Berkshire Hathaway stated on Saturday that as operating profits and overall profits came under pressure, the company accelerated its stock repurchase efforts in the third quarter.
The corporate group led by Greg Abel repurchased Berkshire Hathaway shares worth $9.6 billion. This amount more than doubles the $4.5 billion repurchased in the second quarter, bringing the company's total cumulative repurchases for 2026 to approximately $14.4 billion.
As the repurchase scale has increased significantly, Berkshire's operating profit – that is, the profit from its wholly-owned businesses – has declined year-on-year, due to a decline in profits from its insurance business.
Berkshire's total operating profit amounted to $12.705 billion, a decrease of 5.8% from $13.485 billion in the same period last year. Among this, insurance underwriting profits plummeted by 43% to $1.352 billion; insurance investment returns decreased by 14% to $2.734 billion. Meanwhile, Berkshire's railway, energy, and manufacturing businesses all saw year-over-year profit growth.
The company's overall profit – which includes Berkshire Hathaway's vast stock investment portfolio – also declined by 28% in the third quarter, from $30.796 billion in the same period last year to $22.112 billion. The company's investment returns fell by nearly 50%, to $9.407 billion.
Despite the decline in profits, Berkshire Hathaway's stock has still outperformed the broader market recently, against the backdrop of a significant shift in market focus away from technology stocks. Class A shares have risen by more than 12% over the past month, while the S&P 500 index has fallen by 5.5% during the same period. Since the beginning of the year, Berkshire Hathaway has gained 13%, whereas this broad market index has only risen by 7.8%.
In the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway's top five stock holdings remained unchanged, which are Alphabet, American Express, Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola.
Berkshire's cash reserves also increased by 3% in the third quarter, rising from $365.514 billion in the second quarter to $377.435 billion. However, if we exclude cash from railways and utilities as well as notes payable to the Treasury, the enterprise group's cash holdings amounted to $352.3 billion, a decrease of 1.9% from the previous quarter.
– CNBC’s Alex Crippen also contributed to this article.
