Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRK.A)

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"Berkshire Class-A Shares Have Become More Actively Traded. Why That’s Important."

"Berkshire Hathaway’s class A shares have had unusually high trading activity of late. And that could mean that an investor is accumulating the high-vote stock, whose dominant holder is CEO Warren Buffett.

The class A shares (ticker BRK.A) normally trade on light volume, reflecting their high price—the stock finished Friday at $381,600—and a preference among institutional and retail investors for the more liquid class and B shares (BRK.B), which ended Friday at $253.15. The class B stock is in the S&P 500 index.

In recent weeks, however, trading in the class A shares has been elevated at an average of more than 2,000 shares a day—and 2,500 a day in past five sessions—against an average of fewer than 500 shares daily in 2020. The difference translates into about $800 million of additional daily trades in the class A stock. Trading activity in the class B shares, meanwhile, has not been elevated—an average of about five million shares a day in the past month, against six million in the last 12 months.

Berkshire shares have bested the S&P 500 this year with the class A stock up 9.7% through Friday, against a 2.5% rise in the index after trailing the index by a total of over 40 percentage points in 2019 and 2020. Wall Street has warmed to Berkshire thanks to its relatively low valuation versus book value and as a reopening play

given its many economically sensitive businesses.

The shares continued their recent rally on Monday, with the class A shares up 1.6%, to a near record of $387,840, and the class B stock 1.4% higher, at $256.65.

Investors will probably have to wait until mid-May, when institutional holders file their March 31 equity investments, for the identity of the possible buyer of the class A stock to be known, unless the purchaser gets to a 5% stake, which would trigger a quicker regulatory filing..."

https://www.barrons.com/articles/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-has-seen-trading-activity-rise-in-its-class-a-stock-51615219961