Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Security Holder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

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Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Security Holder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

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Market Information

Berkshire’s Class A and Class B common stock are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbol: BRK.A and BRK.B, respectively.

Shareholders

Berkshire had approximately 2,000 record holders of its Class A common stock and 19,500 record holders of its Class B common stock at February 15, 2019. Record owners included nominees holding at least 417,000 shares of Class A common stock and 1,374,000,000 shares of Class B common stock on behalf of beneficial-but-not-of-record owners.

Dividends

Berkshire has not declared a cash dividend since 1967.

Common Stock Repurchase Program

For several years, Berkshire had a common stock repurchase program, which permitted Berkshire to repurchase its Class A and Class B shares at prices no higher than a 20% premium over the book value of the shares. On July 17, 2018, Berkshire’s Board of Directors authorized an amendment to the program, permitting Berkshire to repurchase shares any time that Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and Charles Munger, Vice Chairman of the Board, believe that the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, conservatively determined. Repurchases may be in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. Information with respect to Berkshire’s Class A and Class B common stock repurchased during the fourth quarter of 2018 follows.

PeriodTotal number of shares purchasedAverage price paid per shareTotal number of shares purchased as part of publicly announced programMaximum number or value of shares that yet may be repurchased under the program
October 11 through October 18:
Class A common stock202$310,762.79202*
Class B common stock589,955$205.09589,955*
December 13 through December 24:
Class A common stock790$295,953.99790*
*The program does not specify a maximum number of shares to be repurchased or obligate Berkshire to repurchase any specific dollar amount or number of Class A or Class B shares and there is no expiration date to the repurchase program. Berkshire will not repurchase its common stock if the repurchases reduce the total value of Berkshire’s consolidated cash, cash equivalents and U.S. Treasury Bills holdings to less than $20 billion.

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Table of Contents

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Security Holder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities (Continued)

Stock Performance Graph

The following chart compares the subsequent value of $100 invested in Berkshire common stock on December 31, 2013 with a similar investment in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index and in the Standard & Poor’s Property – Casualty Insurance Index.**

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*Cumulative return for the Standard & Poor’s indices based on reinvestment of dividends.
**It would be difficult to develop a peer group of companies similar to Berkshire. The Corporation owns subsidiaries engaged in a number of diverse business activities of which the most important is the property and casualty insurance business and, accordingly, management has used the Standard & Poor’s Property—Casualty Insurance Index for comparative purposes.

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Table of Contents

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