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Berkshire’s New CEO Puts His Money—and the Company’s—Where His Mouth Is
By Mackenzie Tatananni and Andrew Bary
Updated March 05, 2026 9:53 am EST / Original March 05, 2026 7:46 am EST
**Key Points:**
\-Berkshire Hathaway begins repurchasing its common stock, the first time since the second quarter of 2024, under its existing policy.
\- CEO Greg Abel purchases $15 million of Class A common stock, an amount equal to his after-tax annual salary.
\- During his tenure as CEO, Warren Buffett expressed a preference for reinvesting cash in equities.
Greg Abel just made his first big moves as their new CEO.
Berkshire Hathaway said in a securities filing Thursday that it had begun repurchasing stock under its longstanding buyback policy. Abel also purchased shares.
The development marks Berkshire Hathaway’s first time buying back its own stock since the second quarter of 2024, a departure from its strategy under former CEO and current Chairman Warren Buffett.
The policy allows Berkshire to buy back stock if the CEO, after consulting with the chairman of the board, determines the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value. Abel succeeded Buffett at the start of the year.
Abel suggested to CNBC in a Thursday interview that Berkshire normally wouldn’t divulge the start of a repurchase plan, but felt it was important to do so.
“I absolutely talked to Warren,” Abel said, adding that he “consulted with Warren relative to the value and the timing.”
Abel also signaled alignment with shareholders by buying Berkshire stock, telling CNBC that he plans “to continue to do this every year.”
Abel bought $15 million worth of 21 Class A shares for $15 million, the after-tax proceeds from his compensation of $25 million this year, a filing showed. The purchase on Wednesday was his first since 2023. He holds 249 A shares now worth about $189 million.
The moves boosted Berkshire stock. The Class B shares rose 1.9% to $496.36 in Thursday trading. The S&P 500 index was slightly lower.
Abel and other Berkshire executives and employees are paid in cash. There is no stock compensation; Abel must buy stock in the open market if he wants to own more.
Abel is wealthy, having sold a 1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy, where he was a senior executive for many years, back to the company for $870 million in cash in June 2022. He then bought more than $100 million of Berkshire stock later in 2022 and 2023.
Asked on CNBC about that situation, Abel said he took a portion of the after-tax proceeds of the sale to buy Berkshire stock in the open market. He could possibly have sold the BHE stake for Berkshire stock based on a financial disclosure at the time, but instead took cash.
During his tenure as CEO, Buffett expressed a preference for reinvesting cash in equities. Berkshire only paid a dividend once in its history, nearly 60 years ago.
“Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities,” Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders last February. “That preference won’t change.”
Abel looked set to continue this tradition earlier this week when Berkshire posted fourth-quarter earnings. The company closed out 2025 with more than $350 billion in cash and Treasury holdings.
However, shares tumbled on Monday after Berkshire reported a 30% drop in operating profit, fueled by underperformance in its insurance business. Insurance underwriting income plunged by more than 50% in the quarter.
Abel stressed at the time that the company wouldn’t pay dividends so long as it thought retained earnings could create more than a dollar of market value for shareholders.
“Our capital discipline guides us, whether we seek to purchase an entire business, a portion of equity in a publicly traded company, or our own shares,” Abel wrote in his inaugural shareholder letter, adding that Berkshire would stick to its approach regardless of the size of its cash pile. “We will assess value carefully, act patiently, and hold for the long term – preferably forever.”
[https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-abel-stock-price-buyback-14e9c92b](https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-abel-stock-price-buyback-14e9c92b)