Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) has restarted share buybacks under CEO Greg Abel, and Abel personally invested $15.3M in company shares using his 2026 salary.

Abel is deploying Berkshire’s record $373.31B cash pile opportunistically rather than sitting idle like the later Buffett years, with $1.8B already committed to Tokio Marine and more purchases expected as undervalued opportunities emerge in the market.

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Many investors expected Greg Abel to rock the boat and make significant changes to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B), but that has not been the case. Instead, he has been following in the footsteps of his predecessor.

His first big move was discussed with Warren Buffett, and it was restarting share buybacks. Berkshire restarted repurchases for the first time since May 2024 (a 21-month hiatus under Buffett). It bought back stock immediately after the 10-K filing's 48-hour cooling-off period, with Abel confirming the timing and valuation were discussed directly with Buffett. Buffett was "very supportive" and called the move "so Berkshire."

He also reported a personal $15.3 million stock purchase in March. Abel used the entire after-tax value of his 2026 salary to buy 21 Class A shares and has committed to repeating this annually for as long as he is CEO. He ran the decision by Buffett and the board, with both being "absolutely supportive." This is the strongest possible skin-in-the-game signal.

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Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) has consistently lagged the broader market by a big margin. Buffett said buying this stock was one of his biggest mistakes, but he kept holding, perhaps because he saw more potential down the line.

Abel is yet to exit this KHC position, but we are seeing signs that this is about to happen.

Kraft Heinz filed an SEC prospectus supplement registering Berkshire's entire 325.4 million-share stake (27.5% ownership) for potential resale "from time to time." This was the first formal step under Abel's leadership that signaled Berkshire was no longer treating the investment as permanent. It triggered immediate market speculation of a full exit and sent KHC shares down sharply.

Last month, Abel stated that Berkshire doesn't have any immediate plans to sell the KHC stake after KHC's new CEO Steve Cahillane paused the planned split of the company into two separate entities (a move Buffett had publicly criticized).

Regardless, intervening in such a bold fashion isn't very Buffett-esque.

Berkshire Hathaway does not buy anything that it deems overvalued, and this includes its own shares. Buffett himself has religiously bought back more and more BRK stock during his tenure as CEO until the stock started getting hot, hence the "hiatus". He then started building up a cash pile that reached a record $373.31 billion last year. One can speculate that Buffett started being bearish on the broader market, which was the rationale for pausing buybacks and sitting on a pile of treasuries for quarters.

My inkling is that Abel will start to use that cash starting Q1.

Considering he has started buybacks of BRK stock already, there's no reason for him not to buy other stocks opportunistically, too. There was a $1.8 billion Tokio Marine stake reported late March. You're likely to see more big-name purchases once the 13F comes out.

I see the resumption of Berkshire Hathaway being proactive with its cash as a bullish buy signal. The market may be at a precarious time today, but that has historically been the right time to buy. Even major tech software stocks are trading at some 20 times forward earnings despite having hypergrowth sales metrics. Even Buffett would not have let this opportunity slide away.

You shouldn't expect the market to correct back to 2019, which is what many AI bears are waiting for before they dip their toes in the market. A pause in the AI rally has been enough for most Big Tech companies to see their financials catch up and turn them into bargains.

Berkshire is likely taking advantage of the current downturn in certain pockets of the market.

BRK stock itself is down 3.3% year-to-date, but I expect it to close above $600 by year-end.

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