Even after Abel scores well in the meeting, Berkshire’s stock price falls and profits soar.

Berkshire Hathaway Shares gave up gains Monday afternoon following a solid performance and a surge in the company’s earnings as CEO Greg Abel hosted his first annual meeting over the weekend.

The conglomerate’s Class B shares closed nearly 1% lower after rising in early trading following a positive reception for Warren Buffett’s hand-picked successor at a Berkshire Hathaway gathering in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday. Many in the investment community acknowledged that Buffett had lost his signature wit and storytelling, but were reassured by Abel’s firm grasp of Berkshire’s behemoth and his insight into the future direction of the conglomerate.

“Greg Abel performed well in his first annual meeting as CEO, demonstrating a deep understanding of all of BRK’s key businesses and plans to drive operational excellence,” UBS’s Brian Meredith wrote in a note Sunday.

Berkshire Hathaway’s first-quarter report early Saturday showed the conglomerate’s operating profit rose 18% year over year. These gains were primarily driven by insurance underwriting, which surged 28.5% to approximately $1.7 billion. It also showed that the conglomerate has close to $400 billion in cash.

One of the main topics covered by Abel during the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions was artificial intelligence. This was a topic shareholders wanted to hear more about before the event. The CEO has stated that Berkshire will not do “AI for AI’s sake,” a cautious stance that differs from executives at other companies competing to integrate the technology. At one point in the morning, Abel turned to a discussion of cybersecurity risks associated with AI after taking a question from a deepfake version of Buffett.

The CEO was also joined at the event by other members of his leadership team, including Ajit Jain, Vice Chairman, Insurance Operations; Adam Johnson, president of Berkshire’s Consumer Products, Services and Retail business; and Katie Farmer, CEO of BNSF Railway. Abel guided shareholders through efforts to improve the railroad and insurance businesses, and the inclusion of other Berkshire executives was reassuring to investors.

Abel also added that Berkshire does not expect to break up or sell any of its subsidiaries.

“We are a large company, but we are an efficient large company,” Abel said. “We have no management hierarchy.”

Another highlight of the event included remarks from the audience by Chairman Buffett. Earlier in the meeting, Abel celebrated Buffett’s long tenure at Berkshire by hoisting a jersey into the rafters of the CHI Health Center, where the event is held each year.

Midway through the event, Buffett said in a special interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick that the current investment environment is “not ideal.”

Read all the highlights from the meeting here.

— CNBC’s Alex Harring, Yun Li and Christina Cheddar Berk contributed to this report.