Investment company Berkshire Hathaway, led by Warren Buffett, reported a strong first-quarter operating profit of $11.22 billion, a 39 percent increase from the comparative period of $8.07 billion. The conglomerate has been making money in recent years through acquisitions and using its cash to buy back its own shares. In the first quarter, Berkshire spent about $2.6 billion to buy back its own shares, leading to an increase in the operating profit.
Despite this, Buffett still has a gigantic coffers and used his money to make purchases in the insurance sector. Berkshire Hathaway bought an insurance company at the end of 2022 for $11.6 billion and more than ten million shares worth about $589 million in Occidental Petroleum last December, among other things. The underwriting result of Buffett’s insurance holdings increased by 185 percent from the comparison period to $2.598 billion, with Geico reporting a significant improvement in results from the first quarter that boosted investment income in the insurance sector by 32 percent from the comparison period to more than $2.5 billion.
However, Berkshire’s net profit fell 64 percent from the corresponding figure last year due to non-recurring entries that explain large fluctuations in the figures. Buffett reduced his Apple holdings by approximately 13 percent during the first quarter, but it was still Berkshire’s largest single stock holding at the end of March with a value of about $135.4 billion or around 790 million Apple shares as per CNBC reports .
