Berkshire Hathaway’s reported Coca-Cola holding implies $848 million in annualized dividends at the latest rate, showing how the payout compares with the decades-old purchase cost.
Berkshire’s Aug. 14 Form 13F-HR filing showed 400 million Coca-Cola shares on June 30, 2026. Coca-Cola’s quarterly dividend rose to 53 cents from 51 cents on Feb. 19, its 64th consecutive annual increase, putting the yearly rate at $2.12 a share. Applying that rate to the filing’s share count gives $848 million. Berkshire’s 2025 shareholder letter put the position’s cost basis at $1.299 billion at year-end, making the estimate 65.3% of that amount.
The calculation compares the annualized payout with what Berkshire paid for the holding. It is a yield on historical cost, not a record of cash received in 2026 or the shares’ annual total return.
Berkshire’s 2025 shareholder letter recorded $816 million in Coca-Cola dividends received during 2025. Its 2022 shareholder letter gave $704 million for 2022 and $75 million for 1994.
In a 1989 letter, Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman at the time, recalled first trying Coca-Cola in 1935 or 1936 and selling bottles in 1936. Berkshire made its first stock purchases in 1988, 52 years after Buffett said he began following the product. The seven-year buying effort ended in August 1994 with 400 million shares and about $1.3 billion spent.
Greg Abel, Berkshire’s CEO from Jan. 1, 2026, put Coca-Cola among the U.S. holdings Berkshire plans to keep through long investment cycles in his 2025 letter. The letter said Berkshire expected little trading in that group. Buffett became chairman emeritus Sept. 18 and remains a director.
Coca-Cola’s Tuesday, Oct. 27 results release reported $13.4 billion in net revenue for the quarter ended Oct. 2, up 7% from a year earlier. Global unit case volume increased 5%, while comparable earnings per share rose 11% to 91 cents. The company raised its full-year outlook and forecast at least 11% growth in comparable earnings per share.
