Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B shares climbed 8.9% in October as technology stocks weakened, giving the conglomerate’s stock a notable divergence from the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500.
Class B advanced from $497.95 at the Sept. 30 close to $542.49 on Oct. 30, a calculation from S&P Global Market Intelligence price history displayed by StockAnalysis. Over the same month, the S&P 500 declined 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3%, MT Newswires reported.
Friday’s session added a new high but gave back part of the move. Class B reached $550.47, above its previous reported high of $549.96 on Oct. 22; CNBC described the intraday level as a record. It ended the session at $542.49. Class A closed at $815,600, up about 0.25% from Oct. 23, while Class B gained about 0.06% for the week, based on S&P Global Market Intelligence price history. CNBC also reported a record Class A close of $821,931 on Oct. 26.
The Associated Press reported that the S&P 500 fell 1.8% to 7,580.07 and the Nasdaq Composite closed at 25,437 on Friday. AP linked the selloff to investor concerns about AI valuations and the scale of spending needed to pursue the technology.
Berkshire’s June 30 Form 13F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission listed 78,791,167 Alphabet Class A shares and 27,188,433 Class C shares. Because the filing covers holdings at June 30, it does not show the value of Berkshire’s position after that date or whether the company changed the position in the third quarter.
Alphabet reported third-quarter revenue of $127.577 billion, up 25% year over year, while Google Search & other revenue rose 12% to $63.350 billion. The company reported negative free cash flow of $9.065 billion, a non-GAAP measure, after capital expenditures of $51.355 billion. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the company’s results release, “Our AI investments are driving overall Search query growth, including commercial queries.”
