Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Addresses Record Cash Position, Buying Opportunities As It Soars To New All-Time Highs
Despite being one of America’s largest conglomerates, Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A) is famously watched by investors for its moves on the equity market. Even more so, CEO Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letters are seen as important, almost biblical readings for the Wall Street curious. That’s why, after Berkshire began selling down its stakes in equities and moving to the security of Treasury bonds, many thought Buffett was gearing up for a generational buying opportunity. In his latest shareholder letter, released Monday, he hints at as much.
Nothing remarkable at all: On Monday, the post-mortem of the company’s strong 2024 dropped, revealing Berkshire had doubled its cash position to $334.2B by year-end. The breakneck increase in cash came as Berkshire “disposed of $143B of stocks in 2024” — and the selling has continued to start 2025. Buffett says that nothing has changed in his philosophy about owning good businesses, but he says that “often, nothing looks compelling.” That’s even more the case in a richly-valued stock market like this.
- Buffett says in the letter that “very infrequently we find ourselves knee-deep in opportunities,” including lessons learned from past market meltdowns in 1987, 2000, and so on.
- He underscores that investor expectations will eventually become more realistic, and the “market adjustment is apt to be severe,” which will allow Berkshire to “deploy major amounts of cash in equity markets.”
Berkshire’s Basics
However, the timing of a correction remains a mystery. In the meantime, the firm is realizing the fruits of good calls on stocks like Apple, Bank of America, and others — it made $101B on stock sales in 2024. Those aren’t the only gains they’re realizing, either, as the organization’s core portfolio proved the true value of Berkshire’s philosophy.
- Berkshire — which owns 189 subsidiary companies like insurance goliath Geico, fast food chain Dairy Queen, and BNSF railway — recorded a record fourth-quarter profit, with profits up 71% to $14.5B.
- Full-year operating profit rose 27% to $47.4B, spurring stock to rally to an all-time high of $755.5K — pushing the market cap past $1.07T.
Forward-looking: As has been foreshadowed before, the 94-year-old Buffett says that “it won’t be long before Greg Abel replaces me as CEO and will be writing the annual letters.” Abel’s presence in Berkshire has been a known quantity for many years — and his role has become more clear since the passing of one-time Berkshire Chairman and Buffett confidant Charlie Munger last year.
