For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – August 18, 2025 – Zacks Value Investor is a podcast hosted weekly by Zacks Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec. Every week, Tracey will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. To listen to the podcast, click here: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2718611/is-the-warren-buffett-premium-over
Is the Warren Buffett Premium Over?
Welcome to Episode #414 of the Value Investor Podcast.
- (0:20) - Whats Going On With Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett?
- (4:00) - Breaking Down Berkshire Hathaway’s Stock Performance
- (24:20) - Episode Roundup: [email protected]
Every week, Tracey Ryniec, the editor of Zacks Value Investor portfolio, shares some of her top value investing tips and stock picks.
She has talked about Berkshire Hathaway, and Warren Buffett, dozens of times on the podcast. And why wouldn’t she? Buffett is the world’s greatest value investor.
But in recent months, Berkshire Hathaway has failed to break out to new all-time highs, even when the S&P 500 has done so. Instead, the shares have pulled back from their all-time highs.
In May 2025, Buffett announced he would step down from being CEO at the end of the year. He will remain on the board.
Coincidence that the shares weakened afterwards, or not?
Berkshire Hathaway Isn’t Cheap
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) has a share repurchase program, but for the last five quarters, Buffett has not bought back any shares.
Why not?
Buffett will only buy the shares if he thinks they are a good value. Berkshire Hathaway is trading with a price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 1.5. A P/B ratio under 3.0 usually designates a company has value.
But Buffett has indicated that he will only buy Berkshire shares when the P/B ratio is at 1.2 or less. Therefore, he’s not buying right now.
If he’s not willing to buy shares, why should you?
Additionally, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is stretched. Earlier this year Berkshire Hathaway traded at 26x. It’s currently trading at 22.9x after the recent weakness in the stock.
A forward P/E under 15 usually indicates value.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Wild Card: It’s Cash Hoard
By now, most of us know that Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on what is nearly its largest cash hoard ever. At the end of the second quarter, it was $344 billion, down from $347 billion at the end of the first quarter, which was the all-time high.
The cash is now 29.6% of the company’s assets. The last time it was above 20%, outside of this cycle, was in 2003-2005.
Last time the cash got high, Buffett went on to buy many distressed assets for cheap prices during the Great Financial Crisis. But this time, assuming there may be some kind of economic downturn which will again unleash some bargains, Buffett will not be the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Greg Abel will be.
Are investors on the sidelines because the Buffett premium is gone?
Tune into this week’s podcast to find out.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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