Apr 28, 2026
When Warren Buffett handed the keys to Greg Abel at the start of 2026, Berkshire Hathaway investors were nervous but hopeful.
Four months in, the mood is turning. From the start of the year to when markets closed April 27, Berkshire's B shares — the cheaper, non-voting shares most retail investors buy — have underperformed the S&P 500 (1) by approximately 10 percentage points (2).
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That divergence is not entirely surprising. Berkshire is still sitting on a lot of cash, and the broader market's recent gains have been largely driven by the kind of high-growth tech stocks Berkshire continues to avoid.
On top of that, there's the departure of arguably the most celebrated investor of all time. For many investors, Berkshire without Buffett is simply a harder sell and the clock is ticking for the new CEO to convince markets he's a worthy successor.
This Saturday, Abel will face shareholders for the first time as CEO at the Omaha annual meeting, eager to convince a restless crowd that they are in good hands. The pressure couldn't be higher.
Weakening sentiment
Investors have been jumping ship ever since it was made public that Buffett would stand down and Abel would take his place. Berkshire's B shares have fallen roughly 12% (3) from their all-time closing highs hit just before Buffett announced his retirement last May. Over that same period, the S&P 500 has gained 26% (4).
On Reddit (5), investors have been voicing their frustrations. "Today is a day ending in Y, so you know what that means? BRK is red," wrote one user. Another put it more bluntly: "It's literally Abel's last chance for many of the remaining investors, the ones who didn't already fly the coop when Warren stepped down, made him CEO and gave him a fat raise."
Some of that frustration is grounded in hard numbers. Berkshire's Q4 2025 earnings, released in March, disappointed, with operating EPS missing analyst estimates by nearly 9% (6).
But that all happened under Buffett's watch. The deeper driver of the sell-off appears to be something out of Abel's control: the narrowing of the Buffett premium — the extra value markets assigned to Berkshire simply because of who was running it.
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What has Abel done?
Abel has only been CEO for roughly 100 days, but he hasn't been sitting still. Key moves include:
- Expanded Berkshire's presence in Japan, buying a 2.49% stake in Tokio Marine (7).
- Restarting the program to repurchase shares when they trade below their intrinsic value (8).
- Joined a US government-backed syndicate insuring ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most dangerous shipping corridor, signalling a greater appetite for risk (9).
- After Todd Combs departed for JPMorgan Chase, Abel unloaded an estimated $16 billion of his positions and took direct control of 94% of Berkshire's equity portfolio — without hiring a replacement (10).
- Unlike Buffett, who gave managers near-total autonomy, Abel has been visiting subsidiaries and setting clear performance targets (11).
- Committing to investing his entire after-tax salary in Berkshire stock every year he serves (12).
The case for and against
The bear case is straightforward. Without Buffett, Berkshire loses its glamour and patience becomes harder to demand.
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The nearly $400 billion cash pile increasingly looks like paralysis to frustrated investors. "If I see Abel again with that smirk, talking about adding more to that cash pile, that'll be my sell trigger," wrote one Reddit user (5).
Moreover, Berkshire's size makes outperformance difficult and managing 94% of a $320 billion portfolio solo is no small task, particularly when impatient investors expect failure from the outset.
The bull case is equally compelling. Several analysts have suggested the selloff has left Berkshire undervalued. Christopher Davis of Hudson Value Partners called the stock a "coiled spring" and Barron's Andrew Barry argued, "not a lot has to go right… to generate market-beating returns (10)."
Berkshire is a well-oiled cash machine and when the right opportunities arise, that infamous $400 billion could drastically boost earnings.
On Saturday, Abel needs to convince skeptical shareholders once again that Berkshire is in safe hands, still fundamentally the same business without Buffett and that investors will be rewarded for keeping the faith.
As longtime Berkshire shareholder Chris Bloomstran put it: "I won't be able to evaluate how good he is until we get the next deep recession (11)." But not all investors are that patient.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Yahoo Finance (1),(2),(4); Macrotrends (3); Reddit (5); Zacks (6); Reuters (7); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (8); TheStreet (9); CNBC (10); The Wall Street Journal (11); Business Insider (12)
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Daniel Liberto is a financial journalist with over 10 years of experience covering markets, investing, and the economy. He writes for global publications and specializes in making complex financial topics clear and accessible to all readers.
