Berkshire Hathaway trails S&P 500 by 12.4 points after first half of 2026

Berkshire Hathaway's B shares finished the first half of 2026 down 1.8 percent, trailing the S&P 500's 10.7 percent gain by 12.4 percentage points. Including dividends, the S&P 500 rose 11.4 percent, widening its lead to 13.1 percentage points. Berkshire narrowed the deficit by nearly one-third during June after trailing by 17.5 points on June 1.

Second-quarter performance Berkshire posted a gain of slightly more than 3 percent in the first 40 days of the second quarter. The S&P 500 advanced 16 percent over the same period, erasing Berkshire's 1.8-point lead from the end of March. Last year Berkshire underperformed the S&P 500 by 5.5 points excluding dividends and by 7.0 points when dividends were included.

Cash position and share repurchases Berkshire held $397.4 billion in cash as of March 31, up 6.5 percent from December 31. After excluding rail cash and subtracting Treasury bills payable, cash stood at $380.2 billion, a 3.0 percent increase. The company repurchased $234 million of its shares during the first quarter of 2026.

Portfolio holdings Berkshire's largest disclosed U.S. and Japanese stock holdings as of March 31 appear in its May 15 13F filing. Alphabet includes an additional $10 billion in shares Berkshire agreed to purchase directly from the company on June 1; the transaction has not yet been formally disclosed as completed. Mitsubishi holdings are reported as of April 30.