Berkshire earnings rose last quarter and CEO Greg Abel is starting to deploy Buffett's massive cash hoard
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- Berkshire Hathaway posted Q2 operating earnings of $12.98 billion, up 16% year-over-year, with manufacturing earnings surging 24% to $4.47 billion, Berkshire Hathaway Energy's profit jumping 27% to $891 million, and BNSF railroad posting a 6% increase to $1.56 billion.
- Insurance was the weak spot, with underwriting earnings falling 13% to $1.73 billion and insurance investment income declining 9% to $3.06 billion.
- Berkshire repurchased approximately $4.5 billion of its own shares in Q2 — only the second fiscal period under new CEO Greg Abel — a sharp acceleration from the $235 million spent in Q1 2026.
- Berkshire's cash pile declined to $365.5 billion at quarter-end from a record $397.4 billion three months earlier, as the conglomerate deployed capital through investments, buybacks, and the closing of its Taylor Morrison acquisition.
- Berkshire became a net buyer of equities in Q2 with nearly $20 billion in net purchases, ending a 14-quarter streak as a net seller of stocks.
- Alphabet is now among Berkshire's five largest equity holdings by market value alongside longtime holdings American Express, Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola, following a $10 billion investment Berkshire disclosed earlier this year.
- Berkshire shares are up just 3% year-to-date, underperforming the S&P 500's 13% gain, though the stock has risen 9% over the past three months.
Why it matters: Greg Abel's deployment of Berkshire's cash — $4.5 billion in buybacks, nearly $20 billion in net stock purchases, and the Taylor Morrison closing — ends a multiyear hoarding era that left the conglomerate trailing the S&P 500 by 10 percentage points year-to-date. Shareholders who pressed for capital action now see it, but insurance underwriting earnings falling 13% is a notable counterweight to the otherwise strong quarter.
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