio
$375B · concentrated
the $375B equity portfolio adds another layer of earnings power and market exposure. it also means a few big positions can move book value fast.
capital allocation
Key numbers
$561
18-mo target
That is 13% above $497.55. The gap is modest, so Berkshire looks like a steady compounder, not a moonshot.
22.0x
trailing p/e
You pay $22 for every $1 of last year's profit. That is a full price for a business built to be boring.
90
predictability
A 90 score means earnings land near plan more often than most. Fewer surprises usually means fewer disasters.
30.7%
voting control
Insiders control almost a third of the votes. That keeps the capital-allocation playbook intact.
Financial health
A++
strength
- balance sheet grade A++ — the absolute highest — fortress balance sheet
- risk rank 1 — safer than 95% of stocks
- price stability 100 / 100
- return on equity 7% — $0.07 profit for every $1 investors have put in
A++ — among the top-rated companies for balance sheet quality.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in BRKB 3 years ago → it's now worth $15,860.
The index would have given you $13,880.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
missed estimates
Berkshire missed by 12.75% as EPS came in at $4.72 versus $5.41 expected.
The quarter was softer than Wall Street wanted. One miss does not change Berkshire's core setup, but it does show this machine still has quarterly wobble.
$4.72
eps
$5.41
estimate
12.75%
surprise
EPS surprise
The $0.69 shortfall matters because it shows the quarter landed below expectations, even for Berkshire.
-
berkshire hathaway likely ended a pretty good 2025 with decent december-quarter results. (the company was set to announce full-year results shortly after we went to press with this issue.) it should be noted that the conglomerate was up against very difficult comparisons with 2024, and thus it likely registered a profit decline versus the prior year.however, this shouldn’t detract from the company’s likely strong results in 2025, compared with its historical averages. a relatively decent economy and reduced interest rates probably lifted results in berkshire’s non-insurance businesses during the fourth quarter, while the insurance arm likely continued its winning ways.
-
we look for solid earnings growth in each of the next two years.
-
it looks like the economy might well hold up better than previously expected over the next 12 to 18 months, helped, to an extent, by lower borrowing costs, which ought to boost the company’s non-insurance businesses.what’s more, berkshire’s insurance operations have benefited from a secular upturn for quite some time. despite some potential headwinds, we believe there is still room to run over the next year or two on this front. we have rolled out our projections and now look for earnings per share in the vicinity of $32.00 by the 20292031 time frame.
-
the company’s diversified status ought to continue to serve it well over the long run.these shares currently are not in the good graces of our timeliness ranking system with a score of 4 (belowaverage). the stock has rallied the performance of the s&p 500 index over the past year, largely reflecting the retirement of berkshire’s iconic warren buffett as ceo (announced last may) at the end of 2025. although greg abel certainly seems to be a highly-competent replacement, as he has been with the company for more than a quarter of a century, the ‘‘buffett premium’’ appears to have been removed from these shares.
-
that being said, brkb stock offers ample price-recovery potential for the 3 to 5 years ahead.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is the post-Buffett valuation reset — not because Berkshire stops being Berkshire, but because the market may refuse to pay the old premium without Buffett personally allocating the capital.
high
Leadership transition and premium compression
Buffett retired as CEO at the end of 2025. The stock fell 5.9% over the past year while the market kept moving. That is what a premium leaving looks like.
If the operating businesses merely look fine instead of excellent, 22.0x earnings can still compress.
med
Insurance softness where the machine starts
Insurance and reinsurance is a $94.2B segment, and it slipped 0.7% from last year. Q4 2025 operating earnings were hit by insurance weakness. That matters because insurance is still the front door to Berkshire's capital engine.
If underwriting stays soft for multiple quarters, the investment story gets less elegant fast.
med
Equity portfolio concentration
The public stock portfolio is worth $375B and remains concentrated in a handful of large positions. When those names move, Berkshire's reported value moves with them whether the operating companies had a good quarter or not.
A portfolio this large can amplify volatility in book value even when the railroad and utility businesses stay steady.
med
Economic sensitivity outside insurance
BNSF is a $70.6B business. Utilities and energy add $47.1B. Manufacturing and retail add $23.6B. None of those are meme-proof. A slower economy can pressure volumes and operating earnings across several subsidiaries at once.
This is diversified exposure, not immunity.
Between a $375B stock portfolio, a $94.2B insurance business that just weakened, and a Q4 revenue miss of 8.4%, small disappointments can turn into very large dollar effects.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
Insurance revenue after the Q4 stumble
Insurance and reinsurance brought in $94.2B and slipped 0.7% from last year. If that business stays soft, the Berkshire flywheel loses torque right where it starts.
calendar
Q1 2026 earnings report
The next report is where you find out whether the $94.23B quarter was just a messy handoff or the start of lower expectations.
trend
Buybacks under Greg Abel
Berkshire has $168B in cash and no dividend. That makes buybacks one of the clearest tells on whether management thinks the stock is cheap enough to matter.
risk
Whether the market keeps stripping out the Buffett premium
The stock is down 5.9% over the past year despite a fortress balance sheet and a 3-year return ahead of the index. If operating results stabilize and the discount persists, sentiment may be overshooting reality.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
90 / 100
this business usually reports numbers close to what analysts expect. in human-speak, Berkshire is still one of the more readable giants in the market.
timeliness
4
below-average short-term outlook. analysts are not calling for near-term outperformance while the post-Buffett transition is still being priced.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 2,005 buyers vs. 1,910 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.9B shares. net buying for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$436
$685
$498
current price
$561
target midpoint · +13% from current · 3-5yr high: $880 (+75% · 15% ann'l return)
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