© Reuters. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from the billionaire investor at Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., May 4, 2019. REUTERS/Scott Morgan
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By Jonathan Stempel
OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) Inc posted a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit on Saturday, reflecting gains from stocks such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), while higher investment income and a rebound at car insurer Geico bolstered operating results.
Berkshire also sped up repurchases of its own stock, buying back $4.4 billion, while paring its investments in other stocks such as Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), which is still a major holding.
Net income equaled $24,377 per Class A share and rose from $5.58 billion, or $3,784 per share, a year earlier. That in part reflected a 27% jump in Apple’s stock price, leaving Berkshire with a $151 billion stake in the iPhone maker.
Berkshire released results ahead of its annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, part of a weekend that draws tens of thousands of people to the city.
An accounting rule requires Berkshire to report unrealized gains and losses with net results, and Buffett urges investors to ignore the resulting volatility.
Quarterly operating profit increased 13% to $8.07 billion, or about $5,561 per Class A share, from $7.16 billion.
Those results benefited from Geico snapping a six-quarter string of underwriting losses, and a 68% increase in the income Berkshire’s insurance units generate from investments.
Berkshire’s cash hoard grew $2 billion in the quarter to $130.6 billion as the company sold a net $10.4 billion of stocks. Its stake in Chevron fell 28% to $21.6 billion, though the oil company’s stock price dropped just 9%.
The stock sales more than offset the $8.2 billion Berkshire spent to boost its stake in truck stop operator Pilot Travel Centers to 80% from 38.6%, leaving the founding Haslam family with 20%.
Buffett, 92, has run Berkshire since 1965, transforming it from a struggling textile company into a conglomerate with dozens of businesses including the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and manufacturing and retail units including See’s Candies and Dairy Queen ice cream.
Berkshire’s Class A shares have risen 4.9% this year, trailing the Standard & Poor’s 500’s 7.7% gain. The index lagged Berkshire by 23.4 percentage points in 2022, excluding dividends.
Source: Investing.com
