When Warren Buffett speaks, Wall Street listens — and the “Oracle of Omaha” issued a full-throated defense of stock buybacks in his latest annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. That’s why we’re shining a light on the Club holdings that repurchase the most stock, including Morgan Stanley (MS), Meta Platforms (META) and Apple (AAPL). Buffett’s argument, which mirrors the Club’s thinking, is simple: “When the share count goes down, your interest in our many businesses goes up. Every small bit helps if repurchases are made at value-accretive prices,” Buffett wrote in the letter , published Feb. 25, alongside Berkshire’s fourth-quarter earnings report. In other words, buybacks allow investors to own a greater percentage of a company’s earnings without needing to spend more money on additional shares. Not all repurchases are created equal, as Buffett rightfully pointed out in his much-anticipated annual letter. They can be done at irresponsible times, such as when a company’s stock price is overvalued. But, in general, buybacks are a beneficial tool at management’s disposable. “When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive),” wrote Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and CEO. Buffett has overseen Berkshire, a multinational holding company whose myriad subsidiaries span most corners of the U.S. economy, since 1965. He is one of the most successful investors and wealthiest in the world, with a net worth over $100 billion. For more than a year, the Club’s investment mantra has emphasized companies that return cash to shareholders via buybacks and dividends. “It really helps to know that’s what Buffett is focused on, so we’re of course going to put our portfolio through the Buffett test,” Jim Cramer said on Monday’s “Homestretch ,” our daily afternoon audio feature to get members ready for the last hour of trading. He added: “We like to test ours in every single way.” So, here’s a full breakdown of buyback activity for the 35 companies in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust in one big chart. Notes on methodology: All numbers are courtesy of Factset. For each company, the repurchase activity covers the firm’s most recent four quarters of reported results. Most Club holdings have reported for the current earnings season, but we’ve yet to hear from Costco (COST) and Salesforce (CRM). Those two companies report on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, meaning there is a slight lag on their four-quarter buyback activity. Market capitalization figures are based on Friday’s closing prices. Context Here’s some additional color on the buyback activities of seven key Club holdings. Devon Energy (DVN): The oil-and-gas producer slowed down its pace of buybacks in the second half of 2022 after buying Validus Energy for roughly $1.8 billion. Devon bought back just $183 million worth of stock in the third and fourth quarters combined, compared with $535 million in the first six months of 2022. However, management has said the company expects to be “active buyers” of its stock in 2023 . Coterra Energy (CTRA): Repurchases are set to be a bigger focus for the company this year . After spending more than $1.2 billion on stock buybacks in 2022, Coterra’s board approved a $2 billion buyback authorization last week. The company’s capital return priorities also will emphasize buybacks over its variable dividend, CEO Tom Jorden said on Coterra’s earnings call Thursday. Costco: In January, the wholesale retailer’s board reauthorized a $4 billion stock repurchase program , which is set to expire in four years. However, we don’t expect them to aggressively buy back stock because history indicates they prefer to use excess cash to issue special dividends. Wells Fargo (WFC): After buying back roughly $6 billion worth of shares in the first quarter of 2022 , the bank stopped doing buybacks in the final nine months of the year. However, management said on the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call it intended to resume repurchases in the current quarter . Starbucks (SBUX): The coffee chain recently restarted its buyback activity, following a roughly two-quarter pause after Howard Schultz took over as interim CEO last spring. Schultz instead upped the company’s investment in its stores and employees. Repurchases returned in Starbucks’ fiscal 2023 first quarter totaled $191.4 million. The company has said it expects to return $20 billion to shareholders by the end of fiscal 2025 through dividends and buybacks. Haliburton (HAL): The oilfield services giant resumed share repurchases in the fourth quarter of 2022 , buying up $250 million worth of stock. It was the company’s first major buyback activity since the first quarter of 2020, following a multiyear commitment to reduce debt levels. Haliburton also recently committed to a framework that will see them return at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. Salesforce: The enterprise software maker’s first-ever buyback program commenced in the quarter ended Oct. 31, during which the company repurchased $1.7 billion worth of stock to minimize dilution. It’s part of a $10 billion buyback authorization issued by Salesforce’s board last August. Bottom line Buffett’s buyback commentary hits the nail on the head. As the chart makes clear, the vast majority of Club holdings engage in some level of stock repurchases, which is good news for shareholders. We’re big proponents of wisely-executed buybacks, allowing us to have a bigger piece of our companies’ earnings than we otherwise would absent the repurchase activity. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
The logo of Meta Platforms is seen in Davos, Switzerland, May 22, 2022.
