Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett expressed that his expansive conglomerate might only marginally surpass the average American company, primarily due to its vast size and the scarcity of impactful buying opportunities available.
The Omaha-based behemoth, encompassing holdings ranging from BNSF Railway to Dairy Queen and maintaining a 6% stake in Apple, boasts the largest net worth of any American business. Buffett noted in his annual letter, released on Saturday, that Berkshire Hathaway’s net worth has now reached 6% of the total value of the S&P 500 companies.
Buffett conveyed, “There remain only a handful of companies in this country capable of truly moving the needle at Berkshire, and they have been endlessly picked over by us and by others.” He continued, “Some we can value; some we can’t. And, if we can, they have to be attractively priced.” The most recent significant transaction Berkshire engaged in was the acquisition of insurer and conglomerate Alleghany for $11.6 billion in 2022.
Additionally, the renowned investor, often referred to as the “Oracle of Omaha,” secured a 28% stake in energy giant Occidental Petroleum while dismissing the notion of acquiring the entire company. However, these actions, though noteworthy, fell short of fulfilling the anticipation of an “elephant-sized” target that Buffett had been aspiring to attain for years.
As of the fourth quarter, Berkshire held a record $167.6 billion in cash. Buffett remarked, “Outside the U.S., there are essentially no candidates that are meaningful options for capital deployment at Berkshire. All in all, we have no possibility of eye-popping performance.”
Despite this, Berkshire did accumulate a 9% stake in five Japanese trading companies—Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo—which Buffett intends to retain for the long term. At 93 years old, Buffett asserted that Berkshire’s assortment of diversified, high-quality businesses should yield “slightly better” performance than the average U.S. company, but he deemed anything beyond that as improbable.
He stated, “With our present mix of businesses, Berkshire should do a bit better than the average American corporation and, more importantly, should also operate with materially less risk of permanent loss of capital. Anything beyond ‘slightly better,’ though, is wishful thinking.” Berkshire Hathaway recently achieved consecutive record highs, with its Class A shares trading above $620,000 and boasting a market value exceeding $900 billion.
In 2024, the conglomerate’s stock appreciated approximately 16%, surpassing double the return of the S&P 500, following a 16% increase throughout 2023.
