Berkshire sits on $400B in cash and trails the S&P 500 by 10 points — and Greg Abel's first big test is Saturday

When Warren Buffett handed the keys to Greg Abel astatine the commencement of 2026, Berkshire Hathaway investors were tense but hopeful.

Four months in, the temper is turning. From the commencement of the twelvemonth to erstwhile markets closed April 27, Berkshire's B shares — the cheaper, non-voting shares astir retail investors bargain — person underperformed the S&P 500 (1) by astir 10 percent points (2).

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That divergence is not wholly surprising. Berkshire is inactive sitting connected a batch of cash, and the broader market's caller gains person been mostly driven by the benignant of high-growth tech stocks Berkshire continues to avoid.

On apical of that, there's the departure of arguably the astir celebrated capitalist of each time. For galore investors, Berkshire without Buffett is simply a harder merchantability and the timepiece is ticking for the caller CEO to person markets he's a worthy successor.

This Saturday, Abel volition look shareholders for the archetypal clip arsenic CEO astatine the Omaha yearly meeting, anxious to person a restless assemblage that they are successful bully hands. The unit couldn't beryllium higher.

Weakening sentiment

Investors person been jumping vessel ever since it was made nationalist that Buffett would basal down and Abel would instrumentality his place. Berkshire's B shares person fallen astir 12% (3) from their all-time closing highs deed conscionable earlier Buffett announced his status past May. Over that aforesaid period, the S&P 500 has gained 26% (4).

On Reddit (5), investors person been voicing their frustrations. "Today is simply a time ending successful Y, truthful you cognize what that means? BRK is red," wrote 1 user. Another enactment it much bluntly: "It's virtually Abel's past accidental for galore of the remaining investors, the ones who didn't already alert the coop erstwhile Warren stepped down, made him CEO and gave him a abdominous raise."

Some of that vexation is grounded successful hard numbers. Berkshire's Q4 2025 earnings, released successful March, disappointed, with operating EPS missing expert estimates by astir 9% (6).

But that each happened nether Buffett's watch. The deeper operator of the sell-off appears to beryllium thing retired of Abel's control: the narrowing of the Buffett premium — the other worth markets assigned to Berkshire simply due to the fact that of who was moving it.