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BRK-B · Forward model · Pilot Travel Centers · Abel's price case

What has to happen in Pilot Travel Centers

Model as of

This page changes Pilot Travel Centers inside the complete BRK-B model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

BRK-B forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $488.00 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $15.88B 15% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $3.55B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

A reverse DCF onto the CEO's own transaction, not a forecast. Abel bought nothing in April, then 1,458,312 Class B shares at an average $476.01 in May and 7,139,881 at $487.98 in June — $4,527.9M in all — under a programme whose sole condition is that the repurchase price be 'below Berkshire's intrinsic value, as conservatively determined by Berkshire's Chief Executive Officer after consultation with the Chairman of the Board'. That is a disclosed transaction at a disclosed price, and it says intrinsic value exceeded $487.98 in June 2026. This case holds EVERY operating assumption at base — same growth, same margins, same exit multiple — and asks only what cost of equity reproduces $487.98. The answer is 13.65%, and at an 11x exit it is 12.11%. Neither is a rate anybody would defend for a railroad, a regulated utility group and a P&C underwriter, which is the point: on this model's own arithmetic Abel was buying comfortably below fair value rather than at the edge of it. Result: $488.00 a share, -3.1% on the tape.

Pilot Travel Centers

Basis quarter$14.93B
Final quarter$15.88B
Implied CAGR+1%
Final revenue mix15%

Travel-centre fuel and merchandise. $14,932M of revenue and $290M of pre-tax earnings in the basis quarter. Revenue here is a diesel price rather than a volume — the line moved from $10,109M to $14,932M year on year while pre-tax earnings moved from $119M to $290M — and pre-tax earnings are the thinnest and least stable in the company: three of the five quarters before this one were loss-making or break-even.

Last four quarters
2025 Q3 $10.88B Reported
2025 Q4 $10.78B Estimated
2026 Q1 $11.24B Reported
2026 Q2 $14.93B Reported
FuelNon-fuel merchandise and services
Sequential growth 0.0%/qtr decaying toward +0.5% 0.0%. TTM revenue is +14.09% but that is the diesel price, not the business; a flat opening rate is the honest one.
Pilot Travel Centers

Latest: $15.88B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2022Q1 $0.00
2022Q2 $0.00
2022Q3 $0.00
2022Q4 $0.00
2023Q1 $9.51B
2023Q2 $14.75B
2023Q3 $13.17B
2023Q4 $14.31B
2024Q1 $12.50B
2024Q2 $13.00B
2024Q3 $10.63B
2024Q4 $10.76B
2025Q1 $10.43B
2025Q2 $10.11B
2025Q3 $10.88B
2025Q4 $10.78B
2026Q1 $11.24B
2026Q2 $14.93B
2026Q3E $14.93B
2026Q4E $14.94B
2027Q1E $14.96B
2027Q2E $14.98B
2027Q3E $15.01B
2027Q4E $15.05B
2028Q1E $15.09B
2028Q2E $15.13B
2028Q3E $15.18B
2028Q4E $15.23B
2029Q1E $15.29B
2029Q2E $15.34B
2029Q3E $15.41B
2029Q4E $15.47B
2030Q1E $15.53B
2030Q2E $15.60B
2030Q3E $15.67B
2030Q4E $15.74B
2031Q1E $15.81B
2031Q2E $15.88B

Assumptions & reasoning

  • 1.94% is the best margin in two years and it follows three straight loss-making or break-even quarters at -0.16%, -0.74% and -0.44%. The trailing-twelve-month margin is 0.30% and the two-year mean is 0.91%. Terminal is set at 1.00%, near the two-year figure — treating the basis quarter as a run rate would be the single most aggressive assumption available anywhere in this model, and it is not made.
  • ASEASONAL, decisively. Factors [0.9861, 1.0201, 0.9859, 1.0080] on only ten windows, signal 0.0343 against a spread of 0.1139 — the spread is 3.3x the signal. Whatever pattern is in a travel-centre year is buried under the diesel price.
  • HISTORY: the 2022 quarters are explicit ZEROS flagged estimated, because Berkshire did not consolidate Pilot at all until 31 January 2023 — it held a 38.6% equity-method stake and no Pilot revenue entered consolidated revenue. They are padded rather than omitted so the consolidated history keeps its 2022 quarters. The 2023 Q1 figure of $9,508M then covers about TWO months of operations, not three, which is why the step from 2022 Q4 to 2023 Q2 in the rendered consolidated series is an accounting event and not growth.
  • Segment earnings before income taxes are struck after this segment's OWN interest expense. The seven segments' interest lines sum to $1,437M in the basis quarter against $1,335M of CONSOLIDATED interest expense, so every dollar of Berkshire's interest cost is already charged inside a vertical margin. That is why no debt is netted in spec.netCash: subtracting the $128,599M of borrowings as well would take the same cost twice.
  • Berkshire files no fourth-quarter report. Every Q4 point here is the annual figure less the nine-month figure from that year's third-quarter 10-Q and is flagged estimated for that reason; Q1, Q2 and Q3 are read directly from the filed segment notes and are not.
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