Warren Buffett tours the grounds on the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha Nebraska.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Berkshire Hathaway shares slipped Monday, despite hitting an all-time high following strong earnings from Warren Buffett’s conglomerate over the weekend.
Berkshire’s Class A shares last fell by 2.2%. Earlier within the session, the stock reached an all-time intraday high of $647,039, in keeping with FactSet data. The shares settled at $615,356.
Meanwhile, Class B shares declined by 1.9%. At one point, the stock hit an intraday record high of $430. It closed down at $409.14.
Berkshire on Saturday posted fourth-quarter operating earnings of $8.481 billion, about 28% higher than the $6.625 billion from the year-ago period, driven by big gains in its insurance business. Operating earnings refers to make the most of businesses across insurance, railroads and utilities.
Meanwhile, Berkshire’s money levels also swelled to records. The conglomerate held $167.6 billion in money within the fourth quarter, surpassing the $157.2 billion record the conglomerate held within the prior quarter.
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Berkshire Hathaway Class A
But one analyst said he expects that the stock is fairly valued, saying any upside from the conglomerate’s rosy earnings outlook is already priced into the name.
“BRK shares have significantly outperformed financial services peers during 2023, supported by a comparatively strong earnings outlook. We proceed to expect solid earnings from BRK’s diverse group of operating corporations,” Edward Jones’ James Shanahan wrote Saturday. “In our view, nevertheless, the present share price reflects these positives.”
Actually, the billionaire investor said in his annual letter also released this past weekend that he expects Berkshire will only barely outperform the typical company from here on, especially because the conglomerate reaches a net price of 6% of the whole S&P 500 corporations.
‘With our present mix of companies, Berkshire should do a bit higher than the typical American corporation and, more necessary, must also operate with materially less risk of everlasting lack of capital,” Buffett said. “Anything beyond ‘barely higher,’ though, is wishful pondering.”
Buffett added that only a handful of companies are prone to “truly move the needle” for the firm through acquisitions. The last major deal Berkshire made was in 2022, when it bought insurer and conglomerate Alleghany for $11.6 billion.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Chris Hayes contributed to this report.
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