Warren Buffett is no longer with us. Berkshire has now become Greg Abel’s show.

Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders weekend in Omaha, Nebraska will be familiar to many Berkshire Hathaway investors.

Shopping discounts The 5K race. Tens of thousands like-minded investors and Berkshire supporters. This is the largest corporate shareholder meeting in America.

Warren Buffett is going to be there. For the first time since 1960, it won't be him in the spotlight.

This weekend marks the first time since the Oracle of Omaha handed over Berkshire's CEO reigns to Greg Abel. Abel will lead the annual meeting on Saturday. Buffett will remain chairman and listen to the audience. Abel is praised for his leadership skills and dedication to Berkshire’s culture. However, Berkshire shares are underperforming the S&P 500 ever since Buffett announced abruptly last year that he would be stepping down. Berkshire shares are down 12% while the S&P 500 is up 25%.

It was overpriced last year. Steve Check, an experienced Berkshire investor with Check Capital Management, Costa Mesa, California, said that the stock is no longer overpriced. "Overall, we're still big fans." Berkshire's stock trades around 1.4x book value based on financial reports, but Buffett preferred intrinsic value in deciding whether or not to repurchase the company's own shares. Abel began buybacks again in March. This was Berkshire’s first stock repurchase since May 2024. Berkshire said little or nothing on how tariffs and higher oil prices, as well as record-low consumer confidence, impact specific businesses.

Lawrence Cunningham is a law and governance professor at the University of Delaware who has written many books about Berkshire. He said, "Some investors might want to see Greg prove himself before they double their bets." I'm confident but the market is showing caution."

Berkshire has not commented on this article.

Many investors travel a long way to attend Berkshire’s weekend. However, this may be less frequent now that Buffett is no longer performing.

According to Visit Omaha, in 2025, 95% of hotel rooms will be booked on weekends for Douglas County, Nebraska. Hotel reservations have been slightly down this year due to fewer international guests.

Ernie Goss is a regional economist and professor at?Creighton University. He said, "When you ask, 'OK what do know about Omaha', the answer will be Warren Buffett." "I cannot think of any other city the size of Omaha that you could identify with one individual."

CHALLENGES ABOUND

Buffett has built Berkshire to be a conglomerate worth approximately $1.03 trillion, with dozens of companies, such as Geico auto insurance, the BNSF railway,?Berkshire Hathaway Energy?, Clayton mobile homes?, Dairy Queen ice-cream?, Fruit of the Loom? underwear?, Pilot truck stops?, and Squishmallows? plush toys?

Abel, who is more hands-on than most and is less willing to overlook underperformance, is also committed to Berkshire’s culture that allows managers to work without interference on a daily basis.

He faces many challenges. Berkshire Cash, estimated to be $373 billion by 2025, is perhaps the biggest challenge.

"That will play an important role in Berkshire’s future," said Paul Lountzis of Lountzis Asset Management, a Pennsylvania-based asset management firm, who was attending his 34th Berkshire Annual Meeting. Many of Berkshire’s businesses are highly predictable. With a $1 trillion valuation, it is big and makes it difficult to grow.

Although Berkshire paid $9.5 billion in January for Occidental Petroleum’s chemicals business it hasn't made a significant acquisition in a decade or paid a?"dividend" since 1967. Investors believe that Berkshire will remain a lender or buyer of last resort as long as Buffett is alive, just like when it invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2025, growth in most businesses stagnated. Revenue was basically unchanged, but operating profit dropped 6%. Lountzis, who's largest investment is Berkshire?, said Abel could consider selling smaller businesses or those that are lagging.

Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio of approximately $300 billion dollars includes Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and five Japanese trading companies.

Abel, despite a lack of formal experience in managing stocks, now oversees 94% of the portfolio. He has inherited much of what Todd Combs managed before he left for JPMorgan Chase in December. Ted Weschler was once considered to be in line to run the entire portfolio. He now oversees only 6%.

NEW PEOPLE, NEW FOCUS

More than two dozen Berkshire companies will be promoting their products in the arena and convention centre where the annual meeting is held this weekend. Dairy Queen will serve 26,300 ice-cream bars. It is usually sold out.

The meeting itself is going to be different.

Abel will talk for an hour about Berkshire. This is a brand new feature. He will spend the next 2-1/2 hours answering shareholder questions with help from Ajit Jain (insurance chief), Katie Farmer, BNSF's chief, and Adam Johnson who oversees Berkshire’s consumer, retail, and services businesses.

Buffett would spend five hour answering questions with Charlie Munger, the late vice chairman who died in 2023. Their interaction was legendary as were their incisive assessments of the economy, markets, and life. This year, there will be fewer?divergences.

Visit Omaha, citing data from cellphones, said that last year, almost 30,000 people traveled over 60 miles (97km) to see Buffett. This excludes international visitors.

JasmynGoodwin, Visit Omaha executive director said: "He is part of the DNA of this city."

Check predicted that attendance would drop by half in a few years.

He said, "People came here to hear Warren and Charlie." "They really didn't come to hear about Berkshire." "I expect Abel to speak about Berkshire." Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, New York. Editing by Colin Barr and Rod Nickel.

(source: Reuters)