Berkshire Hathaway Hasn't Paid a Dividend Since 1967, and $1,000 Still Grew to $3,654 in Ten Years

This look at Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) Class B shares shows what a $1,000 investment would be worth after about a decade. Berkshire pays shareholders no cash. It paid a single dividend in 1967 and has kept its profits ever since, so the share price accounts for the entire return.

How Berkshire Put Its Profits to Work for a Decade

Berkshire includes insurance (GEICO and General Re), the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and a large stock portfolio. Insurance float is the premium money held before claims are paid. It reached about $177.5 billion as of June 30, 2026. Retained earnings are profits a company keeps instead of paying out. Berkshire has used them to buy other companies outright, buy stock in other companies, and buy back its own shares. A buyback reduces the share count, so each remaining share represents a larger piece of the business.

Warren Buffett famously retired as CEO at the end of 2025, and Greg Abel took over. Since then, cash reached a record $380 billion in the first quarter of 2026. In the second quarter, Berkshire was a net buyer of stocks for the first time in more than three years. It put about $23.5 billion into equities and spent about $4.5 billion on buybacks. In the third quarter, buybacks more than doubled as earnings declined.

$1,000 in Berkshire Grew to $3,654 Over Nearly 10 Years

1-Year Return

• Initial Investment: $1,000
• Current Value: $1,150
• Total Return: 15%
• S&P 500 (same period): $1,123 (12.3%)

5-Year Return

• Initial Investment: $1,000
• Current Value: $2,011.40
• Total Return: 101.14%
• Annualized Return: 15.0%
• S&P 500 (same period): $1,625.30 (62.53%)

10-Year Return

• Initial Investment: $1,000
• Current Value: $3,654
• Total Return: 265.4%
• Annualized Return: 13.9%
• S&P 500 (same period): $3,481.80 (248.18%)

The 10-year figure starts at the Nov. 30, 2016 close of $157.44 and ends at the Nov. 9, 2026 close of $575.25. The S&P 500 figures use the share price of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY), with the 10-year window starting Nov. 11, 2016. They exclude the index’s dividends, which would narrow the gap. Berkshire’s beta of 0.571 means the stock has typically moved less than the broader market. Over the past month, it gained 11.3% while SPY fell 3.22%, during what reports described as a flight from an AI rout.

Retirees Holding Berkshire Get No Income Check

With no dividend, a shareholder who needs cash has to sell shares. A sale can happen during a downturn and can trigger a taxable gain. Our dividend-focused series covers the kind of stocks that pay cash on a set schedule, so an owner can collect income without selling shares. For readers building toward that, we put together a free guide on constructing a dividend ladder that funds retirement without using the principal.

Berkshire Trades Near 14 Times Earnings as Buybacks Pick Up

Berkshire trades at about 14 times trailing earnings. Its 52-week range runs from $464.01 to $586.30, and the average analyst target is $555.67.

Future results depend in part on how the cash is deployed and whether the operating businesses keep growing. Second-quarter operating earnings rose to $12.98 billion from $11.16 billion. Another factor is the company’s size. With a market value near $1.22 trillion, Berkshire needs very large deals to move its results, and it took $5 billion in pretax impairment on its Kraft Heinz investment in 2025.