The order was NetJets' first from Bombardier, Hamzah Mazari, a New York-based analyst with Credit Suisse AG, said in a note to clients. He has an "outperform" rating on the shares.
"We believe Bombardier beat out Gulfstream," Mazari said. "One of the clear advantages in getting the order was the diversity of the high-end product line Bombardier has both in terms of range and cabin size."
The order may have been "in the pipeline for some time, with one of the key catalysts for it to materialize being the management change at NetJets," Mazari said.
Buffett installed Sokol to run the unit, which the billionaire called Berkshire's "major problem" for 2009, after reductions in corporate-travel spending amid the global recession damped demand for business-jet flights.
NetJets made a $207 million pretax profit in 2010, helped by a 7% increase in sales, compared with a loss of $711 million a year earlier, according to Berkshire's 2010 annual report. It posted an aggregate pretax loss of $157 million in the 11 years through 2009, according to the report.
The unit had 6,238 employees, about 1,000 less than a year earlier, according to the report. Berkshire bought NetJets in 1998, according to the jet operator's Web site.