Here’s Why Berkshire Hathaway Declined 9% in Q2

Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The first half of 2025 concluded on a remarkable note, with U.S. stocks bouncing back from earlier volatility to reach new record highs. The S&P 500® Index and the Nasdaq Composite led the recovery, both ending the second quarter at all-time peaks. In the second quarter, the strategy returned +12.40% net of fees, compared to +11.10% and +10.94% returns for the Russell 1000 Index and the S&P 500 Index, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second quarter 2025 investor letter, Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy highlighted stocks such as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B). Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) engages in the insurance, freight rail transportation, and utility businesses. The one-month return of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) was -1.90%, and its shares gained 12.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 10, 2025, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) stock closed at $478.27 per share, with a market capitalization of $1.03 trillion.

Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy stated the following regarding Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Despite hitting all-time highs early in the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (NYSE:BRK-B) stock declined 9% for the three-month period. Warren Buffett’s surprise announcement at the company’s shareholder meeting that he would retire at year-end marked the beginning of the stock sell-off. Berkshire was built intentionally to outlast Mr. Buffett so the formal announcement of his retirement doesn’t change our perspective on the business. While there may be subtle changes, we expect Greg Abel will maintain Berkshire’s core investment and capital allocation principles. The new CEO will have substantial dry powder to deploy with almost $340 billion in cash and an additional $40b in annual free cash flow. We would expect Mr. Abel to instill a material dividend policy to provide an outlet for excess cash. Stock repurchases are likely to remain opportunistic depending on Berkshire’s stock valuation relative to his and the Board’s estimate of fair value. Berkshire’s ability to deploy capital at the most opportune times, when valuations are cheap and capital is scarce, will remain an important feature with or without Buffett.”

In another article, we covered Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.