(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis about Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday night.)
Berkshire Hathaway filed a definitive proxy statement with the SEC late this afternoon ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha on May 2nd.
That shows Berkshire repurchased 309 Class A shares worth about $226 million on March 4, when it resumed buybacks for the first time since May 2024. This is based on the number of shares outstanding as of March 4, the record date for the annual meeting as indicated in the proxy statement.
The company disclosed the reopening in an SEC filing dated March 5 “to ensure transparency with the leadership transition,” but did not provide further details. New CEO Greg Abel told CNBC last week that the company would not announce any future stock buybacks, other than those listed in its regular quarterly financial reports.
Warren Buffett speaks at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.
CNBC
Warren Buffett’s total annual compensation last year fell to $389,488 from $405,111 in 2024, according to his proxy statement. This is a decrease of nearly 4%. This was solely due to a reduction in the amount Berkshire paid for Mr. Buffett’s personal and home security services. His annual salary has been $100,000 for decades.
New CEO Greg Abel was paid $22 million last year, up from $21 million the year before. Last week, Abel told CNBC that he personally bought $15.3 million in Berkshire stock using his entire after-tax salary. A class stock. He plans to continue buying Berkshire stock with his annual salary “as long as I’m CEO.”
Abel’s annual salary this year is $25 million.
Berkshire insurance chief Ajit Jain’s 2025 salary will also be $22 million, up from $21 million in 2024.
Shareholders attend Berkshire Hathaway’s annual general meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, USA on May 3, 2025.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Shareholders are being asked to approve compensation paid to Berkshire’s top executives on an advisory basis. The board has asked shareholders to support its plan to hold another advisory vote on remuneration in three years.
The board is recommending a “no” vote on a shareholder proposal supported by Whistle Stop Capital that calls for a report on Berkshire’s “oversight framework for workforce and human capital management across its operating subsidiaries” to address concerns that “the company’s decentralized structure exposes it to inconsistent approaches to human capital management.”
The Board maintains that “issues related to the management of workforce and human capital are well within the scope of a company’s oversight and discretion, and decisions related to policies and practices may vary depending on geography and industry-specific concerns, risks, and opportunities.”
Buffett falls to 9th place on Forbes list of world’s richest billionaires
Warren Buffett is now the ninth richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine’s annual rankings released this week.
His net worth was $149 billion as of March 10, down from $154 billion last year, when he ranked sixth.
This year, Buffett has joined Elon Musk ($839 billion), Larry Page ($257 billion), Sergey Brin ($237 billion), Jeff Bezos ($224 billion), Mark the It trails Kkerberg ($222 billion), Larry Ellison ($190 billion), Bernard Arnault and family ($171 billion), and Jensen Huang ($154 billion).
Buffett ranks 11th in Bloomberg’s rankings with $146 billion.
Since 2006, Buffett has donated Berkshire stock, now worth about $203 billion.
If he kept them, his net worth would be around $352 billion, making him the second richest person in the world after Elon Musk.
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
Some links may require a subscription.
CNBC’s Buffett Archive Highlights
“What bothers me is that companies pay a lot of money for something mediocre” (1998)
Audience Question: Please explain the justification and rationalization of the exorbitant salaries, bonuses, allowances, executive compensation, and other benefits paid by most public corporations. (applause)
Warren Buffett: I would say this. In my own opinion, the most outrageous number is not necessarily the greatest number. What really bothers me is when companies pay a lot of money for something mediocre, and it happens all too often.
However, there is no dispute among the subsidiaries about, for example, paying large sums of compensation for superior performance. So it comes back 10 or 20 or 50 for 1.
And we believe that in public companies as well, some of our executives have added billions in market value to their companies, far more than anyone else…
I am suffering from an unreasonable salary system. And it especially bothers me when the average manager receives so much money.
What concerns me is when they design, or have designed for, systems that are very costly to the company. Maybe it’s to make themselves look good, because they want huge options themselves, but that’s why they feel they’re giving the entire company a wide range of options. So, because we want a system that is illogical for individuals, we design a system that is illogical for the entire company.
However, I don’t care about the large amount itself. I’m not saying whether individuals should or should not take them, that is, whether they want to take them or not. But I don’t mind paying a lot of money for performance.
It takes place in athletics. It’s done with entertainment. But in business, the people who get 200 hits, the people who don’t have an audience as entertainers, they’re making a lot of money because they’ve done well, and that’s how the system has evolved. And I think that’s despicable. But what I can tell you is that there’s not much you can do.
The system feeds on itself. And companies always check other companies’ proxy statements, every CEO does. And they say, “If Joe Smith is worth X, then I must be worth more.” And they say to the directors, “Sure, you’re not going to hire a below-average person, so how can you pay me a below-average salary?” And then the consultants come in and ratchet up the compensation.
And it’s not something that will go away. It’s like what we were talking about earlier about campaign finance reform. The person operating the switch is the beneficiary of this system. And it’s very difficult to change a system when the person operating the switch is reaping significant, and perhaps disproportionate, benefits from that system.
berkshire stock watch
BRK.A stock price: $734,838.94
BRK.B stock price: $490.03
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 15.79
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,056,826,445,660
Berkshire Cash as of December 31: $373.3 billion (down 2.2% from September 30)
Excluding railroad cash and outstanding Treasury bills: $369 billion (4.1% increase from September 30)
Berkshire resumed share buybacks on March 4, 2026.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise noted)
Berkshire’s Top Stock Holdings – March 13, 2026
Berkshire’s top U.S. and Japanese listed stocks by market capitalization, based on the latest closing prices.
Holdings are as of December 31, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s February 17, 2026 13F filing. However, the following cases are excluded.
A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Question or comment
If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)
If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet, you can sign up here.
I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.
— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor
