By Andrew Bary

This article is an excerpt from " Alphabet and 9 More Stocks to Buy for 2025," published on Dec. 13, 2024. To see the full list, click here.

CEO Warren Buffett has made a few mistakes this year. He slashed Berkshire's Apple stake by two-thirds -- and left some $30 billion on the table while incurring a big tax bill. He also invested little in stocks during the past two years. Key-man risk is growing, with Buffett having turned 94 in August.

Despite those worries, the Class A shares, at about $695,000, have roughly kept pace with the S&P 500 in 2024. That is a result of the ample earnings that Berkshire produces from the world's largest property and casualty insurer, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, one of the country's biggest utilities. Operating profits should approach $45 billion this year, up more than 10% from 2023.

UBS analyst Brian Meredith, who has a Buy rating and a nearly $800,000 price target on the A shares, calls Berkshire an "attractive play in an uncertain macro environment with good fundamentals in its insurance business." The B shares trade near $460.

With $310 billion of cash, the most for any U.S. company, Berkshire may be the most defensive megacap stock. If stocks tumble, Buffett might even put a big chunk of that cash to work in the stock market and potentially land the elephant-size acquisition that he has long sought.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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December 27, 2024 00:01 ET (05:01 GMT)

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