Berkshire Hathaway's Big Meeting
Introduction
Berkshire Hathaway will have its big meeting for shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska. This is the first meeting since Greg Abel became the new boss. Warren Buffett is no longer the boss. The company's stock did worse than the S&P 500. People want to know about the company's future plans.
Main Body
Berkshire's stock price went down this year. It is 11% worse than the S&P 500. Since Mr. Buffett said he would leave, the stock fell about 13 to 14 percent. But the S&P 500 went up 26 percent. Walmart is now bigger than Berkshire in market value. Some experts say Berkshire's stock is cheap now. The company has a lot of cash – 373 billion dollars. Greg Abel sold some stocks from another manager's part. He sold about 16 billion dollars of stocks. Now Greg Abel is in charge of most of the 320 billion dollar stock portfolio. The company also sold a lot of Apple stock. Apple is still their biggest investment at 62 billion dollars. Greg Abel is a different kind of leader. Warren Buffett let his companies work alone. Greg Abel wants to be more involved. For example, he has plans for the Pilot travel center business. People wonder if this change will make family businesses want to sell to Berkshire. The meeting will also have new question time with other company leaders. Many people still want to come to the meeting. The city has some new street work. People must follow new security rules. The meeting will have two question times. Mr. Buffett will not be there, but he says he supports the new leaders. He likes Tim Cook's work at Apple.
Conclusion
This meeting is very important for Berkshire. Shareholders want to know how the company will use its cash. They want to know about the new investment ideas. They want to know if the company can still do well without Mr. Buffett.