Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKa.N reported a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit, helped by Apple Inc. gains and a Geico recovery.
Berkshire also accelerated its stock repurchases, buying back $4.4 billion while reducing its interests in other firms, including Chevron Corp CVX.N, a big holding.
Results were disclosed before Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, a weekend that gathers tens of thousands of people.
Since 1965, Buffett, 92, has led Berkshire from a failing textile firm to a conglomerate with dozens of businesses, including Geico, the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and manufacturing and retail divisions like See’s Candies and Dairy Queen ice cream.
Diversification has made Berkshire a solid long-term investment for many investors, not just Buffett devotees, despite recession fears and banking industry concerns.
Net income grew to $24,377 per Class A share from $5.58 billion or $3,784 a year earlier.
Berkshire now owns $151 billion of Apple’s AAPL.O shares after a 27% rise.
Buffett advises investors to overlook Berkshire’s unrealized profits and losses in net earnings due to an accounting regulation.
Quarterly operating profit rose 13% to $8.07 billion, or $5,561 per Class A share, from $7.16 billion.
Geico’s six-quarter underwriting losses ended while Berkshire’s insurance subsidiaries’ investment income rose 68%.
Geico’s pretax underwriting gain was $703 million due to increased premiums, fewer wrecks, and a large decline in marketing expenditure, which may have reduced high-risk driver coverage.
Berkshire sold $13.3 billion in equities and purchased $2.9 billion in the quarter, increasing its cash stockpile to $130.6 billion.
Berkshire’s holding in Chevron fell 28% to $21.6 billion, even though the oil company’s stock price dropped 9%.
Berkshire owns 23.6% of Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY.N.
Its stock sales offset the $8.2 billion Berkshire invested in increasing its interest in Pilot Travel Centers to 80% from 38.6%, leaving the founding Haslam family with 20%. Expected rise.
Higher fuel prices and decreased freight volumes cut BNSF’s profit by 9% to $1.25 billion.
In 2020, Berkshire Hathaway Energy put aside $359 million for legal and other costs from wildfires in Oregon and northern California, where it has various businesses, causing profit to decline 46%.
Operating results included October’s purchase of Alleghany Corp., while net earnings included Pilot’s gain.
Berkshire’s Class A shares have gained 4.9% this year, lagging the S&P 500.SPX 7.7%. In 2022, without dividends, the index trailed Berkshire by 23.4 percentage points.
