Berkshire Q2 Buyback Scale Estimated at $5–11 Billion
N.R. Finch
Barron's estimates Berkshire Hathaway repurchased $5 billion to $11 billion of its own stock in Q2, up from just $235 million in Q1 — a signal that management sees the shares as meaningfully undervalued.
Where does this buyback estimate come from?
Buffett filed a securities disclosure Tuesday, reporting stock donations to four family foundations — and inadvertently revealing his latest share count.
As of July 14, Buffett held 188,290 Class A shares, a 13.2% stake. That implies roughly 1,426,446 total shares outstanding (A-share equivalent), down more than 11,000 from the April 14 proxy.
This means → the missing shares were repurchased and retired. Barron's multiplied the difference by the period's average price to arrive at the buyback figure.
In plain terms = Buffett didn't announce the buyback; a donation filing leaked his share count, and the math did the rest.
Why is the estimate range so wide?
The 13.2% stake is rounded to one decimal place, so the true figure could be anywhere from 13.16% to 13.24%.
Using the April 14–July 14 average Class A price of roughly $721,000, the midpoint implies about $8 billion in buybacks — but the low end is $5 billion and the high end $11 billion.
This means → a rounding gap of 0.04 percentage points translates to a $6 billion swing. The imprecision isn't sloppy math — it's the limit of what the filing discloses.
How does this compare to Q1?
Berkshire had virtually paused buybacks for nearly two years. It restarted in March, but Q1 repurchases totalled just $235 million, with zero buybacks in the first two weeks of April.
Even the low end of the Q2 estimate — $5 billion — is more than 20 times the Q1 figure.
This reflects a clear shift in management posture — from waiting on the sidelines to buying aggressively.
How much firepower does Berkshire have?
Cash reserves currently sit near $400 billion. Market capitalisation is roughly $1 trillion.
In plain terms = on cash alone, Berkshire could theoretically buy back $50 billion+ per year without straining the balance sheet.
This means → even at $11 billion, Q2 buybacks consumed less than 3% of cash on hand. The arsenal is far from depleted.
Where does the stock trade now?
As of Thursday, Class A shares stood at $735,421, down about 2% year-to-date versus the S&P 500's roughly +11% total return — a notable underperformance.
The current price-to-book ratio is about 1.4×, near the low end of recent years. The peak was 1.8× in May 2025, before Buffett announced he would step down as CEO at year-end.
This reflects a lingering "post-Buffett discount" — and management's answer is to buy back stock at an accelerating pace.
When will the exact number be confirmed?
Berkshire is expected to release Q2 earnings and its 10-Q filing around August 1, which will include the official buyback figure.
At that point the $5–$11 billion estimate will be verified or revised. If the actual number lands near the high end, it would rank among Berkshire's largest single-quarter repurchases ever.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.