Earnings
Berkshire's Operating Earnings Slip 5.8% as Insurance Profit Falls and Buybacks Reach $9.6 Billion
Weaker underwriting and lower investment income outweighed gains at BNSF, the energy unit and manufacturing in the third quarter.
HedgeWeekly News Desk ·
Berkshire Hathaway reported third-quarter operating earnings of $12.705 billion on Saturday, down 5.8% from $13.485 billion a year earlier. Net earnings attributable to shareholders fell to $22.112 billion from $30.796 billion, as investment gains shrank to $9.407 billion from $17.311 billion.
Insurance drove the decline. Underwriting profit dropped to $1.352 billion from $2.369 billion, and insurance investment income fell to $2.734 billion from $3.181 billion. Berkshire's other operating units improved: BNSF earned $1.729 billion, up from $1.449 billion, while Berkshire Hathaway Energy earned $1.612 billion, up from $1.489 billion. Manufacturing, service and retailing rose to $4.042 billion from $3.616 billion.
Berkshire repurchased about $9.6 billion of its own shares in the quarter and about $14.4 billion over nine months. One report on the results put its cash pile at $377.4 billion at the end of September. Insurance float stood at about $178.5 billion, up roughly $2.1 billion since the end of 2025.
For investors, the split is the point: the industrial and energy businesses grew while the insurance engine, which supplies the float Berkshire invests, earned less. Berkshire itself calls quarterly investment gains usually meaningless, so operating earnings and buyback pace are the cleaner read. Allocators should watch whether underwriting recovers and whether repurchases continue at this scale.