- Berkshire Hathaway is underperforming the S&P 500 in 2025.
- A look at the top Berkshire stock holdings that could be impacting the 2025 gains.
- The market’s back, and these 3 income stocks are thriving. See them here→
Legendary investor Warren Buffett has a long track record of outperforming the S&P 500 and broad stock market indexes. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK BRK has fallen behind the S&P 500 in 2025 and risks underperforming for the full year.
What Happened: The Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns numerous companies and also holds a substantial investment portfolio, which Buffett and the late Charlie Munger have managed for years.
With Buffett set to step down as CEO, the investment portfolio will shift more and more to his successor Greg Abel.
For years, Berkshire Hathaway outperformed the market, but in recent years the gap has closed and the legendary investor has been closer to the average returns of the S&P 500, which is tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY.
Year-to-date in 2025, Berkshire Hathaway is up 7.3%, trailing the 9.0% gain for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
There are numerous reasons for the underperformance, but a review of Berkshire Hathaway’s top stock holdings and their performance may reveal one of the primary reasons. Here are the current top holdings of Berkshire Hathaway's investment portfolio and their current year-to-date performance.
- Apple Inc AAPL: -12.3%
- American Express Company AXP: +4.4%
- Bank of America Corporation BAC: +9.4%
- Coca-Cola Company KO: +11.9%
- Chevron Corporation CVX: +5.5%
- Moody's Corporation MCO: +8.5%
- Occidental Petroleum Corporation OXY: -10.2%
- Kraft Heinz Company KHC: -6.8%
- Mitsubishi: +15.6%
- Chubb Limited CB: -1.2%
Of the top 10 stock holdings, four have negative returns on the year. Only three of the top holdings are outperforming the S&P 500 and the biggest gainer for the year among the top 10 stock holdings is Mitsubishi up 15.6%.
Apple, which is the largest holding of the stock portfolio, representing around 21%, is down over 12% year-to-date. The large tech giant has helped boost the performance of Berkshire Hathaway in recent years, but in 2025, it could help the conglomerate underperform the overall market.
Read Also: Why Warren Buffett Says Stocks Aren’t What He’s Really Buying
Why It's Important: Berkshire Hathaway was up 27.1% in 2024, outperforming the 24.1% gain of the S&P 500 last year. Over the past 20 years, Berkshire Hathaway has beaten the S&P 500 11 times.
However, over the last 10 years, the returns have been even, with five wins for Berkshire Hathaway and five for the S&P 500.
Berkshire Hathaway has averaged gains of 12.1% over the last 20 years, compared to 11.5% for the S&P 500.
The year 2025 could bring these numbers more into line with the S&P 500 and end Buffett's legacy of running Berkshire Hathaway on a negative note.
The good news is it's only one year, and investors will likely remember the strong returns Buffett and Berkshire had for decades before the recent underperformance.
Abel and the new Berkshire Hathaway team may need to put some of the $347 cash pile the company is holding to work to generate strong returns going forward. Recent reports suggest that Berkshire Hathaway is poised to make another move in the railroad sector.
An October 2024 Benzinga poll asked readers about Buffett's legacy.
“In 100 years, who’s going to be remembered as the most legendary investor?” Benzinga asked.
Here were the results:
- Warren Buffett: 61%
- Elon Musk: 30%
- Jeff Bezos: 6%
- Mark Cuban: 4%
The poll found that Buffett is most likely to be remembered as a legendary investor in the next 100 years by a two-to-one margin.
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