Berkshire Hathaway recently posted about its highest operating profit in the last quarter over the weekend. The overall operating profit was close to $36 billion. The given profit was due to a major boost in the stock holdings, supplemented by rising rates of interest and higher dividend payouts. All these factors resulted in a rebound in performance.
The boost in the stock holdings was due to a higher performance of Geico Car Insurer. The performance of these stocks helped to improve the profit margin and contributed significantly (by almost 38%) to Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance business as compared to the second quarter of 2022.
According to Forexlive.com –
“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…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.”
In the second quarter of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway’s operating profit increased by 7% from $9.42 billion in 2022 to $10.4 billion. On the other hand, the net income also increased to $35.91 as compared to a loss of $43.63 billion in the second quarter of 2022.
In addition to that, Berkshire repurchased $1.4 billion in stock. The company is a major net seller of stocks. However, it released about $8 billion in more stocks than it bought. This further increased its level of cash to $147.4 billion by 30th June 2023, which increased from $130.6 billion three months ago. This led to a record increase in cash stake.
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