TLDR
- Berkshire’s new general counsel Michael O’Sullivan bought 536 Class B shares for ~$250,000 on Wednesday.
- It’s the first insider purchase since CEO Greg Abel bought $15M in Class A stock in March.
- BRK.B is down 6.5% year-to-date, lagging the S&P 500 by roughly 14 percentage points.
- Some investors want to see more buying from Abel, whose Berkshire stake may be less than 20% of his net worth.
- Analyst consensus sits at “Hold” with a mean price target of $521.50, about 11% above current levels.
Berkshire Hathaway’s new general counsel made his first stock purchase since joining the company, buying $250,000 worth of Class B stock on Wednesday.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., BRK-B
Michael O’Sullivan picked up 536 BRK.B shares at around $468 each. He now holds 663 shares worth roughly $300,000, according to a Form 4 filing with the SEC.
O’Sullivan joined Berkshire on January 1 from Snap, filling a newly created in-house general counsel role. Before that, he spent over 20 years at Munger, Tolles & Olson — the firm co-founded by the late Charlie Munger.
The purchase is only the second insider buy this year. CEO Greg Abel bought 21 Class A shares for around $15 million on March 4, funded by after-tax proceeds from his $25 million 2026 compensation. He has pledged to do the same annually.
BRK.B closed Wednesday just below $470. The stock is down around 6.5% in 2026, while the S&P 500 is up roughly 7.6% over the same period — a gap of about 14 percentage points.
Over the past 12 months, the underperformance is even starker, with BRK.B trailing the index by around 40 points.
Berkshire’s Q1 results, reported May 2, showed total revenues of $93.7 billion, up 4.4% year over year. EPS came in at $4.68, a jump of nearly 120% from a year ago. The stock still closed down 1% the day after earnings.
Abel Under the Microscope
Abel is believed to be a billionaire, with much of his wealth tied to a $870 million cash payout from selling a 1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 2022. He currently holds 249 Class A shares worth around $175 million and some Class B shares worth about $1 million.
That Berkshire stake could represent less than 20% of his total net worth. Berkshire’s own proxy guidelines state that directors should hold a “significant investment in Berkshire relative to their resources,” and some investors feel Abel could be doing more.
At current prices, BRK.B trades at around 1.4 times Berkshire’s March 31 book value, and closer to 1.3 times the projected June 30 figure — below the average of recent years.
What Analysts Are Saying
Of the six analysts covering BRK.B, the consensus is a “Hold” — two Strong Buys, three Holds, and one Strong Sell. That’s a step down from a “Moderate Buy” rating just a month ago.
On May 6, DBS analyst Edmond Fok maintained his Hold rating with a $500 price target, implying around 6.4% upside from current levels.
The mean analyst price target sits at $521.50, about 11% above where the stock is trading now. The most bullish target on the Street is $570, which would represent upside of around 21%.
For the full year, analysts expect BRK.B’s EPS to dip 1.8% to $20.25 on a diluted basis.
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