Berkshire Hathaway: Do Good and Make Money
Stock market legend Warren Buffett has coined countless sayings of his own, but one is borrowed: “Do good and talk about it.” This PR classic by Georg-Volkmar Graf Zedtwitz-Arnim from 1961 remains a guiding principle of public relations to this day. And Buffett has been putting it into practice for decades—making a media splash in front of the cameras and, until 2025, regularly serving as the figurehead at the annual shareholders’ meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the “Woodstock of capitalism”. Since 2006, Buffett has been gradually giving away nearly his entire fortune, mostly to the Gates Foundation, which fights diseases such as polio, malaria, and HIV, but also aims to improve nutrition and education in the world’s poorest countries. The friendship between Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates dates back to the early 1990s. In 2010, the two, along with other billionaires, founded “The Giving Pledge”, an initiative in which signatories commit to donating the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.
Buffett approached the question of succession with similar diligence. It was not until 2021 that he named Greg Abel, who has been leading the company as CEO since the beginning of this year, as his designated successor. Since then, the “Oracle of Omaha” has served as chairman at Berkshire. This patience in making the most important personnel decision of his career is consistent with his principle of steering the fortune in a new direction only once responsibility is in the right hands. Operationally, the second-quarter report for 2026 under Abel’s leadership paints a strong picture. Net income doubled to USD 25.67 billion, and revenue rose from USD 92.52 billion to USD 101.81 billion—both figures well above analysts’ estimates. Notably, Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile shrank slightly for the first time in four years (to a still-impressive USD 365 billion) because Abel made net acquisitions, including a USD 10 billion investment in Alphabet. He also repurchased USD 4.5 billion worth of the company’s own shares.
Not everyone in the financial world is convinced by this change in course. Investor Michael Burry, known in part for the film “The Big Short” about his bets against the US housing market before the financial crisis, publicly expressed skepticism. He had always feared that a successor to Buffett would lack Buffett’s patience for timing investments correctly—a concern that has now been confirmed. The bulk of the cash pile remains unused; this is more about setting the course than taking actual investment steps, according to Burry. UBS analyst Brian Meredith disagreed and reaffirmed his “Buy” rating for Berkshire Class B shares with a raised price target of USD 604. At the current price of USD 516.20 (EUR 447.25), this translates to upside potential of just over 17%.
Zefiro Methane: Do Good and Profit While Protecting the Climate
Zefiro Methane is a far cry from such scale, with a share price of just under CAD 0.60 (EUR 0.37). The Canadian company’s market capitalization of around CAD 55 million also pales in comparison to Berkshire’s more than USD 1 trillion. However, Zefiro links its charitable commitment much more directly to its own business model. While Buffett has never shied away from investing in CO₂-intensive industries such as oil extraction or conventional energy production, the Canadians are remedying the damage caused by these activities. Its operating subsidiary, Plants & Goodwin (P&G), plugs abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells—and is paid for this work by, among others, the Well Done Foundation, an environmental foundation active in 18 US states. The partnership, announced in July, recently made headlines on the front page of the local newspaper The Bradford Era after an orphaned well in Pennsylvania was plugged—with actor Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills, 90210) serving as the foundation’s brand ambassador and a BBC camera crew on site.
The business model behind this is more than just high-profile do-goodism. In the US alone, there are more than 2 million known unplugged wells from which methane, a gas that is at least 80 times more harmful to the climate than CO₂ in the short term, is continuously escaping. The actual number is likely to be far higher. P&G CEO Luke Plants reports that as remediation crews make their way to known well sites, they continue to discover additional ones that had not been recorded anywhere until then. The cost of remediation is estimated at USD 400 to 600 billion, supported by the IIJA funding program, which has allocated USD 4.7 billion in funds. Zefiro stands to profit in three ways: from plugging the wells, from measurement services, and from certified emissions credits. A project in Oklahoma has already generated 92,956 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent according to the methodology of the American Carbon Registry and sold it to the commodities trader Mercuria.
Growth is currently limited only by the availability of personnel and equipment, which is why Zefiro acquired the drilling fleet from Viking Well Service in May. This acquisition and the partnership with the foundation expand the company’s presence to 13 US states, and a three-year major contract with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources worth USD 19.6 million secures baseline capacity utilization through 2029. But even without the acquisition, revenue rose by 36% to approximately USD 33 million in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) turned from a loss of USD 5.5 million to a profit of USD 3.1 million. In a recent study, analysts at GBC Research assigned a “Buy” rating with a price target of USD 1.50 or CAD 2.12—representing a theoretical upside potential of 250%. For 2026/27, GBC expects the company to move into sustainable profitability with EBITDA of just over USD 10 million.
Novo Nordisk: Do Good and Lose Weight
The link between profit and public benefit is similarly firmly embedded at Novo Nordisk—here, it is not the entrepreneur who donates his fortune, but a foundation that has been the owner from the outset. All Class A shares are held by Novo Holdings A/S, which is wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, an ownerless Danish foundation established in 1924. Its charter commits it to a dual purpose: securing a stable capital base for the Novo Group while simultaneously promoting scientific, humanitarian, and social causes. Since 2010, it has distributed more than USD 1.3 billion for research, education, and humanitarian causes.
Operationally, the group is currently going through a challenging phase. After years of soaring success in the wake of the weight-loss injection boom—with the stock briefly climbing above DKK 1,000 in 2024 and Novo Nordisk briefly becoming Europe’s most valuable company—the Danish firm is now struggling with market share losses to its rival Eli Lilly and with price pressure in its US business. Eli Lilly’s Foundayo, a tablet competitor to Wegovy, recently received approval in the United Kingdom, while Novo Nordisk’s own Wegovy pill fell slightly short of expectations in the second quarter with revenue of DKK 3.22 billion. Weaker trial data for the successor drug CagriSema also weighed on sentiment.
Upon closer inspection, the latest quarterly figures were mixed. Adjusted revenue rose 6% to DKK 78.5 billion, and adjusted operating profit rose 8% to DKK 33.4 billion—both exceeding expectations. Nevertheless, the stock fell by more than 4% following the earnings report because analysts such as Michael Leuchten of Jefferies and Matthew Weston of UBS attributed the upward revision in forecasts primarily to one-time effects and cited unresolved questions regarding the pipeline. CEO Mike Doustdar remained confident, however, pointing to future margin growth driven by higher dosages and announcing the launch of the Wegovy pill in Germany in September. The majority of analysts, however, see the stock’s fair value as below the current price. The average target price of about DKK 285 (around EUR 38) is lower than the DKK 297 currently quoted on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange.
The Winning Formula: Do Good and Create Profit Potential
Novo Nordisk is the only company in the trio that pays dividends. The dividend yield ranges between 3.6% and 3.8%, depending on the estimate. The share price, however, appears to have run its course, if analysts are to be believed. At Berkshire Hathaway, a single individual is giving away his fortune following a decades-long, carefully planned handover of responsibility. The return of capital to shareholders is reflected here through share buybacks. Nevertheless, experts believe the potential is limited—unless the surprisingly strong numbers are followed by new estimates with higher price targets. At Zefiro Methane, collaboration with a foundation is an integral part of the business model. The Canadians are doing good and profiting directly from it. Since this is a small, still relatively unknown small-cap stock, the risk is naturally higher than with the two established large corporations. In return, according to analysts, there is the potential for the share price to multiply.
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