“ Five years later, in early 2016, I wrote an article about what Berkshire Hathaway might look like in 2026. Among other things, I was optimistic that the company’s market capitalization might exceed $1 trillion by 2026 especially if all earnings are retained over the ten year period.1 This article appeared after Berkshire put in place a very limited repurchase program, hamstrung by a stringent limitation on the price-to-book value that could be paid. I was skeptical that repurchases of significant size would be possible with this stringent limitation in place:

Berkshire’s current repurchase limit of 120 percent of book value would have to be increased substantially in order to make repurchases of any significant size possible. Since 120 percent of book value is far below any reasonable assessment of Berkshire’s intrinsic value, it follows that Mr. Buffett and the board of directors would have to agree to increase the repurchase limit in order to return material amounts of cash to shareholders.“ rationalwalk.com - Will berkshire hathaway pay a dividend