The annual Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK)(NYSE:BRK) shareholders meeting takes place in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday, May 2, 2026. With Warren Buffett stepping down from the CEO role at the end of 2025, this year's event will look significantly different.
Greg Abel to Lead Meeting
New Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel will lead this year's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting for the first time, with tens of thousands of shareholders in attendance looking for clues at what comes next for the conglomerate.
Buffett, who previously led the meeting and sat for audience Q&A sessions, is expected to sit with other board members in the crowd, according to the Des Moines Register. Buffett wants the focus to be less on him and more on the company after stepping down.
The annual meeting features comments and panels from key leaders across Berkshire’s divisions, as well as an opportunity for shareholders to purchase exclusive merchandise.
This year, many shareholders will be hoping that the event provides more color on what comes next for Berkshire Hathaway and if there are clues to what Abel plans to do with the company's $373 billion in stockpiled cash.
Shareholders could also get clues about what might change in the Berkshire Hathaway investment portfolio.
Abel's Early Comments Point to Upcoming Changes
Saturday's annual meeting will be the first time some shareholders hear from Abel, and his first major leadership opportunity for the company. However, it's not the first time investors have heard about what Abel has in store for Berkshire Hathaway.
One of Abel's early moves was to sell Berkshire's Kraft Heinz position. In his first shareholder letter, the new CEO criticized the fund’s stake in the consumer products company.
“Our investment in Kraft Heinz has been disappointing,” Abel said. “Even after considering the preferred equity component in our original Heinz investment, our return has been well short of adequate.”
In the shareholder letter, Abel also highlighted Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Moody's (NYSE:MCO) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) as core holdings.
“Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody’s – businesses we understand well, have a high regard for their leaders, and expect will compound over decades,” he wrote.
Abel also highlighted the conglomerate's investments in several Japanese stocks, which he said were “comparable to our major U.S. holdings in importance and long-term value creation opportunity.”
The shareholder letter criticized the underperformance of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) stock. Other top-10 holdings like Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), and Chubb (NYSE:CB) weren't mentioned.
Abel also didn't discuss any of Berkshire Hathaway's latest purchases like UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and the New York Times (NYSE:NYT).
Buffett usually lets the 13F quarterly filings do the talking when it comes to unveiling stock sales and new purchases. Abel could do things differently and use the meeting as an opportunity to discuss moves that have already been made but won't be unveiled to the public in mid-May.
“Our investment portfolio — specifically, our equity investments — will evolve and grow as opportunities arise," Abel said in the shareholder letter.
While this year's annual meeting will be different, it could be among the most important for Berkshire Hathaway’s future.
Berkshire Hathaway Stock Underperforms
Berkshire Hathaway stock trailed the S&P 500, as tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), in 2025, marking a rare miss for Buffett in his last year as CEO.
The conglomerate continues to underperform in 2026 against the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100, as shown below with the year-to-date performances of the ETFs that track the indexes.
- Berkshire Hathaway: -4.7% year-to-date
- SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust: +5.3% year-to-date
Most Berkshire Hathaway shareholders have owned the stock for years, but recent underperformance and the new direction taken by Abel could lead to some investors selling and moving on.
Photo Courtesy: IAB Studio / Shutterstock.com
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