Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday posted its highest ever quarterly operating profit, while gains from stock holdings helped the conglomerate led by billionaire Warren Buffett swing to a nearly $36 billion overall profit.
Rising interest rates, and better results at the Geico car insurer, allowed Berkshire's insurance businesses to generate more money in the second quarter, with profit up 38 percent and interest and other investment income growing sixfold.
But while operating profit topped $10 billion, those same rising rates have made it more costly to buy and upgrade homes, hurting results at Berkshire's Clayton Homes and building products businesses, and buy RVs from its Forest River unit, where revenue sank 34 percent.During the second quarter it sold $8 billion more stocks than it bought and repurchased less of its own stock, and it ended June with a near-record $147.4 billion of cash.
Quarterly operating profit rose 7 percent to $10.04 billion, or about $6,938 per Class A share, from $9.42 billion a year earlier.
Operating results reflected recent purchases of Alleghany, whose businesses include various insurers and the toy company that makes Squishmallows, and the Pilot truck stop operator, which added $114 million of profit.
Net income totaled $35.91 billion, or $24,775 per Class A share, compared with a year-earlier $43.62 billion loss.
Year-earlier results reflected an accounting change for some insurance contracts.
Berkshire repurchased $1.4 billion of stock in the quarter, down from $4.4 billion from January to March.
It also sold $12.6 billion of stocks, while buying just $4.6 billion. Apple comprised about half of Berkshire's $353 billion equity portfolio.
