Andrew Bary

Berkshire Hathaway likely will be a good investment even after Warren Buffett's departure as CEO, but the stock price could suffer from the fading of the aura that now surrounds the conglomerate. That means it could make sense to mirror the performance of its holdings, without the uncertainty stemming from the transition.

Barron's has come up with a 10-security portfolio for investors who want to create a Berkshire-like holding based on the conglomerate's most important subsidiaries and equity investments, It is composed of best-of-breed companies, weighted by Berkshire's exposure to their industries.

The 10 securities and their weightings are as follows: Chubb (15%); Progressive (15%); Union Pacific (10%); NextEra Energy (10%); the State Street Industrial Select SPDR exchange-traded fund (25%); and Apple, Coca-Cola, Chevron, Bank of America, and American Express, all at 5% each.

While it isn't feasible to get exposure to every Berkshire business -- the company is the world's largest conglomerate with a market value of $1.1 trillion and dozens of subsidiaries -- our selection covers the most important ones. The weightings reflect the exposure that Berkshire has to the industries they represent.

As Buffett has said repeatedly, insurance is the most important business within Berkshire. That industry has the biggest weighting in our alternative portfolio.

Barron's has chosen two of the best property and casualty insurers, Chubb and Progressive, and given them each a 15% weighting.

With a big edge in technology, the auto insurer Progressive has taken significant market share from Berkshire's Geico auto-insurance unit in recent years. Chubb is an industry leader with consistently strong underwriting results.

The BNSF railroad and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a diversified utility, are the next most important businesses within Berkshire. BNSF is likely worth about $125 billion, and BHE around $100 billion.

To match those units, Barron's has selected Union Pacific, BNSF's chief rival, and NextEra Energy, one of the largest utilities in the country. Like BHE, it is a major owner of renewable power. Each gets a 10% weighting.

Berkshire has a large group of wholly owned industrial businesses, including Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, and Marmon. Barron's isn't aware of a diversified company similar to the Berkshire businesses, so we went with the State Street Industrial Select SPDR ETF, whose biggest holdings are GE Aerospace, Caterpillar, and RTX. All are top-flight companies.

We've given the ETF a 25% weighting to approximate the value of Berkshire's industrial and other businesses.

Berkshire also has a $300 billion equity portfolio, and we have given 5% weightings to each of the five largest holdings: Apple, Coke, Bank of America, American Express, and Chevron.

An advantage of the look-like portfolio is that it offers some of the best companies in their industries. Berkshire's edge is its distinctive culture and cash holdings of $350 billion, which could allow it to capitalize on investment opportunities in 2026.

Berkshire's Class A shares, at around $755,000, are ending 2026 with a gain of 11%, behind the 18% total return in the S&P 500.

Barron's will track the alternative portfolio and calculate whether the imitators, the real Berkshire, or the S&P 500 performs the best in 2026.

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

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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January 02, 2026 03:00 ET (08:00 GMT)

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