Warren Buffett announced he is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on May 3, 2025. Buffett has been with the company since 1965. During his time as CEO, Berkshire Hathaway provided compound returns of 19.9% per year from 1965 to 2024.
This is more than double the S&P 500’s 10.4% return over the same time period. If you had invested $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, by the end of 2024, you would have had about $550 million. Even if Berkshire shares fell by 99%, it would still have outperformed the S&P 500 since 1965.
Some reports in the early 2020s showed that Buffett and Berkshire were no longer consistently outperforming the S&P 500.
Buffett announces retirement plans
However, as of May 7, 2025, Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares are up 15.2% versus the S&P 500’s loss of 4.04%.
Buffett’s departure did cause the stock to drop 5% the Monday after the weekend announcement. However, the stock has been slowly creeping upward since that drop. This may suggest that investors endorse Buffett’s hand-selected successor as CEO, Greg Abel.
It is too much to ask the first new Berkshire Hathaway CEO in 60 years to replicate Buffett’s success. However, both Buffett and Abel have tried to assure investors that nothing will change in terms of how the company is operated going forward. Only time will tell whether Abel can manage to maintain the company’s market-beating performance.
Image Credits: Photo by Abbe Sublett on Unsplash
