By Krystal Hur

Berkshire Hathaway's Greg Abel kicked off the company's annual shareholders meeting with a tribute to Warren Buffett as Abel tries to demonstrate the operational chops that made him the choice to succeed Berkshire's longtime leader.

"Good morning, and welcome to Omaha," Abel said from the CHI Health Center arena on Saturday morning.

Abel, who succeeded Buffett in January, took the stage to address shareholders for the first time as Berkshire's CEO. In his opening remarks, he assured the crowd that the culture Buffett built wouldn't change, before walking them through the first-quarter results.

The new CEO also said some of Berkshire's operations, including its railway, BNSF, were starting to use artificial-intelligence tools.

"We're not going to do AI for the sake of AI," Abel said. "At this point in time, we're using it to solve logical problems in our businesses."

Abel has already started to make changes: elevating deputies who worked closely with him and strengthening Berkshire's interests in Japan. But he faces an investor base that is still in wait-and-see mode over what the Abel era will mean for the company's stock.

Berkshire's Class A shares have declined 12% since hitting a record the day before Buffett announced his retirement at last year's meeting, and have underperformed the benchmark S&P 500 index in that time.

As Abel spoke, Buffett watched from the first row of the arena, alongside Berkshire's other directors.

The crowd applauded as Buffett entered the room and walked to his seat in the minutes leading to Abel's appearance, and again when Abel directed the crowd to a giant "Buffett" jersey as it was raised to the rafters alongside another honoring Buffett's longtime business partner, Charlie Munger. Munger died in 2023.

"This is not my show today," said Buffett, 95. "Greg is doing everything I did and then some, and he's doing it better in all cases. He's the right person."

Buffett also addressed Berkshire's Apple stake opened a decade ago, noting the consumer-electronics giant's recent 50th anniversary and praising its outgoing CEO, Tim Cook. Cook, who recently announced his retirement plans, was also in the crowd.

The tone of the meeting was expected to differ from previous years. While shareholders often plied Buffett and Munger with questions about everything from the company's many subsidiaries to life to politics, shareholders said they expected this year's business to be more down to business.

Some attendees noted that this year's crowds appeared thinner than in previous years. Abel joked that when Buffett announced his retirement last year, his first thought was wondering who outside of the directors and his family would come to the arena, already booked for the next meeting.

During Abel's discussion of Berkshire's key businesses, which ran nearly a half-hour longer than expected, some shareholders were spotted leaving the arena.

Ahead of the meeting, Berkshire reported quarterly profits that more than doubled from a year earlier.

Net income rose to $10.11 billion, or $7,027 per Class A share equivalent, from $4.6 billion, or $3,200 per Class A share, a year ago. The net results benefited from a sharp drop in investment losses from a year ago.

Berkshire Hathaway's quarterly profit more than doubled during the company's first quarter under Abel, paced by stronger results from its insurance and railroad operations.

The net results benefited from a sharp drop in investment losses from a year ago.

Berkshire's pile of cash and Treasury bills rose to a record $381.1 billion after accounting for a payable for purchasing some of the short-term government debt, a nearly 2% increase from the $373.1 billion tallied at the end of 2025.

The company was a net seller of stocks for a 14th consecutive quarter, though it bought back some of its own stock for the first time since 2024.

Berkshire reported earnings ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. Abel and some of his lieutenants will spend the day fielding questions from the CHI Health Center convention arena.

The quarterly results are the first under Abel's stewardship of the company, after he took over for Warren Buffett in January. It is also Abel's first shareholder meeting as Berkshire's top executive, with Buffett sitting in the crowd with the company's other directors.

Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose 18% to $11.35 billion from $9.64 billion last year.

Berkshire reported higher profits from its railroad, energy, and manufacturing, service and retailing arms. The company also earned more from insurance-underwriting operations.

Buffett has said that operating earnings are the better measure of the company's performance, because accounting rules require Berkshire to include unrealized gains and losses from its giant investment portfolio in its net income. That means that short-term fluctuations in the stock market can cause large swings in quarterly earnings.

Berkshire sold $24.1 billion of equity securities during the March quarter and bought $15.9 billion in the same period. American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola and Chevron remain Berkshire's largest holdings.

The company repurchased 33 shares of its own Class A stock during the quarter and 431,462 of Class B, breaking a six-quarter streak in which it didn't buy back any stock. Abel said in a regulatory filing earlier this year that he personally bought about $15 million in Berkshire shares and plans to purchase more annually.

The company is set to disclose more specifics on its stock portfolio in a regulatory filing later this month.

Berkshire's Class A shares reached a record of $809,350 exactly a year ago, the day before Buffett announced he was stepping down as chief executive. Shares have fallen 5.9% this year, closing Friday at $710,300. The S&P 500 index has gained 5.6%.

Write to Krystal Hur at krystal.hur@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 02, 2026 11:24 ET (15:24 GMT)

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