Berkshire attracts interest as it slips further behind the S&P 500

berkshire shares fell about 1% this week while the s&p 500 rose 0.6% to a fresh all-time high. the b shares now trail the benchmark by 11.3 percentage points year-to-date, up from a 9.7 point gap last week. both share classes are down 13% from their all-time closing highs set almost a year ago, just before buffett said he'd step down as ceo at end of 2025. the s&p gained 26% over the same period. the price drop is drawing some buyers. barron's andrew bary writes that at current prices "not a lot has to go right" for market-beating returns. christopher davis at hudson value partners calls berkshire the "ultimate halo company" — durable, inflation-protected, hard to replicate. ubs analyst brian meredith estimates an 8% discount to intrinsic value and expects $1.7 billion in buybacks in 2026, up from zero. greg abel will face questions at next week's annual meeting about berkshire's nearly $400 billion cash pile and its equity portfolio. the wall street journal reported abel has already unloaded stocks managed by todd combs, who left for jpmorgan. combs handled about 5% of the roughly $320 billion portfolio, so sales could total around $16 billion. berkshire's stake in apple, cut 75% since mid-2023, remains its largest holding at almost $62 billion.