Berkshire breaks Nasdaq's data feed on its way to new record high
| Berkshire breaks Nasdaq's data feed on its way to new record high  With a gain of almost 6% in the week of trading after Saturday's annual meeting, the Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway closed today (Friday) at a new record high of $437,131.
The Class B shares also closed at a new record of $290.93.
Both classes are now outperforming the S&P 500 over the past month and the past year. (Charts below)
Barron's writes that investors are focusing on "the company's strong earnings and exposure to an improving U.S. economy," especially the "hot" housing sector, through subsidiaries Clayton Homes, Benjamin Moore, Shaw Industries, and Johns Manville.
It also notes that with Berkshire now trading at 1.5 times its March 31 book value, up from 1.1 a year ago, Berkshire's "price sensitive" stock buybacks may slow from the first quarter's $6.6 billion.
Another consequence of the Class A gains, and Buffett's refusal to split the stock, is that this week its price topped the upper limit of Nasdaq's data feed.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, to make its software more efficient and use less memory, Nasdaq uses a "compact" digital format that tops out at just under $429,497 for a stock's price.
An upgrade due on May 17 will raise that limit. In the meantime, Nasdaq has taken BRK.A out of its data feeds.
The New York Stock Exchange, where most of the trades are handled, is not affected.
Assessing Abel For those worried about succession at Berkshire Hathaway, there's some relief from this week's confirmation that Greg Abel, the vice chairman in charge of everything except insurance and investments, is Buffett's designated successor as CEO.
He's getting positive reviews. (CNBC.com's Make It has a handy "What you need to know about Greg Abel" summary, including that he was born in Edmonton and loves hockey.)
Buffett-watcher Lawrence Cunningham writes for MarketWatch that while Buffett can't be matched, Abel is "the right fit: a player and a coach who has a light-touch and makes a high-impact."
The Des Moines Register quotes a friend of Abel's as saying he's "damn near a genius" who "just wants to do the job and do it well." (Abel lives in Des Moines.)  Edward Jones analyst James Shanahan tells The New York Times, "We do have a great deal of comfort in Abel. He's proved to be a really effective leader of Berkshire Hathaway Energy"
The Wall Street Journal said investors describe Abel as "a level-headed presence likely to run the company in a similar way to Mr. Buffett."
CBS News, however, described Abel as "much more hands-on that Buffett" and said he is "known as a micro-manager," while Buffett most definitely is not.
In AP's coverage, CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert noted Abel's only two public appearances have been at Berkshire's annual meetings this year and last year. "It's difficult to sort of assess his management style because we really don't have access to him."
The Economist is ready for Abel to take the CEO job now, complaining about the "cack-handed" way the succession plan was confirmed after an apparent slip of the tongue by Charlie Munger on Saturday. ("Greg will keep the culture.")
"Mr Buffett has had a wonderful run. But now that the succession is out in the open, it is time to move aside and let Mr Abel fix what isn't working."
Still unknown, of course, is when Buffett will no longer be CEO. And while Abel is the designated successor now ("if something were to happen to me tonight"), it's possible (though seemingly unlikely) he won't be when the time comes.
The votes are in, and the ESG side showed some strength Barron's notes that Abel "orchestrated the company's big move into renewable energy as the head of Berkshire's large utility business," and spoke extensively about those efforts at Saturday's meeting.
That may be encouraging to the institutional investors backing the shareholder proposal calling on Berkshire to report on its climate-related risks and opportunities. Along with another proposal on employee diversity, it was defeated. But both picked up a solid quarter-plus of the votes cast.
BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, cast some of the votes in favor of the proposals, saying, " the company is not adapting to a world where  In an SEC filing this week, Berkshire also posted the votes for directors.
While all of them received more than 90% of the votes, the bottom four, Meryl Witmer, Susan Decker, David Gottesman, and Walter Scott, Jr. are all on the compensation committee and were targeted by the shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services due to the "continued lack of transparency" over Abel and Jain's pay packages. 
Robinhood strikes back The trading app especially popular among young people, didn't like being accused by Buffett and Munger of promoting "gambling" in financial markets.
The company tells CNBC, "There is an old guard that doesn't want average Americans to have a seat at the Wall Street table so they will resort to insults. The future is diverse, more educated and propelled by engaging technologies that have the power to equalize...
"The new generation of investors aren't a 'casino group.' They are tearing down old barriers to investing and taking control of their financial futures. Robinhood is on the right side of history,"
CNBC's Jim Cramer is on Robinhood's side. On Monday's "Squawk on the Street," he said Buffett and Munger "have contempt for millions of people who are smarter than having money in a checking account... They've attacked a generation as fools, and I disagree with it."
On "Mad Money," Cramer also said he disagrees with Buffett's recommendation that most investors should stick with low-cost index funds. "I believe in a hybrid model. I don't share Buffett's contempt for homegamers who try to pick stocks, nor do I want you to go all-in on individual stocks."
BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
The 2021 annual meeting highlight reel as posted on the CNBC Warren Buffett Archive: BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
  BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - May 8, 2021
 Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.
Holdings are as of December 31, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on February 16, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of December 31, 2020 as disclosed in New England Asset Management's 13F filing on February 16, 2021. (We'll get the end-of-Q1 holdings soon.)
In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
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