Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -Tarren Buffett’s Berksshire Hathaway on Saturday said operating profit set a record in the fourth quarter and the third straight calendar year, strengthened improved insurance insurance and greater revenue than investing in its insurance companies.
A large part of this revenue came from Berksshire’s huge financial stake, which ended up in 2024 on a record $ 334.2 billion, twice over a year earlier.
In his annual letter to the Berksshire shareholders, 94-year-old Buffett assured that Berksshire would rather invest in companies in cash holding.
But he also said that his Omaha, a conglomerate based in Nebraska, “better than I expected,” although 53% of 189 operational companies have published a lower earnings.
The improvement has partly attributed to larger yields in US cash register and improvement of car insurer Geico, which has benefited from improved prices and firmer insurance, because the rates of losses from accidents have refused.
“These were amazing numbers,” said Thomas Russo, a partner in Gardner Russo & Quinn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who had owned Berkshire Stock since the 1980s. “You really saw the power of Berksshire’s insurance and investment operations.”
Buffett has singled out Todd Combs, the Geica CEO of 2020, and also the investment manager in Berksshire, saying that he “remodeling Geico in greater way” increasing efficiency and improvement of insurance, although there is more work.
Geico reduced more than 2,300 jobs last year and spilled about 10,000 jobs-26% of its workforce-at the end of 2022.
No buyer
Operational profits increased by 71% to $ 14.53 billion in the fourth quarter, and $ 27% to $ 47.44 billion in 2024.
The three -month net income was $ 19.69 billion, or $ 13,695, or by average equivalent share, because the value of Berksshire in Apple, American Express and other shares increased. For the year, net income was $ 89 billion.
Buffett believes that net results are wrong because they include profits and losses of investment that Berksshire has not sold and sometimes has no plan to sell.
Increased share of cash in 2024, it largely arrived with $ 143.4 billion in stock sales, including a 62% share in Berksshire in Apple and one -third of its share at the Bank of America.
Berksshire was a net stock seller in nine consecutive quarters.
In the meantime, Berksshire spent only $ 2.9 billion, buying his own section in 2024. Until February 10, he did not spend the purchase from last May.
Bill Smead, a longtime Berkshire investor at the Smead Capital Management in Phoenix, noticed Buffett’s commentary in an annual letter to find Berksshire very “very rarely” in the knees in things to buy.
