Berkshire Shares Rally to Highest Since Buffett's CEO Exit Announcement

This roundup covers Berkshire Hathaway's share recovery and investment in Bending Spoons. Berkshire shares closed Friday at their highest levels since Warren Buffett announced at the May 2025 annual meeting that Buffett planned to step down as CEO at year-end. Class A shares closed at $798,000, 1.4% below their record closing high of $809,350. Class B shares closed at $532.02, 1.4% below their record closing high of $539.80. Both share classes had reached record closing highs the day before Buffett's announcement, then lost more than 14% over three months amid concerns about losing a valuation premium associated with Buffett. Thursday's loss ended a 10-session winning streak that added 5% to Berkshire's share prices. However, Berkshire shares rebounded by more than 1% on Friday despite the broader market sell-off.

CNBC Pro suggested investors may welcome Berkshire deploying some of Berkshire's cash under CEO Greg Abel. Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of shares in Q2 and invested in Alphabet, Taylor Morrison Home, Lennar and Bending Spoons. Berkshire has not bought Lennar shares since October 2. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields believes higher short-term interest rates are helping lift Berkshire shares by increasing earnings on roughly $360 billion in cash. Berkshire's insurance operations have benefited from a quiet hurricane season so far. Higher oil prices benefit Berkshire's $19 billion Chevron stake and energy-related subsidiaries. Chevron closed Friday at a record high after gaining almost 36% since the start of July. Berkshire may also be benefiting as investors shift away from AI and technology stocks toward older-economy companies.

Coca-Cola closed Friday at a record high, perhaps partly helped by KFC switching from Pepsi to Coke. Coca-Cola shares have gained 34% year-to-date. Berkshire's Coca-Cola holding gained $2.4 billion since last Friday to reach $37.6 billion, overtaking Alphabet as Berkshire's third-largest equity stake. Berkshire's Class B shares now trail the S&P 500 by 6.0 percentage points for the year, reducing the June 1 deficit of 17.5 percentage points by almost two-thirds.

Bending Spoons began trading on Nasdaq in the U.S. in July and trades at a high earnings multiple, unlike a typical Berkshire value investment. Bending Spoons buys internet businesses such as AOL, Evernote and Vimeo, uses AI to cut costs, and deploys the savings toward more acquisitions. A Bending Spoons release before Wednesday's market opening disclosed that Berkshire is investing a further $330 million by buying 10 million newly issued shares at $33 each through a private placement. The purchase price represented an almost 12% discount to Tuesday's closing price of $37.86. Bending Spoons shares reached $58.56 intraday before closing Wednesday at $53.46, up 41%. Bending Spoons shares ended Friday at $47.07 after losing some gains during the technology sell-off, leaving a three-session gain of 24.3%. Friday's closing price was 42.6% above Berkshire's $33 purchase price, implying an unrealized gain of nearly $141 million on the new investment.

The release also disclosed that Berkshire invested $600 million at Bending Spoons' IPO more than three months earlier. Bending Spoons did not disclose the number of shares Berkshire bought in July and declined to confirm an estimate based on the $29 IPO price. Assuming Berkshire paid that price, the initial purchase would total almost 20.7 million shares. That assumption would put Berkshire's combined holding near 30.7 million shares, worth more than $1.4 billion at Friday's close, a 55.3% gain on $930 million invested. However, Bending Spoons said the new investment brings Berkshire's ownership to 4%. Bending Spoons said the company had not specifically disclosed the current outstanding share count, but reported 635 million fully diluted weighted average shares in Q2, 34 million shares issued at the IPO and another 10 million to be issued through this transaction. Using those figures, the presumed 30.7 million-share holding represents 4.5%, the estimate entered in CNBC's Berkshire Portfolio Tracker. Berkshire's portfolio disclosure next month, covering September 30, may clarify the IPO share purchase. The identity of the person at Berkshire who decided to invest in Bending Spoons remains unknown.

Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari said Berkshire has been among the world's finest and most respected capital allocators and is a longstanding inspiration for Bending Spoons. Morningstar's Greggory Warren said the purchase and Berkshire's now $36 billion Alphabet stake show Berkshire moving beyond familiar investments, which should benefit long-term investors. Barron's Andrew Bary said many Berkshire shareholders want more stock investment given cash exceeding $350 billion, but Bending Spoons was surprising because of the company's high valuation.