Insurance, railroads, energy, investments. We rebuild its market value from the price, split it into its parts, and compare its multiples with those of its largest competitors.
Verified figures, not advice. Every number on this page comes from the company's own filings or from exchange prices, and the source is linked. Every calculation is shown, so you can repeat it. What we do not do is tell you what a share should be worth or whether to buy it: that depends on your goals and on forecasts, and no multiple can settle it. This is a snapshot: prices of 12 Oct 2026, company results up to mid 2026. Found a mistake? Tell us and we correct it.
Market capitalisation is the value the stock market puts on all the shares together. It is the nominal share price multiplied by the number of shares.
Building blockAmountMeaning
Market capitalisation
$1.11tn
What the market asks for all the shares
Book equity
$747.9bn
Assets minus liabilities, as accounted
Tangible book equity
$630.8bn
Book equity without goodwill and intangibles
Market value above book
$360.1bn
What investors pay beyond the accounts
For banks and insurers, debt and deposits are raw material, not financing. Enterprise value and EBITDA do not describe them, so we do not build them. Value is read against equity: market value is $1.11tn and book equity is $747.9bn, a price to book of 1.5x.
Banks and insurers are compared on price to earnings, price to book and dividend yield. Dividend yield is shown for information and has no "vs median".
Chubb, Progressive and Travelers are insurers. Berkshire also owns railroads, utilities and manufacturing, so insurers cover only part of it.
- P/E: 12.9x against a peer median of 11.0x (mean 10.7x). Difference to the median: +18%.
- Price to book: 1.5x against a peer median of 2.3x (mean 2.6x). Difference: -37%.
These are descriptions of today's prices, not forecasts. "n.m." means not meaningful, for example negative profit.
From Oct 2021 to Sep 2026 the month-end price of Berkshire Hathaway changed by +73.5%. That is the end result. The path matters as much: the deepest fall below a previous high was -24.3%, from Mar 2022 to Sep 2022 (6 months).
It then took 11 more months to get back to that earlier high.
At the end of Sep 2026 it was 6.6% below its highest month-end (Apr 2025).
Time spent more than 20% below its high: 3 of 60 months.
Among the 23 companies in this exercise with a full five-year history, the median deepest fall was -38.5%. Berkshire Hathaway ranks 17 of 23, from deepest, so its fall was shallower than the median.
A price move says what buyers paid, not what the business is worth. Read it next to the multiples in Step 4, and see what we mean by value.
How we made this: month-end closing prices from two independent public sources (Nasdaq historical quotes and Yahoo Finance), read on 14 October 2026. We kept a month only where the two agreed; all did, to within one cent. Prices are adjusted for splits, not for dividends. The figures and the chart are our own calculation; we do not republish the raw prices.
Prices of 12 Oct 2026 from exchange historical data. Share counts, debt, cash and results from each company's filings, read on 13 and 14 October 2026. Foreign companies are converted at one stated rate.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B)
Chubb Limited (CB)
The Progressive Corporation (PGR)
The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV)
Questions people ask
Does a higher multiple than competitors mean the share is overvalued?
No. It means investors pay more per dollar of sales or profit. The reason can be faster growth, higher margins or lower risk, or it can be excess optimism. A multiple gap is a question to investigate, not an answer.
Why not use enterprise value for a bank or insurer?
Their debt and deposits are the raw material of the business, not a way of financing it, so enterprise value would mislead. Value is read against equity instead.
Why show both the mean and the median of competitors?
The mean is pulled up by one extreme value. The median is the middle value and resists outliers. When they differ a lot, trust the median more.