Berkshire’s Class A shares closed up 0.7% at $696,502.02.
The more widely held Class B shares rose 0.9% to $464.59.
Buffett, who turns 94 on Friday, has run Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire since 1965.
The operating businesses generated $22.8 billion of profit in the year’s first half, up 26% from 2023.
“Buffett built Berkshire in a systematic, relatively low risk manner,” said Steve Check, president of Check Capital Management in Costa Mesa, California, which invests one-third of its $2 billion of assets in Berkshire stock and options.
The $1 trillion valuation is based on Berkshire’s 553,234 Class A and 1,325,192,508 Class B shares outstanding as of July 23.
Since the year Buffett took charge, Berkshire shares have gained more than 5,600,000%.
Berkshire’s Class A shares are up 28% this year, while the S&P 500 excluding dividends is up 17%.
Buffett still owns more than 14% of Berkshire despite having donated more than half his shares to charity since 2006.
Check said he became a grandfather on Aug. 16, and bought 100 Berkshire Class B shares for his grandson Zealand that day.
Class A shares of Berkshire closed at $696,502.02, up 0.7 percent. Class B shares, which are held by a larger number of people, increased by 0.9% to $464.59.
Buffett has been leading Berkshire, a company based in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1965. He will turn 94 this Friday.
The company was a failing textile company before he turned it into a colossus with dozens of old-economy businesses like the World Book encyclopedia, Brooks running shoes, Dairy Queen ice cream, BNSF railroad, Geico auto insurance, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
A $22.8 billion profit was made by the operating businesses in the first half of the year, a 26 percent increase from the previous year.
Despite selling Apple and Bank of America, which were Berkshire’s largest and second-largest stock holdings until recently, for tens of billions of dollars in 2024, the company still has a sizable stock portfolio.
The sales, mostly in the U.S., are a significant factor in Berkshire’s cash hoard. S. As of June 30, Treasury bills had surged to $276.9 billion. Additionally, Berkshire has reduced the rate at which it is buying back its own stock.
Check Capital Management, based in Costa Mesa, California, which allocates a third of its $2 billion in assets to Berkshire stock and options, president Steve Check, said of Buffett’s “systematic, relatively low risk manner” in which the company was built. Being such a large conglomerate, there will always be successful segments. “. .
Based on Berkshire’s outstanding 553,234 Class A and 1,325,192,508 Class B shares as of July 23, the $1 trillion valuation was calculated.
Berkshire stock has increased by more than 5,600,000% since Buffett took over in that year.
There did not seem to be a single catalyst driving Wednesday’s gains. This year, Berkshire’s Class A shares have increased by 28%, compared to a 17% increase in the SandP 500, no dividends included.
Buffett has donated over half of his Berkshire shares to charities since 2006, but he still holds more than 14 percent of the company.
According to Forbes magazine on Wednesday, with a $146 billion fortune, he is currently the sixth richest person in the world.
According to Check, he became a grandfather in August. 16, and on that day purchased 100 Berkshire Class B shares for his grandson Zealand.
The market capitalization reached $1 trillion, and the stock is arguably as fully priced as it has been since before the 2008 financial crisis, so investors should probably hold off on making a purchase, he said. For an investor with a ten-year time horizon, it is a wise investment. “.
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Cynthia Osterman, Nick Zieminski, Franklin Paul, and Jonathan Stempel provided the reporting from New York.
