Berkshire Hathaway posts its highest ever quarterly operating profit

<p>Over the weekend, Berkshire Hathaway, led by Warren Buffett, recorded its highest-ever quarterly operating profit, reporting an overall profit of nearly $36 billion. The gains were boosted by stock holdings, rising interest rates, and increased dividend payouts. </p><p>Of note was the performance of Geico car insurer which significantly improved and contributed a 38% increase in profit for Berkshire’s insurance businesses compared to Q2 2022. </p><p>The gains in the insurance business helped to counterbalance declines in other businesses, such as the BNSF railroad, which saw a 24% drop in overall profit due to lower consumer goods shipments and increased price competition from the trucking industry.</p><p>In the quarter, Berkshire's</p><ul><li>Operating profit rose by 7% to $10.04 billion, up from $9.42 billion a year ago, </li><li>Net income came in at $35.91 billion compared to a $43.62 billion loss in Q2 2022. </li></ul><p>The company repurchased $1.4 billion in stock. Despite remaining a major net seller of stocks, it shed about $8 billion more stocks than it bought, which led to an increase in its cash stake to $147.4 billion as of June 30, up from $130.6 billion three months prior. That is near record high levels.</p><p>The results also included a full quarter of the truck stop operator Pilot, in which Berkshire owns an 80% stake, and which contributed $114 million to operating profit.</p><p>Buffett trimmed his Chevron estate by $1.4 billion to 19.4 billion at the end of June</p><p>Berkshire's class A shares closed on Friday at $533,600, 2% below their record high reached in March 2022, and have increased 13.84% this year. In comparison, the S&amp;P 500 index has risen by 16.63%.</p>

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.