Berkshire Hathaway Started Buying Back Its Own Stock Again This Year. Should You Buy It at a Record High?

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKA)(NYSE:BRKB) stock is finally back at a record. On Oct. 20, the Class B shares ended at $539.82, inching past a record close from May 2, 2025 -- the day before Warren Buffett told shareholders he planned to hand the CEO job to Greg Abel.

As I write, the shares trade near $548, up about 9% this year.

The new high comes in a year when Berkshire has gone back to buying its own stock. It repurchased nothing in 2025. In the first half of 2026, its buybacks came to around $4.8 billion. And it only buys if its CEO thinks the shares cost less than the business is worth.

But Berkshire paid around $476 to $488 a Class B share in May and June. With the stock at least 12% higher today, is it still a buy?

Image source: Getty Images.

Berkshire bought more as the year went by

The buying started small. In March, Berkshire repurchased around $234 million of stock at an average of about $487 a Class B share, according to its first-quarter 10-Q.

Then it sped up. After a quiet April, Berkshire spent around $740 million on shares in May at an average Class B price of about $476, and about $3.8 billion in June at about $488, for a second-quarter total of about $4.5 billion. And the cover of the second-quarter 10-Q suggests the buying kept going. Berkshire had around 4,550 fewer Class A-equivalent shares outstanding on July 29 than on June 30 (one Class A share equals 1,500 Class B shares).

At the $488 to $512 range where the Class B shares closed in July, these repurchased shares total about $3.4 billion of stock in under a month.

"We will buy back Berkshire shares when they trade below our estimate of intrinsic value, conservatively determined," Abel said in his first annual letter to shareholders in February.

Intrinsic value is Berkshire's term for what the whole business is worth, whatever the stock does day to day. Put another way, every month of buying was Abel saying the shares were cheap at around $476 to $488.

I'd argue these purchases tell Berkshire shareholders more about the stock's value than anything else from the company's filings this year.

A higher price tag

At around $548, the Class B shares cost about 12% more than Berkshire's average price in June and about 15% more than its average in May.

Berkshire reported $747.9 billion in shareholders' equity on June 30, up $30.5 billion from the end of 2025. That's around $348 of book value per Class B share (book value is what's left of a company's assets after subtracting its liabilities). June's average buyback price put Berkshire at about 1.4 times that book value. Today's price is nearly 1.6 times book value.

Of course, book value isn't fixed at its June figure, and more growth in the third quarter might shrink the gap.

Berkshire's third-quarter 10-Q should show how Abel sees that gap, because the filing lists buybacks month by month with the average price paid. The Class B shares closed over $500 on 44 of the 64 trading days from July through September.

If Berkshire kept buying in August and September, that might signal Abel's estimate of value has gone up with the business. If the buying ended, the prices Berkshire paid in May and June could be near the most Abel is willing to pay.

Berkshire's earnings are still growing

Showing why that estimate might have kept climbing, Berkshire's second-quarter operating earnings (which leave out the swings in its huge stock portfolio) rose 16% year over year, to around $13 billion. That's up from about $11.2 billion a year before and around $11.3 billion in 2026's first quarter. But currency shifts on Berkshire's foreign-currency debt flattered the comparison. They added an after-tax gain of $326 million in this year's second quarter, versus an $877 million loss in the second quarter of 2025. Excluding foreign exchange, operating earnings rose around 5%.

Mid-single-digit growth is still steady progress for a company this big.

Still, should you buy Berkshire stock at a record high?

I think it's worth considering, maybe a little at a time. The businesses keep growing, and Berkshire seems to have been buying its own shares as recently as July. But at almost 1.6 times book value, the stock isn't the bargain Berkshire was buying in June.

Daniel Sparks and his clients have positions in Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.