Berkshire Hathaway’s leadership transition is complete, and every income-focused shareholder is watching Greg Abel’s first moves with the company’s record cash pile.
Buffett stepped down as chairman on September 18, 2026, handing the title to his son Howard and leaving Chief Executive Officer Greg Abel in charge, CNBC reported.
Abel inherited $365.5 billion in cash and short-term Treasury bills as of June 2026, a sum large enough to fund several Fortune 500 acquisitions outright, the company’s Form 10-Q showed.
That cash pile has drawn growing calls from shareholders who viewed the leadership change as Berkshire’s moment to start paying dividends. Abel’s second-quarter spending now offers the clearest look yet at where the new leader plans to direct it.
Abel’s second-quarter spending signals where Berkshire’s cash is headed
Berkshire bought back roughly $4.5 billion of its shares in the second quarter, up from just $235 million in the first quarter, and added approximately $3.3 billion more in buybacks during July 2026, CNBC reported.
The company committed $10 billion to Alphabet through a private placement announced on June 1, 2026, reported by CNBC, marking one of the largest single equity bets in Berkshire’s history.
Macrae Sykes, a portfolio manager of the Gabelli Equity Trust (GAB), told Reuters that the buyback acceleration reflects management’s conviction that Berkshire shares are significantly undervalued, pointing to the pace of repurchases as evidence that leadership sees strong upside in the stock’s current trading range.
<strong>Warren and Greg are terrific investors, and their repurchasing shares gives me confidence in the present value of Berkshire's shares and growth of intrinsic value going forward,</strong>
Cash reserves fell from a record $397.4 billion to $365.5 billion between March 2026 and June 2026, Berkshire’s quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed.
None of that capital was directed toward a shareholder dividend, reinforcing the buyback-and-acquisition priority Abel outlined in his February letter to shareholders.
Berkshire’s 59-year dividend stance now rests on Abel’s deployment record
Berkshire has issued exactly one dividend since Buffett gained control in 1965, a ten-cent payout in 1967 that Buffett later joked he “must have been in the bathroom” for when the decision was made.
Buffett’s 19.7% compound annual return from 1965 through 2024 made the case for withholding earnings nearly impossible for shareholders to challenge, the 2024 annual shareholders’ letter showed.
The S&P 500 returned 10.4% over that same period, and the compounding gap long justified keeping earnings inside the company. Under Abel, that case now rests on his deployment results rather than on the record Buffett compiled over six decades.
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Berkshire will avoid dividends while retained dollars create more than a dollar of value, Abel wrote in his 2025 annual shareholders’ letter. The board reviews the dividend policy each year but has given no indication of planning to begin regular shareholder payments.
Cash dividends have a structural tax disadvantage because distributions are fully taxable, while buybacks trigger taxes only when shareholders sell. That penalty makes any shift toward regular distributions even less likely at a company that last paid shareholders in 1967.
Berkshire’s stock performance adds pressure on Abel’s capital strategy
Cathy Seifert, CFRA Research senior vice president, described Abel’s early tenure as a gradual assertion of authority and called the quarterly results a strong beat, Reuters reported.
Berkshire shares have gained just 1% in 2026, well behind the S&P 500’s rally of more than 11%, CNBC noted.
That performance gap complicates Abel’s case for withholding earnings, since Berkshire stock has not delivered the returns needed to justify its no-dividend policy.
Brian Meredith, Managing Director at UBS, raised his price target on Berkshire Class A shares to $906,011 with a buy rating, MarketScreener showed.
Abel’s second-quarter scorecard at a glance
The headline numbers from Berkshire’s Q2 filing underline the scale of capital Abel now has to work with, and the returns he needs to sustain if dividends are to remain off the table.
- $25.67 billion in net earnings, more than doubling the $12.37 billion from a year earlier, according to Berkshire’s quarterly filing
- Alphabet entered Berkshire’s top five equity holdings by market value, joining Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America, CNBC confirmed
- Operating earnings rose 16% to $12.98 billion, with Berkshire Hathaway Energy posting a 27% jump and BNSF railroad climbing 6%, the filing showed
How analysts are reading Abel’s early capital playbook
Abel has signaled through his stated commitments and his second-quarter spending that Berkshire’s priority will remain deploying earnings internally over distributing cash to shareholders.
Meredith’s bullish price target suggests that at least some analysts see enough upside in the current approach to justify patience from income-seeking shareholders.
Seifert characterized Abel’s leadership as measured and deliberate, suggesting that any shift in dividend policy would unfold slowly, with ample advance signaling.
That assessment points to the pace at which Berkshire’s cash reserve declines as a clearer indicator of Abel’s direction than any formal board announcement.
Related: Berkshire buys $212 million of tumbling housing stock