CASE arrived at bauma 2025 with an innovative new electric wheel loader with a striking, sharp-edged design that ditches the traditional operator cab in favor of remote or autonomous operation for improved accessibility and safety.
CASE says the cabin-less design of the Impact electric wheel loader enhances operational flexibility by enabling operations in extreme environments and adverse weather conditions. It also means that job site, disaster recovery, or even rescue operations can continue 24/7, with operators in different time zones logging in for their shifts.
More important – and more practical – is CASE’s claim that the new Impact concept, “marks a significant advancement in accessibility, as operators with motor impairments and other disabilities can now operate the machine without physical limitations, representing an important step toward inclusivity in the industry.”
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Along with integrated AI, a full suite of sensors, and autonomous operation built in, CASE says the Impact is a glimpse into a smarter, safer, and more sustainable working future.
Electrek’s Take
Driven by an aging workforce and not enough new talent entering the field, virtually every industrial field is struggling with an international equipment operator shortage. The concept of automation addresses some of that, but remote operation open up the field significantly, and I could easily older operators forced out of work due to injury getting back into it or younger operators halfway around the world who would give anything for an opportunity – and paycheck – like this could provide.
Smart move from CASE, and it’s great to hear them call that out specifically.
Electricity grid demands are on the rise in part due to energy-hungry technology like AI, and while experts believe renewable energy alone is not enough, it is essential to a broader supply equation. But with funding freezes, subsidy walk backs and tariffs on key components all on the table, solar, wind, and hydrogen companies are working harder than ever to make their business models work, even if they never intended to rely on federal support for the long term.
“One of the hats I used to wear was planning for the City of New York. For the longest time, there was decreasing [energy] demand,” said Aseem Kapur, chief revenue officer of GM Energy, an arm of General Motors that the company introduced in 2022. “Over the course of the last five or so years, that equation has changed. Utilities are facing unprecedented demand.”
Beyond New York City, U.S. energy demand is poised to grow upwards of 16% in the next five years, a big difference from the 0.5%it grew each year on average from 2001 to 2024, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
For the renewable energy companies looking to break into the mainstream, subsidies have helped them get through their early days of growth. But President Trump has targeted these solutions from the first day of his presidency. In an executive order from Jan. 20, the Trump administration promised to “unleash” an era of fossil fuels exploration and production while also eliminating “unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies.” Last week, Trump issued an EO pushing for more coal production.
In a six-year study breaking down energy subsidies from the U.S. Energy Information Administration from 2022 (the most recent edition), 46% of federal energy subsidies were associated with renewable energy, making them the largest slice of the energy pie. At the same time, natural gas and petroleum subsidies became a net cost to the government in 2022, reversing what had been a source of revenue inflows.
“Every company I’ve talked to recognizes that subsidies were required to help them through an R&D cycle, but they all believed they had to get to a cost parity point,” said Ross Meyercord, CEO of Propel Software (and former Salesforce CIO), whose manufacturing software solution serves energy clients like Invinity Energy Systems and Eos Energy Storage. “Every company had that baked into their business model. It may happen faster than they were planning on, and obviously that creates challenges.”
Meyercord believes that clean energy companies can handle either a subsidy decrease or a rise in tariffs, but both at the same time will add substantial stress to the market, which could have negative downstream effects on the grid — and the people who rely on it.
‘Not going to get rid of fossil fuels overnight’
Like any energy source, Kapur says success always comes down to economics. In the current environment, with interest rates, and fears that inflation will reignite, he said, “it’s going to come down to, ‘What are the most cost-effective solutions that can be brought to market?'” That may vary by region, he added, but notes that solar and energy storage have already reached parity in many cases and, in some instances, are below the cost of producing energy from natural gas or coal-powered resources.
