Berkshire Hathaway’s quarterly profit jumped 6.4 times

Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm of American billionaire Warren Buffett, posted a 6.4x increase in net income in the first quarter, driven by a significant increase in the value of its investment portfolio, including Apple’s share price.

According to a company press release, net profit in January-March amounted to $35.504 billion, or $24.377 thousand per class “A” share, compared to $5.58 billion, or $3.784 thousand, received in the same period last year. .

Berkshire’s investment income was $27.439 billion against a loss of $1.58 billion a year earlier. In accordance with American accounting standards, this indicator takes into account the change in the value of the shares owned by the company and, therefore, is largely dependent on fluctuations in the stock market.

Meanwhile, operating income, which Buffett calls more indicative of the company and doesn’t take into account gains/losses on investments and derivatives, increased 12.6% to $8.065 billion.

Revenue grew by 20.5% to $85.393 billion. The income of the division, which includes the railway, energy and utilities business, soared 1.8 times and amounted to $21.936 billion.

The volume of premiums collected by the insurance division increased by 13.2% to $19.796 billion.

Berkshire repurchased about $4.4 billion worth of its own shares last quarter.

The company’s total assets at the end of March amounted to $997.072 billion compared to $948.465 billion three months earlier.

Including the portfolio of shares owned by the investment company was estimated at $328.161 billion against $308.793 billion at the end of 2022. Almost 77% of this amount is invested in the papers of five companies: American Express ($25 billion at the end of March), Apple ($151 billion), Bank of America ($29.5 billion), Coca-Cola ($24.8 billion) and Chevron ($21 billion). .6 billion). At the end of December, the combined share of these companies in the portfolio of Berkshire was about 75%.

Class A shares of Berkshire are up 4.9% year-to-date, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index is up 7.7%. At the close of trading on Friday, they cost $491.84 thousand.