BRK-B vs DPC: How Berkshire Hathaway and DPC Holdings PLC Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: BRK-B is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. BRK-B and DPC share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined BRK-B and DPC exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified holding company that owns a wide range of businesses outright and holds a large portfolio of public stocks. Its foundation is insurance: GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance, and other insurers generate underwriting profit and, more importantly, float (premiums held before claims are paid) that Berkshire invests. In Q1 2026 insurance underwriting income rose to about $1.72 billion from $1.34 billion a year earlier. Beyond insurance, Berkshire owns the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and consumer and industrial businesses such as Duracell, Dairy Queen, See's Candies, and Precision Castparts, alongside a stock portfolio historically anchored by names like Apple and American Express.

Full BRK-B guide

Doncasters was founded in 1778 in Derby, England, and its modern business is making the parts that sit in the hottest, most stressed section of a jet engine or an industrial gas turbine: single-crystal and equiaxed turbine blades, vanes, structural castings, turbine frames, housings and airfoils, plus the nickel- and cobalt-based superalloy feedstock those castings are poured from. A third business line makes turbocharger wheels for engine manufacturers. The company reports in three segments, Engine Products North America (roughly 60% of revenue), Engine Products Europe (roughly 30%) and Turbo Wheels (roughly 10%), across 14 principal facilities with about 3,077 employees. Customers are the engine and turbine primes themselves: GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Safran, Honeywell, Siemens Energy, GE Vernova, Ansaldo Energia and Doosan. About 70% of 2025 revenue sat under long-term agreements, and the moat is regulatory qualification rather than brand: once a casting is certified into an engine program, replacing the supplier is a multi-year engineering and re-certification exercise.

Full DPC guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• BRK-B drivers: Leadership transition to Greg Abel; Insurance float and underwriting.
• DPC drivers: Narrowbody engine output and the hot-section aftermarket; Industrial gas turbine demand tied to power for data centres.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The central 2026 risk is the leadership transition itself: Buffett's judgment and reputation were core to Berkshire's edge, and the market will test whether Greg Abel can allocate capital as effectively, especially with a record cash pile to deploy. For DPC, the most immediate risk is the price itself: at roughly 9 times trailing sales and well north of 50 times 2025 adjusted EBITDA, the stock trades above the average broker target, and Morgan Stanley opened at Equalweight with a $47 objective against a market price near $57.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick BRK-B if you believe its drivers more; DPC if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the BRK-B and DPC guides.

BRK-B. Figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date; verify live numbers before acting. Because accounting rules force Berkshire to mark its large stock portfolio to market each quarter, GAAP net income is noisy, so investors typically focus on operating earnings and book value per share rather than a simple P/E. The record cash balance means a meaningful part of the market cap is cash awaiting deployment, which affects how the business should be valued.

DPC. The multiple is the whole argument. Priced at $33, the IPO valued the group near $4.2 billion, and at about $57 the market has effectively doubled that in six weeks without any public quarterly report to justify it, which is why the average of the July initiations (Jefferies at $56, Rothschild Redburn at $53.50, RBC at $53, Morgan Stanley at $47) sits below the trading price. On trailing GAAP figures the company loses money, so any valuation case has to run through adjusted EBITDA and an assumption that interest expense falls as the post-IPO balance sheet is repaired. Whether the August 11 report validates the first-quarter acceleration to about 26% growth is the near-term swing factor.

Headline figures (approximate, Jul 2026): BRK-B shows operating earnings (q1 2026) ~$11.35 billion, up ~18% year over year (approximate; verify live), net earnings (q1 2026) ~$10.1 billion, but volatile due to mark-to-market swings on equities (approximate; verify live), cash and treasurys ~$397 billion at end of Q1 2026, a record (approximate; verify live), market cap ~$1 trillion (BRK-B ~$497 per share in mid-July 2026; approximate; verify live); DPC shows revenue (ttm) ~$886 million through late March 2026, up ~12% year over year, fy2025 revenue ~$837 million, up ~12% from ~$746 million in 2024, adjusted ebitda (2025) ~$138 million, a ~16.5% margin, on gross profit of ~$193 million, gaap net income (ttm) ~-$167 million, after a ~-$173 million net loss in 2025.

BRK-B and DPC are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined BRK-B and DPC exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.