The Buffett Premium Is Real — Does That Make This An Ideal Time To Buy $BRK?

Lifelong Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A) investors don’t know a world without Warren Buffett — but with the company’s biggest fixture on the way out, loyalists and speculators are lamenting the end of the Oracle of Omaha’s near-biblical leadership of the multinational company, increasingly wary of what ‘Life After Buffett’ means after 60 years of his leadership.

• Since the Oracle of Omaha announced at his annual shareholder meeting that he would step down at the end of the year,BRK.A
  is down 8.5%, retreating from all-time highs — the S&P 500 is up 6% over that time.
• That comes despite Buffett’s assurances that the future of Berkshire is secure in the hands of Greg Abel, Berkshire’s energy chief, who has been at the center of succession talks for over a decade.

Call it the Buffett Premium: Drifting off all-time highs, many market watchers are weighing how the conglomerate — a commanding force in insurance, energy, logistics, and consumer brands, among other things — will fare this year, given macro forces. But even more, investors are curious to see how Abel’s strategy might differ from those of Buffett, who amassed a fortune thanks to smart bets on companies like Apple ($AAPL) and Coca-Cola ($KO). To that end, Berkshire’s latest quarterly positions show additions in consumer sectors as Abel awaits to take the reins of the firm and its $347.7B in cash.