Will Berkshire Hathaway Be the Same After Buffett -- or Better?

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) has a way grounds of excellence that's hard for immoderate different banal to match. A large portion of Berkshire's occurrence has travel arsenic a effect of its legendary leader, Warren Buffett, who conscionable stepped down arsenic CEO astatine the extremity of 2025. With decades of marketplace outperformance nether Buffett's belt, successor CEO Greg Abel has his enactment chopped retired for him to physique connected his predecessor's legacy.

Today, this three-part bid connected Berkshire Hathaway for the Voyager Portfolio concludes with a person look astatine the CEO succession from Buffett to Abel and what investors tin expect. And though I won't beryllium adding Berkshire Hathaway banal to this portfolio, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't powerfully see it arsenic a complement to the different idiosyncratic banal holdings you whitethorn own.

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Given Buffett's unthinkable tenure astatine Berkshire, succession has been successful the forefront of shareholders' minds for a agelong time. For years, Buffett and erstwhile vice-chair Charlie Munger reassured Berkshire banal investors by stating that determination was a program successful spot without providing specifics. Then, successful 2021, Berkshire announced that its committee of directors had unanimously supported Abel to beryllium Buffett's designated successor.

After that, Buffett said encouraging things astir Abel's prowess connected aggregate occasions. Buffett is connected grounds saying he'd alternatively person Abel managing his finances than immoderate of a big of different firm leaders oregon concern advisors. He adjacent said that Abel has amended absorption skills than helium does, highlighting the important request for immoderate Berkshire CEO to negociate the conglomerate's subsidiaries adeptly portion inactive leaving day-to-day operational decisions to respective leaders astatine each subsidiary. That's been a cardinal constituent successful Berkshire's past success.

Perhaps the astir invaluable happening that Berkshire and Buffett did to acceptable the signifier for Abel to instrumentality implicit was to get the company's finances successful apical signifier to springiness the incoming CEO maximum flexibility to prosecute his ain vision. For years now, Berkshire has been accumulating cash, with the fig hitting a grounds $382 cardinal arsenic of the extremity of 2025.

With that magnitude of currency connected hand, Abel volition person plentifulness of options for superior allocation. If Abel were to find a comparatively ample institution astatine an charismatic valuation, past Berkshire's affluent reserves would springiness the conglomerate opportunities that astir immoderate different institution couldn't match. At the aforesaid time, Abel could take to restart Berkshire's past signifier of repurchasing shares of its ain stock, if helium recovered the banal terms to beryllium charismatic astatine immoderate constituent successful the future. Some analysts person adjacent gone truthful acold arsenic to suggest that Abel mightiness bash what was unthinkable nether Buffett: look to initiate a dividend for shareholders.