Berkshire Hathaway Inc

NYSE:BRK.BUnited States

By Andrew Bary

Warren Buffett is proud that Berkshire Hathaway has accumulated the largest shareholder equity of any American company by a wide margin.

Berkshire's equity totaled an impressive $572 billion at the end of the first quarter, way above the No. 2 company, JPMorgan Chase, which had $337 billion. Shareholder equity is a company's assets less its liabilities. It's a measure of corporate net worth.

07:39 AM EDT, 05/29/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (MT Newswires covers equity, commodity and economic research from major banks and research firms in North America, Asia and Europe. Research providers may contact us here: https://www.mtnewswires.com/contac...

Andrew Bary

The combination of a lower stock price and rising book value has made Berkshire Hathaway more appealing over the past two months.

Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares, which fell 1.1% Tuesday to $609,000, now are barely beating the S&P 500 this year after being more than 10 percentage points ahead of the index when the stock peaked at $647,000 in late February, just after the company reported fourth-quarter 2023 earnings.

Their 5%-plus yield looks attractive -- especially with the Federal Reserve unlikely to cut interest rates soon. By Andrew Bary

Investors large and small are gravitating to Treasury bills, thanks to yields of 5.4%, tax benefits, and sleep-at-night security -- and there's no reason for them to stop.