Shares of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. rallied Thursday, after UBS raised its price targets to among the highest on Wall Street, citing expected “significant” benefits from tax-reform legislation. Analyst Brian Meredith raised is target on the Class B shares to $244 from $213 and on the Class A shares to $366,000 from $319,000. Those are both above the highest targets among analysts surveyed by FactSet of $238 for the Class B shares and $356,821 for Class A shares. Meredith said he expects the stocks’ to continue to outperform the broader stock market, as he believes there is potential upside to earnings expectations as the company could deploy a “meaningful” amount of its more than $100 billion in cash, which should grow faster with a lower tax rate, on shareholder friendly measures. He said fundamentals in Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses remain solid and the reinsurance and commercial insurance operations are improving. “We view Berkshire as a significant beneficiary of tax reform with lower tax rates alone driving a 16% increase in our earnings estimates,” Meredith wrote in a note to clients. The more-active Class B shares rose 1% in afternoon trade. They have soared 32.4% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has climbed 24.2%.
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