Berkshire Hathaway published its second-quarter results on Saturday, August 8, and they bear the first clear imprint of the new chief executive: after years of accumulation, the conglomerate's cash pile finally shrank.
Cash and equivalents fell to $365.5 billion from nearly $400 billion at the end of March. During the quarter Berkshire invested $10 billion in Alphabet, Google's parent company, added more than $24 billion in commercial, industrial and other stocks to its portfolio and bought back about $4.5 billion of its own shares.
The buyback came in at the low end of the $5 billion to $11 billion range that Buffett watchers had expected after the announcement of Warren Buffett's annual charitable donations in July; most of the repurchases were executed in June. In the first quarter, by contrast, Berkshire had repurchased only about $234 million of its stock. Between 2018 and 2024 the company bought back $78 billion of its own shares. Berkshire repurchases stock only when Abel and chairman Warren Buffett believe it trades below its intrinsic value, and it does not commit to a fixed amount; purchases may now slow, as the stock hit a new 52-week high on Thursday, August 6.
