Warren Buffett’s returns are off the charts. Between 1965—when Buffett took over—and the end of last year, Berkshire Hathaway shares rose just over 5,500,000%. That makes it difficult to compare Berkshire’s performance to the S&P 500 during his tenure,

What's truly remarkable about Warren Buffett is his longevity. From 1965 to 2024, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A) returned an incredible compound return of 19.9% per year, nearly double the returns of the S&P 500 Index at 10.

Warren Buffett announced his impending retirement from Berkshire Hathaway. Here’s how the longtime billionaire investor judges the health of a business.