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Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett added to the stakes in Apple and Chevron.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Berkshire Hathaway
‘s
corporate profits rose 39% in the second quarter, exceeding estimates, thanks to the company’s strong insurance and rail operations and substantially higher investment income.
The company continued to moderate the pace of its share buybacks in 2021, repurchasing only $1 billion in shares in the period, down $3.2 billion in the first quarter and trading at about $7 billion quarterly in the quarter. 2021.
Berkshire Hathaway
(ticker: BRK/A, BRK/B) had after-tax operating profit of $9.3 billion, up from $6.7 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Earnings per Class A share increased by 43% to $6,312, surpassing the FactSet consensus of $5,393 per share.
CEO Warren Buffett is price conscious with Berkshire’s share repurchases and the company did not buy any shares in April, when the stock nearly hit an all-time high. Berkshire also did not buy shares in May, but resumed the buyback later in June.
Berkshire’s Class A shares ended Friday at $439,528 after peaking in late March at a record $544,000. The stock fell below $400,000 in late June. The stock has fallen about 2% this year.
Berkshire’s total after-tax profit showed a loss of $43.8 billion in the second quarter, compared to a profit of $28.1 billion in the prior period. This was caused by the stock market decline, which depressed the value of the company’s huge stock portfolio. That stood at about $328 billion at the end of June, down from $390 billion on March 31. The S&P 500 fell 16% in the second quarter and
Apple
(AAPL), Berkshire’s largest equity stake, fell more than 20%.
Changes in portfolio value are included in Berkshire’s results based on accounting rules that Buffett says paint a misleading picture of the company’s financial health. He tells investors to focus on operating profit, excluding changes in stock portfolio value. With the stock market rally in the current quarter, Berkshire’s third-quarter earnings should get a nice boost.
Berkshire dramatically slowed its share purchases in the second quarter after a buying frenzy in the first quarter, when the company bought $51 billion in stock and $41 billion net after sales. Berkshire 10-Q regulatory filing released this morning along with earnings.
Berkshire added to its stake in
Apple
and
Chevron
in the second quarter, based on Barron’s analysis of the 10-Q. We calculate that Berkshire is approximately four million shares of
Apple
in the period, bringing its holding as of June 30 to 915 million shares worth $125.1 billion.
Chevron
,
On June 30, the stake was increased to 164 million shares worth $23.7 billion.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
.
