Berkshire Hathaway
US star investor Buffett increases profit sharply
Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett in spring 2019. Photo: Nati Harnik/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Warren Buffett is considered one of the most successful financial investors in the world. The latest figures from Berkshire Hathaway are also impressive.
Thanks to the economic recovery from the Corona crisis, the investment company of the US star investor Warren Buffett earned brilliantly at the end of the year.
In the final quarter of 2021, Berkshire Hathaway increased its operating profit by 45 percent year-on-year to $7.3 billion, according to its own statement on Saturday. After being in the red in the same period of the previous year, the insurance business was doing better again. Other divisions such as the rail freight company BNSF also increased significantly.
Berkshire Hathaway’s net income grew 11 percent to $39.6 billion in the three months ended December. However, strongly fluctuating unrealized book profits from the many equity investments are also shown here. Therefore, the informative value with regard to the course of business is limited. Buffett advises against paying much attention to the metric. In total, Berkshire Hathaway has around 90 companies. There are also blocks of shares in corporations such as Apple and Coca-Cola.
Cash reserves slightly reduced
Berkshire reduced cash holdings, which were eagerly followed in the financial markets, to $146.7 billion. In the previous quarter they had reached the record value of 149.2 billion dollars. Investors have been anticipating Buffett’s next big deal for years, but he’s struggling to find acquisition targets. Instead, Buffett has been using the high reserves for share buybacks for some time. For this purpose, Berkshire spent $ 6.9 billion in the final quarter, after $ 7.6 billion in the previous quarter.
Coinciding with the quarterly report, Buffett also released his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders. In it he praised, among other things, the iPhone manufacturer Apple and its boss Tim Cook in the highest tones. The tech group has become one of the 91-year-old investor’s favorite stocks in recent years. Berkshire holds around 5.6 percent of Apple’s shares – the stake was last worth over $ 160 billion. In 2021, Apple paid Berkshire $785 million in dividends, according to Buffett.