This economics equation is true even in Texas, where the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton has voiced anti-renewables sentiment in favor of the coal market (his lawsuit against major investment firm BlackRock and others in late November claims these firms sought to “weaponize their shares to pressure the coal companies to accommodate ‘green energy’ goals”). Wind accounts for 24% of the state’s energy profile, according to the Texas Comptroller, suggesting a penchant for any energy source that’s viable and cost-effective.
“The reality is, we’re not going to get rid of fossil fuels overnight,” said Whit Irvin Jr., CEO of hydrogen energy company Q Hydrogen. “They are going to have a very significant piece in our energy ecosystem for decades, and as new technologies come out on a larger scale, the use of fossil fuels will be curtailed, but we need to continue research, development and innovation in a way that makes sense.”
Irvin emphasizes the need for innovation from all sides, including creating new technologies that have a massive impact on large scalability and carbon reduction. “We don’t want to turn off that spigot. We just want to make sure that it’s going to the right places,” he said.
Hydrogen energy itself is one such source of innovation. Hydrogen ranges in sustainability depending on the fuel it uses to source its hydrogen. For example, green hydrogen — the only climate-neutral form of hydrogen energy — stems from renewable energy surplus. Grey hydrogen stems from natural gas methane. Q Hydrogen is working to open the world’s first renewable hydrogen power plant that will be economically viable without a subsidy. Irvin Jr. says the company, which produces hydrogen using water, plans to launch its New Hampshire facility this year.
“Hydrogen fuel cells are a really good way to provide backup power or even prime power to a data center that would be considered essentially off grid,” said Irvin, likening hydrogen fuel cell production to a form of battery storage. While hydrogen is not the most economical because of its comparative immaturity, Irvin said heightened energy demand will outcompete cost sensitivity for tech companies requiring more and more data storage.
While hydrogen projects continue to reap federal incentives to propel the industry forward, Irvin said subsidies were never part of his company’s business equation. “If they do exist, we’ll be able to take advantage of them,” he said. “If they don’t exist, that will still be fine for us.”
But that might not be true for every alternative energy company depending on where they’re at in the R&D cycle. Changes in federal incentives have real power to shift the progression of renewable energy in the U.S., especially when combined with tariffs that could stifle companies’ international relationships and supply chains. Meyercord, Kapur and Irvin all foresee private industry partnerships making a huge impact for the future of the grid, but recognize that the strain is increasing as energy tech of all kinds becomes smarter and more grid-dependent.
Based on the excellent Hyundai IONIQ 5 N platform, Vanwall gives its Vandervell H-GT a high-performance aesthetic makeover inspired by the classic Lancia Delta HF Integrale. But what makes this body kit a genuine “high-performance” upgrade isn’t the way it makes the car look: it’s the 500 lb. weight savings!
Developed by Austrian racing team ByKOLLES Racing and invoking the name of a 1950s Formula 1 team, the Vandervell H-GT is essentially a new Hyundai IONIQ 5 N in aggressive, Lancia Delta-inspired carbon-fiber bodywork that the company claims gives the car an, “unprecedented weight optimization in this vehicle category.”
The H-GT’s new “thin wall” carbon fiber body slashes the car’s weight by over 230 kg (507 lbs.), which means ByKOLLES’ new Vandervell can do anything that Hyundai’s “special” IONIQ 5 N hot hatch can do. Only faster.
The car was first announced in 2023 (along with the renderings shown, below), when ByKOLLES was competing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with what used to be called an LMP car – but they keep changing the names of these things so it could be a Daytona Prototype, Hypercar, or even a 24 Hour LeMans Wonkavator by now.
The important part, however, is that a few of these cars have now broken cover, with ex-Formula 1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, having been seen trying the new-age Lancia on for size.
The Vanwall Vandervell website still shows the same €128,000 ($145,405, as I type this) price tag and specs it did in 2023, which either means they haven’t updated it in a while, were really, really good at pricing the thing in the first place, or both.
That’s presumably on top of the IONIQ N’s already hefty $66,100 price tag.