Warren Buffett and Greg Abel inspect Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.
David A. Grogen | CNBC
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced a strong rebound in operating profit on Saturday, but there were no buybacks and the cash pile grew to new highs.
Berkshire’s third-quarter operating profit from the conglomerate’s wholly-owned businesses, including insurance and railroads, rose 34% from a year earlier to $13.485 billion. The profit was driven by a more than 200% jump in underwriting revenue to $2.37 billion.
Buffett once again refrained from buying back his own stock, even though stock prices had fallen sharply. The company said there were no share buybacks during the first nine months of 2025. The company’s Class A and B shares each rose 5% in 2025, while the S&P 500 index rose 16.3%.
With no buybacks, Berkshire’s cash holdings rose to a record $381.6 billion, surpassing the previous high of $347.7 billion set in the first quarter of this year.
Berkshire, too, was not attracted to other stocks and sold the stock net in the third quarter, resulting in a taxable profit of $10.4 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A stock, year-to-date
Buffett, 95, announced in May that he would step down as CEO at the end of the year after 60 legendary years. Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, will become CEO, but Buffett will remain chairman of the board. Abel also plans to begin writing his annual letter in 2026.
The Omaha-based conglomerate’s stock price fell double digits from its all-time high following the announcement. The decline partly reflects the so-called Buffett premium, the extra price investors are willing to pay for the billionaire’s unparalleled track record and superior capital allocation skills.
Last month, Berkshire announced a deal to acquire Oxychem, the petrochemical division of Occidental Petroleum, for $9.7 billion in cash. The deal is Berkshire’s biggest since 2022, when it paid $11.6 billion for insurance company Alleghany.
Overall profit, which includes gains from Berkshire’s investments in other publicly traded companies, rose 17% from a year earlier to $30.8 billion.
