Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway posts big profit ahead of shareholder meeting
Warren Buffett’s sprawling Berkshire Hathaway posted a big profit in its first-quarter earnings on Saturday, hours before the conglomerate’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
The company’s net earnings were $21.66 billion, or $13,209 per Class A share, compared to last year’s net loss of $1.14 billion, or $962 per share. Earnings were boosted by unrealized gains of $15.1 billion in the company’s stock portfolio.
This excludes the losses from Kraft Heinz, whose shares plummeted at the beginning of the year following an SEC probe into the company’s accounting policies.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRK.A | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 715,880.00 | -8,160.00 | -1.13% |
However, Buffett has previously said that a better metric for the company’s success is its operating profit, which rose 5 percent to $5.56 billion.
Berkshire’s financial reach extends to almost every sector of the economy, and it owns a number of marketable, blue-chip stocks that are valued at $170 billion (excluding the company’s shares of Kraft Heinz). Some of those stocks include Apple, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Southwest Airlines, American Express and General Motors.
Berkshire ended the quarter with a cash pile worth $112 billion.