During the weekend, Warren Buffett’s conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, garnered investors’ attention with a strong earnings report and an insightful “Woodstock for Capitalists” presentation. Berkshire’s Class A shares climbed as high as 2% on Monday, hitting an intraday high of $502,055 per share, before closing up 1.05% at $497,000. Monday’s rally extended the stock’s year-to-date gains to nearly 6%. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate reported a 12.6% increase in operating earnings in the first quarter, which includes profits from insurance companies, railroads, utilities, and Dairy Queen.
A rebound in Berkshire’s insurance business, especially Geico, contributed to the strong performance. In addition, earnings increased sharply due to Apple’s performance in its equity portfolio. “We continue to believe BRK’s shares are an attractive play in an uncertain macro environment,” said Brian Meredith, Berkshire analyst at UBS, who also raised full-year earnings estimates following the Q1 report. Berkshire also repurchased $4.4 billion of stock – the most since the first quarter of 2021 – up from $2.8 billion at the end of last year.
