The Berkshire Beat: March 6, 2026
The latest Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway news!
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel joined CNBC’s Squawk Box in studio yesterday for his first interview since succeeding Warren Buffett atop the conglomerate.
And he took the opportunity to break two notable pieces of news.
(1) Berkshire resumed share repurchases on Wednesday morning — following the 48-hour cooling off period — for the first time since May 2024.
“We’re doing it, obviously, on behalf of our shareholders and owners,” said Abel. “We have to view this as we’re creating value for our shareholders long-term.”
Before firing up the buyback machine, Abel consulted with chairman Warren Buffett. “I absolutely talked to Warren,” he said. And, presumably, the two men agreed that Berkshire’s intrinsic value (conservatively determined) had risen high enough above the current share price to merit repurchase.
Berkshire does not make a habit of announcing exactly when — and at what price — it repurchases shares, but Abel decided to make a one-time exception in this case.
(2) Abel used his entire after-tax salary to buy 21 Class A shares for $15.3 million.
This increases the new CEO’s Berkshire holdings up to 249 vote-rich Class A shares. And, in an even more impressive gesture, Abel pledged to do the same in every year of his tenure as CEO. In essence, every dollar of Abel’s take-home pay will be reinvested in the company for the foreseeable future.
When asked about his reasoning, Abel emphasized two key motivations.
“One, we have always highlighted [that] absolute alignment with our shareholders, our partners, our owners is critical,” he said. “I already have some shares, but the goal was to continue to demonstrate alignment with them.”
“Two, as the CEO, I absolutely obviously believe in Berkshire. With the transition from Warren, I inherited a company that has an incredible foundation. I believe in its future [and] the opportunities that exist there.”
Becky Quick summed up the surprising announcement well: “I can’t imagine any other corporate leader doing this.”
Other news and notes from the Berkshire Hathaway orbit…
Warren Buffett handed off his letter-writing duties to new CEO Greg Abel this year, but he did recently pen a short note to the Omaha World-Herald. In a letter to the paper’s “Public Pulse” section, Buffett paid tribute to the late Mike Yanney, a prominent Omaha businessman and philanthropist, who passed away last month.
“I want to add my voice to the many others who expressed Omaha’s admiration for the work performed by Mike Yanney during his lifetime,” wrote Buffett. “There’s much that is good about Omaha and the Midlands, and Mike had a hand — often a big hand — in their development. He and Walter Scott were particularly effective, throwing their energies and resources into advancing what was good for Omaha. The city will miss him as will his many friends.”
I’m still making my way through Chris Bloomstran’s massive new letter to Semper Augustus clients, but wanted to highlight one interesting Berkshire-related point. Much of the commentary on Berkshire’s stock price over the past year has centered on the “evaporation” of the so-called Buffett premium. Shares hit an all-time high the day before Buffett announced his retirement, but then slumped 6.7% over the rest of the year even as the broader market surged. Many credited this relative underperformance with the Buffett premium finally going away.
Bloomstran pushed back on that narrative, pointing out that any premium actually disappeared more than 25 years ago following the General Re acquisition. Buffett used Berkshire stock — then trading at 3x book value — to pay for the insurance giant. By March 2000, Berkshire shares had fallen to just 105% of book value. “By this point,” as Bloomstran put it, “the Buffett premium was long gone [and] no Buffett premium existed for the next quarter century.”
Greg Abel wrote that “safety remains the top priority” at BNSF Railway — and, on that front, 2025 was a banner year. In fact, 2025 ranked as the best safety year in the railroad’s 177-year history. BNSF’s injury frequency rate dropped by 16%, along with a 13% reduction in rail equipment incidents. To keep safety top of mind, the railroad bestows prestigious Safety Bell Awards on its top-performing teams. These brass bells, preserved from historic steam locomotives, are kept by the safest teams for a year before being passed on to the next winners. BNSF’s Powder River Division claimed the top prize for Best Overall Safety in 2025.
Someday I will have good news about PacifiCorp — but it won’t be today. The beleaguered Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary got socked with another big wildfire-related verdict last week. One notably larger than prior awards to plaintiffs. An Oregon jury ordered PacifiCorp to pay $305 million — $19 million per plaintiff — which far outpaces the historical average of ~$5.5 million from earlier trials.
“Today’s verdict is an irresponsible outcome related to damages caused by a fire that PacifiCorp did not start or contribute to as determined by the Oregon Department of Forestry,” the utility said in a statement. “This is why we have been and will continue to challenge these verdicts.”
This outsized award might also bring with it negative credit implications. S&P Global placed PacifiCorp on CreditWatch for an imminent ratings decrease. If $19 million per plaintiff awards become the norm, S&P says it will likely downgrade PacifiCorp’s long-term issuer credit rating by two or more notches to junk status.
Occidental Petroleum’s STRATOS Direct Air Capture facility is now in the final stage of startup. Oxy subsidiary 1PointFive shared on LinkedIn that Phase 1 should go online sometime in the second quarter, with operational ramp-up of Phase 2 throughout the rest of the year. Once fully up and running, STRATOS (located in the Permian Basin) could capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
A must-read from The Rational Walk on Berkshire’s future. “Mr. Abel strongly alludes to the hope that he will have a multi-decade run at Berkshire,” he wrote, “and I look forward to observing how his management of the business evolves over time. He passed the first test of his leadership quite well with this letter and watching him as the main figure on stage at the upcoming annual meeting will be interesting. I suspect that in 2040, Berkshire shareholders will likely view Mr. Abel’s tenure with the same admiration that Apple shareholders no doubt view Tim Cook’s record.”
And, in closing, Berkshire collected a couple of smaller dividends this week: $17.5 million from Kroger and $5.6 million from Visa.
What an excellent initiative by Abel! If that's not having skin in the game, then I don't know what is.
Many commenters miss that the Buffett premium has been replaced by the Berkshire premium. How many other companies view shareholders as partners. They want liquidity, which means a continual turnover of shareholders. Warren carefully attracted owners who will take the time to understand the business. We’ve made a lot of money by doing that!