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In just a few weeks, Warren Buffett will no longer be CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
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A job he’s held for six decades.
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His number two, Greg Abel will take the reins.
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But this isn’t a retirement story, Buffett is still chairman of the board.
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It is, however, a succession moment for one of the most unusual, most successful companies in history.
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And for anyone who’s ever looked at the stock and wondered what it’s all about, on today’s stocks and translation, we are breaking down Berkshire basics.
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Berkshire is not a normal mega cap. It’s a holding company with three distinct engines.
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The first is its operating business. These are companies that Berkshire owns outright.
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They throw off real cash flow year after year, good times and bad, a Buffett staple.
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Engine number two is the Berkshire stock portfolio, which probably gets the most attention.
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It holds big stakes in many many public companies with Apple as the largest.
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And despite Warren saying that his favorite holding period is forever, there’s a decent amount of trading churn in the portfolio from quarter to quarter.
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And Buffett has slowly given up control over its stock picking decisions since 2010.
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Engine number three, and this is the quirky one, is Berkshire’s insurance business, including what’s called the float.
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Insurance companies collect money from premiums first and they pay claims later.
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And that in between float money can be invested.
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That’s a structural advantage that many companies do not have, and it helps explain why Berkshire can afford to be patient when others cannot.
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Now, let’s check out a Berkshire stock chart.
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And here we’re comparing Berkshire to the S&P 500 over the last five years, which includes several market cycles.
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And you can see Berkshire’s up 120% versus 80 for America’s benchmark index.
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And you can credit the higher return to Berkshire’s ability to hold up better during both the 22 bear market and during the post-liberation day sell-off earlier this year.
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And while the rest of the market started soaring in mid-April at the right of the chart, Berkshire has lagged a bit and many credit the overhang of Buffett’s departure.
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Which only means that 2026 could be a defining year for the conglomerate.
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Now let’s take a look inside at the many businesses that make up Berkshire’s own mini real economy.
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Starting with Geico, their insurance business provides a real-time risk on risk pricing across the world.
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The and through its BNSF BNSF railway, it gauges freight, shipping and industrial demand.
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And Berkshire Hathaway Energy, not surprisingly, gives a read on the energy markets, including business investment spending and the power grid.
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In manufacturing, it has precision cast parts, which provides a window into aerospace and industrial orders and demand.
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And Berkshire has a bunch of household brands from Dairy Queen to Fruit of the Loom to Brooks running shoes, along with its Mclane supply chain services business, it has many eyes on the health of the consumer.
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Finally, from services like flight safety, it gets business travel and training insights.
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So Berkshire doesn’t just track the economy, it lives inside it.
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And then it brings to us that next question, what happens next?
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As 2026 kicks off with the uh with Able at the helm, we’re going to want to pay attention to Berkshire’s capital deployment as this is always the game.
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When do they move? When do they sit on their hands? Because investors have been wondering for the last decade, when Berkshire will shell out cash for a big buyout.
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Will Greg Abel be just as willing to wait for the fat pitch?
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Meanwhile, that cash pile sits north of $300 billion dollars and it is growing.
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Next up is stock buybacks.
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Buffett has always been clear. He’s only going to buy a stock including his own when the price is attractive or wonderful.
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So watch that closely.
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Then there’s insurance discipline, the quiet engine.
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If that stays tight, the whole machine stays healthy.
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And finally, watch the communication tone and listen to that.
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We might miss the marathon Q&A sessions and watching Buffett hold court for hours like a folky Oracle behind a can of Coca-Cola, but clarity is what matters.
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And tune into the stocks and translation podcast for more jargon busting deep dives. New episodes can be found Tuesdays and Thursdays on Yahoo Finance’s website or wherever you find your podcast.