{"id":10707,"date":"2025-02-24T19:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T19:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=10707"},"modified":"2025-02-24T19:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T19:40:11","slug":"berkshire-advances-on-earnings-surge-but-questions-linger-about-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=10707","title":{"rendered":"Berkshire advances on earnings surge, but questions linger about cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"RegularArticle-ArticleBody-5\" data-module=\"ArticleBody\" data-test=\"articleBody-2\" data-analytics=\"RegularArticle-articleBody-5-2\"><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\" style=\"top:0;left:0\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"InlineImage-imageEmbed\" id=\"ArticleBody-InlineImage-107410285\" data-test=\"InlineImage\">\n<div class=\"InlineImage-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<p>Warren Buffett surveys the concourse ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May 3, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>David A. Grogen | CNBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p><span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-1\">Berkshire Hathaway<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span> shares got a boost after Warren Buffett&#8217;s conglomerate reported a surge in operating earnings, but shareholders who were waiting for news of what will happen to its enormous pile of cash might be disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>Class A shares of the Omaha-based parent of Geico and BNSF Railway jumped nearly 4% Monday following Berkshire&#8217;s earnings report Saturday. Berkshire&#8217;s operating profit \u2014 earnings from the company&#8217;s wholly owned businesses \u2014 skyrocketed 71% to $14.5 billion in the fourth quarter, aided by insurance underwriting, where profits jumped 302% from the year-earlier period, to $3.4 billion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>Berkshire&#8217;s investment gains from its portfolio holdings slowed sharply, however, in the fourth quarter, to $5.2 billion from $29.1 billion in the year-earlier period. Berkshire sold more equities than it bought for a ninth consecutive quarter in the three months of last year, bringing total sale of equities to more than $134 billion in 2024. Notably, the 94-year-old Buffett has been aggressively shrinking Berkshire&#8217;s two largest equity holdings \u2014\u00a0Apple\u00a0and\u00a0Bank of America.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the selling spree, Berkshire&#8217;s gigantic cash pile grew to another record, $334.2 billion, up from $325.2 billion at the end of the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Buffett&#8217;s annual letter, the &#8220;Oracle of Omaha&#8221; said that raising a record amount of cash didn&#8217;t reflect a dimming of his love for buying stocks and businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities,&#8221; Buffett wrote. &#8220;That preference won&#8217;t change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He hinted that high valuations were the reason for sitting on his hands amid a raging bull market, saying &#8220;often, nothing looks compelling.&#8221; Buffett also endorsed the ability of Greg Abel, his chosen successor, to pick equity opportunities, even comparing him to the late Charlie Munger.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Berkshire&#8217;s buyback halt is still in place, as the conglomerate repurchased zero shares in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter of this year, through Feb. 10.<\/p>\n<p>Some investors and analysts expressed impatience with the lack of action and continued to wait for an explanation, while others have faith that Buffett&#8217;s conservative stance will pave the way for big opportunities in the next downturn.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shareholders should take comfort in knowing that the firm continues to be managed to survive and emerge stronger from any economic or market downturn by being in a financial position to take advantage of opportunities during a crisis,&#8221; said Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust Company and a Berkshire shareholder.<\/p>\n<p>Berkshire is coming off a strong year,\u00a0when it rallied 25.5% in 2024, outperforming the S&amp;P 500 \u2014 its best since 2021. The stock is up more than 5% so far in 2025.<\/p>\n<p><em>Correction: Buffett&#8217;s chosen successor is Greg Abel. An earlier version misspelled his name.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/02\/24\/berkshire-advances-on-surge-in-earnings-but-questions-linger-about-cash.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warren Buffett surveys the concourse ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May 3, 2024. David A. Grogen | CNBC Berkshire Hathaway shares got a boost after Warren Buffett&#8217;s conglomerate reported a surge in operating earnings, but shareholders who were waiting for news of what will happen to its enormous pile<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[4358,1967,356,1095,3615,542,2506],"class_list":{"0":"post-10707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance-news","8":"tag-advances","9":"tag-berkshire","10":"tag-cash","11":"tag-earnings","12":"tag-linger","13":"tag-questions","14":"tag-surge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}