Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Investments Report Strong First-Quarter Results
Warren Buffett, the world’s most famous investor and billionaire, reported strong first-quarter results for his investment company Berkshire Hathaway. The multinational conglomerate saw its cash increase to a new record of $189 billion during the quarter, a 22% increase from the previous year.
Despite making several acquisitions in recent years, such as Alleghany for $11.6 billion and Occidental Petroleum shares worth about $589 million, Buffett still has a significant amount of cash on hand. In the absence of suitable acquisition targets, the conglomerate has used money to buy back its own shares, spending about $2.6 billion to do so during the first quarter.
Berkshire Hathaway’s operating profit increased by 39% to $11.22 billion in the first quarter of 2023 compared to $8.07 billion in the same period last year. This growth was driven by gains in several industries, including insurance businesses. Underwriting results for insurance holdings increased by 185% from the comparison period to $2.598 billion, with Geico reporting a significant improvement in results from the first quarter alone. Investment income in the insurance sector also increased by 32% from the comparison period to more than $2.5 billion.
However, Berkshire Hathaway’s net profit fell 64% from the comparison period to $12.7 billion compared to $35.5 billion last year due to non-recurring entries such as changes in Apple holdings value and other factors affecting financial statements accuracy and completeness . At the end of Q1 2023, Apple holdings were worth approximately $135 Billion and accounted for over 790 million shares which is a decrease of about 13 percent compared with Q4 2022 . Despite this reduction, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest single stock holding at the end of Q1
