Berkshire stopped publishing book value per share
The phrase does not appear in the 10-Q or the 10-K. Every book value per share you will find for Berkshire, including this one, has been worked out by somebody from the balance sheet. Here is the figure, the arithmetic behind it, the full series since 1999, and what the multiple it implies has meant.
Berkshire no longer reports book value per share, so every figure quoted anywhere is derived, which makes the method behind it and the date it was struck part of the number.
The answer Berkshire Hathaway’s book value per share was $348.26 per Class B share at June 30, 2026, equivalent to $522,396 per Class A share. That is total Berkshire shareholders’ equity, excluding noncontrolling interests, divided by the equivalent Class B shares outstanding at the same date, both taken from the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q.
- 1 Berkshire does not publish this number. It was the headline measure in the annual report for decades and Buffett retired it in the 2018 letter. The words “book value per share” are in neither the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q nor the 2025 Form 10-K, so every figure quoted anywhere, including this one, has been derived from the balance sheet. The method is therefore part of the number.
- 2 The denominator is the whole of the difficulty. Berkshire has two share classes in a 1,500-to-one ratio, so a per-share figure means nothing until the class and the share count are stated. This one is equity excluding noncontrolling interests over the equivalent Class B shares outstanding at the same date, both read from the same filing, so the two sides of the ratio share a balance sheet.
- 3 It compounded at 10.5% a year for 26 years, from $24.55 a share in 1999 to $332.35 in 2025. The share price compounded at 10.6% over the same period, which is the whole of the long-run case for owning it. This analysis assumes approximately 10% a year continues; the first half of 2026 grew book value 4.7%, an annualised 9.7%.
- 4 Book value understates the company, and increasingly so. Operating businesses are carried at depreciated cost, so a railroad bought in 2010 and improved every year since appears on the balance sheet at less than it is worth. That gap is why the sum-of-the-parts estimate comes out at 1.49× book.
- 5 The float has shrunk as a share of the company even while growing in dollars. Float per share grew at 8.0% a year, but because book value grew faster it fell from 45% of book value to 25%. Berkshire is less of a leveraged insurance bet than it used to be.
What the estimate implies about returns
Buy at a multiple of book value and sell at the same multiple, and the return is whatever book value compounded at in between. Berkshire’s has compounded at 10.5% a year for 26 years, and this analysis assumes approximately 10% a year continues. So the base case is not a forecast of the share price, it is the price at which a buyer should expect to earn about 10% a year. Pay more and you earn less than that; pay less and you earn more, because the multiple works for you as well as the compounding.
First half 2026: book value per share rose 4.7% to $348.26 (Q2 2026 Form 10-Q), an annualised 9.7%, in line with the assumption.
How is Berkshire’s book value per share calculated?
Four lines, all of them from one filing. Taking both the numerator and the denominator from the same document is the part that matters: the cover page of a 10-Q carries a share count dated several weeks after the balance sheet it accompanies, and buybacks in between would put a smaller divisor under an older numerator.
| Step | Figure | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Berkshire shareholders’ equity | $747.9 B | Balance sheet, excluding noncontrolling interests |
| Equivalent Class A shares | 1,431,693 | Common stock note, at the balance sheet date |
| Equivalent Class B shares | 2,147,539,500 | The line above × 1,500 |
| Book value per Class B share | $348.26 | Equity ÷ equivalent Class B shares |
Two traps sit in that denominator. Use the common stock note, not the cover page: the cover page is dated weeks later and reflects buybacks the balance sheet does not. And take the prior period from the same filing instead of from last year’s annual report. A 10-Q carries a comparative column computed on the same basis, and mixing the two sources puts a methodology artefact inside the growth rate. On that consistent basis book value per share grew 4.7% over the six months to June 30, 2026.
Three lines, 26 years
Book value per share is what the balance sheet says a share owns. Book value plus float per share adds the insurance money Berkshire holds but does not own, premiums collected and not yet paid out, which is the capital the company invests for free. The price is what the market has been willing to pay.
All three compound. The useful observation is that the price line has stayed above the book line throughout, and the gap has widened: the market has spent 26 years deciding that the balance sheet understates the company.
Why the book line can fall while the company gets more valuable
Two reasons, both structural, and together they are why Buffett retired the measure in the 2018 letter. Operating businesses now dominate Berkshire and are carried at depreciated cost, so book value misses their growth entirely: the railroad bought in 2010 and improved every year since sits on the balance sheet below what it is worth.
The second reason turns the scorecard upside down. A buyback above book value but below intrinsic value reduces reported book value per share while making every remaining share more valuable. A company doing the right thing therefore reports a worse number. Both reasons argue for valuing Berkshire by summing its parts instead, which is what this site does, and why the estimate comes out at 1.49× book.
What the market has paid for a dollar of book
Book value is a discredited measure almost everywhere and a useful one here, because most of Berkshire’s balance sheet is securities carried at market instead of factories carried at depreciated cost. Dividing the price by it gives the only valuation yardstick with a long, clean history for this company.
The chart shows the full trading range each year, the high and the low, against book value as it stood at the previous year end, because that is the figure an investor could actually see at the time. The median over 26 years is 1.50×, and the range is wide: at its low in 2020 the stock changed hands at 0.93× book, while at its high in 2007 it reached 2.18×.
The takeaway A price-to-book multiple is only as good as its denominator, which is why the one above is derived in full instead of quoted. On that basis Berkshire closed 2025 at 1.64× book value against a 1.50× median, about 10% above the long-run norm, and stands at 1.6× at the October 22, 2026 close. Berkshire has been below one times book only in genuine dislocations. For where that sits against the sum-of-the-parts estimate, see what you pay in the main essay.
