If You Invested $1,000 In Berkshire Hathaway Stock When Warren Buffett Did, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Legendary investor Warren Buffett announced he is stepping down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK BRK at the end of 2025, ending a run of leading the conglomerate that has often outperformed the S&P 500.

Here's a look at how Buffett got started with Berkshire Hathaway and how much investing alongside him could have been worth.

What Happened: Buffett is one of the greatest investors of the current generation. He is known for his buy-and-hold approach to investing and has used that approach in his life, living in the same house for the past 65 years.

Before his buy-and-hold approach, which is still used today, Buffett was interested in purchasing low-priced stocks in the 1960s, including well-run companies trading at low prices.

"If (the stocks) were cheap enough, he didn't care it was a lousy company and lousy management. He knew he was going to make money anyways because of the cheapness," Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger said in the "Becoming Warren Buffett Documentary," CNBC reported.

Buffett bought his first shares of textile company Berkshire Hathaway in December 1962 for $7.50 each.

"I bought the first shares of Berkshire in 1962 and it was a northern textile business destined to become extinct eventually," Buffett said. "It was a statistically cheap stock and a terrible business."

Buffett saw an opportunity at a low price.

"Berkshire Hathaway was closing mills, and as they close mills, it would free up some capital, and then they would re-purchase shares. So I bought some stock with the idea that there would be another tender offer at some point, and we would sell the stock at a modest profit," he said.

Buffett was right, as he received an offer from Berkshire Hathaway to buy his 7% stake in the company. When asked at what price he would sell the holdings, Buffett told Berkshire head Seabury Stanton the price would be $11.50. Stanton agreed but later sent a letter with an offer for $11.375.

The Oracle of Omaha was taken aback by the letter and offer, which led him to refuse to tender his shares.

"That was a monumentally stupid decision," Buffett said of this move.

"That made me very mad, so I just started buying more stock. I just felt that I had been double-crossed by the management."

Buffett began buying more shares and eventually took control of Berkshire Hathaway. Seabury was let go from the company.

The textile business proved okay for Buffett for a couple of years before shutting down in 1985 and becoming what Buffett has called one of his worst investments of all time.

Over the years, Berkshire Hathaway became more than just a textile business, buying up companies such as Geico, See's Candies, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, and others.

Buffett also used the company's cash to acquire stakes in publicly traded companies such as Coca-Cola Co KO, Apple Inc AAPL, Bank of America BAC and others.

Investing $1,000 in Berkshire Hathaway: As Buffett's first investment took place in Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, there's a good chance that if you're reading this, you might not have been born yet or old enough to buy stock.

If you, your parent, or your grandparent were lucky enough to invest in Berkshire Hathaway stock when Buffett did or when he started accumulating more shares, the returns would be incredible.

Investing $1,000 in Berkshire Hathaway in December 1972 for $7.50 a share at the time Buffett bought shares could have purchased 133.33 shares.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $102,421,161.64 today, based on the current price of Berkshire Hathaway shares, which is $768,35.80.

This represents a return of 10,242,016.2%, or more than 10 million percent since Buffett first invested in Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire Hathaway is worth more than $1.1 trillion today and one of the 10 most valuable public companies in the world.

Buffett's investment style has produced strong annual returns for investors over the years.

While the hypothetical investment could have people wishing they invested back in 1962 with the Oracle of Omaha, the conglomerate owns many businesses and stock holdings that could set the company up for a successful future of annual returns, even without Buffett leading the way as CEO.

You may not be a billionaire like Warren Buffett, but you can uncover hidden gems in the stock market using our proprietary data and pattern recognition — check out five stocks flying under the radar that deserve your attention.

This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.

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