Berkshire Hathaway’s Strong Q1 Performance: Buffett Continues to Buy Back Shares and Increase Profits in Insurance Sector
Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, reported a strong January-March result. Despite recent acquisitions in the insurance and oil sectors, Buffett has used money to buy back his own shares. This has led to an increase in the operating profit of Berkshire Hathaway by 39 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Buffett’s cash has been breaking new records for its size quarter after quarter, with a new record of $189 billion reported in the first quarter. In recent years, Berkshire has made several acquisitions, including buying an insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion and more than ten million shares worth about $589 million in Occidental Petroleum. However, despite these purchases, Buffett still has a gigantic coffers.
In the absence of suitable acquisition targets, Berkshire has used money to buy back its own shares. During the first quarter of the year, Berkshire spent about $2.6 billion to buy back its own shares. The operating profit of Berkshire increased by 39 percent to $11.22 billion in the first quarter compared to $8.07 billion in the previous period.
Buffett made money especially with insurance businesses during this period, with underwriting results increasing by 185 percent from the comparison period to $2.598 billion compared to $911 million earlier. The underwriting result was improved primarily due to Geico’s significant improvement in results from the first quarter and investment income in insurance sector increased by 32 percent from comparison period to more than $2.5 billion as well .
Berkshire’s net profit fell 64 percent from last year’s corresponding figure due largely to non-recurring entries such as changes in value of Apple holdings which were worth $135.4 billion at end of Q1 report by CNBC that means around 790 million Apple shares