The same multiple, adjusted for float
A dollar of Berkshire’s book value is not comparable to a dollar of an ordinary company’s, because behind it sits float: $81.58 a share of other people’s money that Berkshire invests and keeps the returns on. Including it in the denominator gives a second multiple, and a much less alarming one.
On that basis the median comes down from 1.50× to 1.07×, and in 5 of 26 years the shares traded below one times book-plus-float, including the 2009–12 stretch after the financial crisis. 2025 finished at 1.30×, the highest reading in the series. Whether this is the right adjustment is a genuine argument: float is a liability that must eventually be paid, and it is only free while the underwriting stays disciplined.
The full series
Every figure behind the charts above, at every year end since 1999 and for the quarters filed since the last annual report. This is the table the rest of the site reads from: the essay, the valuation page and these charts all take their book value from this one series. Copy it as tab-separated values and it pastes straight into a spreadsheet.
| Period | Book value | Per Class A equivalent | Float | Book + float | Avg price | P/B | P/B low | P/B high | P/(B+F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | $24.55 | $36,828 | $10.96 | $35.51 | $36.60 | — | — | — | — |
| 2000 | $26.21 | $39,313 | $12.23 | $38.44 | $47.08 | 1.52× | 1.12× | 1.92× | 1.05× |
| 2001 | $24.87 | $37,298 | $15.70 | $40.57 | $50.50 | 1.75× | 1.56× | 1.93× | 1.19× |
| 2002 | $27.37 | $41,054 | $17.81 | $45.18 | $48.46 | 1.94× | 1.61× | 2.10× | 1.19× |
| 2003 | $33.41 | $50,110 | $19.09 | $52.50 | $56.30 | 1.79× | 1.49× | 2.06× | 1.08× |
| 2004 | $36.82 | $55,231 | $19.93 | $56.75 | $58.72 | 1.76× | 1.62× | 1.91× | 1.12× |
| 2005 | $39.37 | $59,053 | $21.20 | $60.57 | $58.71 | 1.55× | 1.45× | 1.66× | 1.01× |
| 2006 | $45.80 | $68,697 | $22.04 | $67.83 | $73.32 | 1.60× | 1.45× | 1.93× | 1.04× |
| 2007 | $50.82 | $76,227 | $25.41 | $76.23 | $94.72 | 1.69× | 1.52× | 2.18× | 1.14× |
| 2008 | $45.19 | $67,786 | $24.96 | $70.15 | $64.28 | 1.60× | 1.03× | 1.89× | 1.07× |
| 2009 | $56.27 | $84,407 | $26.63 | $82.90 | $65.72 | 1.36× | 1.02× | 1.57× | 0.88× |
| 2010 | $63.51 | $95,267 | $26.70 | $90.21 | $80.11 | 1.40× | 1.15× | 1.49× | 0.95× |
| 2011 | $66.63 | $99,939 | $28.67 | $95.30 | $76.30 | 1.22× | 1.04× | 1.37× | 0.86× |
| 2012 | $76.28 | $114,425 | $29.62 | $105.90 | $89.70 | 1.25× | 1.15× | 1.36× | 0.88× |
| 2013 | $90.02 | $135,036 | $31.22 | $121.25 | $118.56 | 1.44× | 1.22× | 1.56× | 1.04× |
| 2014 | $97.38 | $146,074 | $34.08 | $131.47 | $150.15 | 1.45× | 1.21× | 1.70× | 1.08× |
| 2015 | $103.88 | $155,813 | $35.71 | $139.58 | $132.04 | 1.44× | 1.31× | 1.55× | 1.07× |
| 2016 | $114.36 | $171,533 | $37.31 | $151.66 | $162.98 | 1.39× | 1.19× | 1.60× | 1.03× |
| 2017 | $141.03 | $211,550 | $46.61 | $187.64 | $198.22 | 1.53× | 1.39× | 1.75× | 1.15× |
| 2018 | $141.78 | $212,675 | $49.97 | $191.75 | $204.18 | 1.44× | 1.31× | 1.59× | 1.08× |
| 2019 | $174.36 | $261,539 | $52.92 | $227.28 | $226.50 | 1.47× | 1.35× | 1.60× | 1.09× |
| 2020 | $191.28 | $286,917 | $59.59 | $250.86 | $231.87 | 1.18× | 0.93× | 1.34× | 0.90× |
| 2021 | $228.32 | $342,487 | $66.33 | $294.66 | $299.00 | 1.43× | 1.19× | 1.57× | 1.09× |
| 2022 | $216.02 | $324,032 | $74.90 | $290.92 | $308.90 | 1.33× | 1.16× | 1.57× | 1.03× |
| 2023 | $259.46 | $389,183 | $78.16 | $337.62 | $356.66 | 1.55× | 1.36× | 1.72× | 1.15× |
| 2024 | $300.83 | $451,251 | $79.26 | $380.10 | $453.28 | 1.65× | 1.38× | 1.86× | 1.26× |
| 2025 | $332.35 | $498,532 | $81.58 | $413.94 | $502.65 | 1.64× | 1.47× | 1.79× | 1.30× |
| Q1 2026 | $337.15 | $505,723 | — | — | $479.20 | 1.42× | — | — | — |
| Q2 2026 | $348.26 | $522,396 | — | — | $500.39 | 1.44× | — | — | — |
These figures move when Berkshire files. The current basis is the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q, dated June 30, 2026. Where a published claim here has been superseded, the old wording is kept verbatim on revisions.
Download the series (.xlsx) Berkshire book value, float and price, with sources and the date it was struck written into the file. This page’s series only; there is no combined download.