Berkshire Hathaway, which just held its highly attended annual shareholder meeting over the May 3-4, 2025 weekend, has been one of the best-performing financial stocks in the S&P 500 in 2025. BRK.B has been among the top five financial sector stocks and in the top 10% of all stocks in the S&P 500 this year based on total returns through May 2, 2025. Led by the legendary Warren Buffett, who just announced plans to step down as CEO, Berkshire returned 19.9% annually between 1965 and 2024, versus 10.4% for the S&P 500.
Berkshire’s equity activity is, as stated in its 2024 annual report, “ambidextrous.” On the one hand, the firm controls 189 subsidiaries with at least an 80% share. On the other, it holds minority stakes in publicly traded corporations. BRK.B is known for its value-investing style, yet its public stock portfolio is weighted very differently from the largest value and low volatility ETFs. Figure 1 compares BRK.B’s public stock portfolio to the two largest value ETFs as well as a low volatility ETF, illustrating its differentiated sector exposure.
Figure 1 was created using Berkshire’s share counts of U.S.-listed firms as of the end of 2024, as stated in its 13-F filings. Its international holdings, such as BYD (1211 HK) and five Japanese industrial conglomerates like Mitsubishi (8058 JP) are included as well. All of these share counts are then used to arrive at portfolio values and weights for BRK.B’s public equity holdings, using prices as of the market close on May 2, 2025.
As seen in the chart, Berkshire’s portfolio of publicly traded stocks is highly overweight Financials, with a 36% weight compared to 14% in the market benchmark tracking iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV). The two largest value ETFs in the U.S., the Vanguard Value ETF (VTV) and the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD), are also overweight Financials, but significantly less so than BRK.B. Also, if we consider that a very significant share of BRK.B’s market capitalization is driven by wholly owned insurance subsidiaries like GEICO, the stock is ever more tilted toward financial businesses.
Berkshire is also much more heavily weighted toward the Technology sector relative to value ETFs, largely due to its Apple Inc. holdings, which accounted for 22% of the public stock portfolio as of May 2, 2025. Technology accounts for 24% of BRK.B’s public stock portfolio, compared to just 8% in VTV, 9% in IWD, and 5% in the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (SPLV).
Berkshire’s iconic brand, long track record, and differentiated exposure relative to the largest value ETFs has encouraged smaller ETF firms to piggyback off its success with new launches. Recently, VistaShares launched the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (OMAH), which holds BRK.B and some of its publicly listed portfolio stocks, but overlays them with a call writing strategy to generate income. In December 2024, Direxion launched a pair of ETFs that provide 2x leveraged and -1 inverse exposure to BRK.B. These new ETFs join a set of existing ETFs that attempt to replicate Buffett’s philosophy of investing in companies with a “wide moat.” Table 1 summarizes some of these ETFs that were launched in the last 12 to 15 months.
OMAH was launched in March 2025 and by May 2, 2025, had already crossed $100 million in assets. The ETF attempts to appeal to investors who want exposure to BRK.B, but also income to supplement the potential capital appreciation provided by BRK.B. Berkshire has had very significant capital appreciation over many years, but is not a dividend-paying stock. OMAH holds BRK.B as well as its top stock holdings and then generates premium income from writing call options. It aims to achieve an annual income target of 15%.
BRKU seeks to provide 200% daily leveraged exposure to BRK.B. It is paired with Direxion Daily Bear 1X Shares (BRKD), which provides inverse exposure to the stock. These ETFs are targeted at traders that want to express a strong directional view on Berkshire.
MVAL is part of a family of six ETFs that adopt Warren Buffet’s philosophy of investing in companies that have a wide economic moat. These moats may take the form of network effects, economies of scale, switching costs, durable cost advantages, or intangible assets, such as a strong brand. VanEck’s first moat ETF was listed in 2012, and since then, it has continued to expand that product family with growth and value variants as well as versions with non-U.S. stocks. It is important to recognize that the sector exposure and holdings of these ETFs may differ quite substantially from BRK.B. For example, as of May 2, 2025, MVAL had a 28% weight in healthcare, a sector in which Berkshire is substantially underweight.
EMOT has a similar economic moat-based approach, but uses different selection criteria. Like MVAL it is also index-based, but uses criteria such as sustained high gross margin, sustained high return on invested capital (ROIC), and high market share to determine sustainable competitive advantage. The top 50 securities in the S&P 500 with the highest economic moat score are selected and are equally weighted. While it adopts an economic moat approach like MVAL, the fund also has a very different sector profile than BRK.B, with only 7% of its portfolio in Financials, as of May 2, 2025.
In the current uncertain economic climate, it seems likely that Berkshire’s value-oriented investment approach will continue to appeal to investors, particularly since it is overweight some defensive sectors like staples. Given that BRK.B is differentiated from the large traditional value ETFs, investors may start to consider ETFs like OMAH to get exposure to the Berkshire investment approach, while also generating income.
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