Overview
- Berkshire delivered about 6,100,000% total return from 1964 to 2025, far eclipsing the S&P 500’s roughly 45,000%.
- Warren Buffett has cautioned that future long-term returns won’t resemble the company’s past performance, and skepticism has grown about outperformance ahead.
- The company holds roughly $382 billion in cash—about 35% of market value—which earns in Treasuries but weighs on overall returns.
- GEICO has lagged on profitability and technology, and Progressive recently surpassed it for the No. 2 share in U.S. auto insurance.
- The article argues that Greg Abel could improve prospects by deploying more cash into attractive investments and by resuming carefully priced share buybacks.