Berkshire Hathaway stock rallied to an all-time high Monday as Wall Street digested the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, which included record operating profits and the 60th annual letter to shareholders penned by the company’s longtime chief executive officer Warren Buffett, who grew billions of dollars richer during Berkshire’s early week surge.
Warren Buffett in 2017.
Class A shares of Berkshire rose 4% to a $747,765.75 close, while Class B “baby Berkshire” shares climbed 4.2% to $498.97, as both Berkshire share classes broke all-time highs set Nov. 27.
Driving the gains was Berkshire’s fourth-quarter earnings report released Saturday which revealed $47.4 billion in operating earnings excluding investment gains in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023, and $14.5 billion in operating earnings during Q4, a 71% year-over-year increase.
The best day for Berkshire in more than three months added $40 billion to the company’s market capitalization, which swelled to a record $1.08 trillion.
That vaulted Berkshire above Tesla, the electric vehicle firm run by the world’s richest person Elon Musk, as the seventh-most valuable public American company.
Buffett’s net worth grew by $6 billion as his company’s stock gained, the most of any billionaire on Forbes’ real-time ranking of the world’s richest people. Buffett’s $155 billion fortune makes him the sixth-wealthiest person on the planet, though the Nebraska native is about $225 billion less rich than Musk. Buffett is likely the most prolific philanthropist ever, donating more than $60 billion to charity, according to Forbes estimates.
Berkshire is “an attractive stock in an uncertain macro environment,” remarked UBS analyst Brian Meredith in a Sunday note to clients, nodding to the U.S.’ choppy operating environment as President Donald Trump reworks the economy, with the help of Musk.
Up 10% year-to-date, Berkshire stock has beat the S&P 500’s 2% gain. Buffett’s firm has outperformed the S&P benchmark 16 of the last 25 years.
$334 billion. That was Berkshire’s cash pile (cash and short-term investments) at the end of 2024. “Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire…. Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities,” Buffett wrote in the 2025 annual letter.
Also boosting Berkshire’s share price Monday was a rally from its largest investment by total value, Apple. Shares of the iPhone maker rose to a 2025 high after the company revealed a $500 billion investment in the U.S. over the next four years. Apple accounts for about 25% of Berkshire’s public portfolio, and Buffett’s company owns 2% of the $3.7 trillion Apple.
The $26.8 billion tax bill Berkshire paid to the Internal Revenue Service last year is the most any company has ever paid, according to Buffett, who says his company paid 5% of all corporate taxes in 2024. Buffett actually expressed gratitude at footing that bill: “Berkshire would not have achieved its results in any locale except America whereas America would have been every bit the success it has been if Berkshire had never existed. So thank you, Uncle Sam.”