(Bloomberg) — Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s cash pile soared to its highest level ever and operating earnings jumped in Greg Abel’s first quarter as chief executive officer.
Most Read from Bloomberg
After a slight decrease late last year, the firm’s cash hoard jumped to $397 billion in the first quarter as it offloaded a net $8.1 billion of equity holdings in the period, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate said in a statement Saturday. Operating earnings, meanwhile, got a boost from an improvement in underwriting results in its vast insurance businesses.
Abel, who replaced legendary investor Warren Buffett as CEO this year, also resumed stock buybacks, handing shareholders a payout for the first time in more than a year. Berkshire bought back $234.2 million of its own shares in the period.
The results show how Abel is starting to put his mark on Berkshire, where there are some signs investors still aren’t sold on the new CEO. Once synonymous with consistent outperformance, the $1 trillion conglomerate’s shares have been trounced by the broader market since Warren Buffett announced he was retiring and handing Abel the reins a year ago.
Abel took to the stage and address shareholders in Omaha on Saturday for his inaugural annual meeting as CEO. This is the first time in decades that Buffett won’t be leading the event after the 95-year-old announced he would step down from his role last year — though he was still in attendance and even shared a few remarks to help kick off the meeting.
Berkshire’s earnings are typically closely watched because the conglomerate’s businesses — ranging from insurance to railroads to energy and manufacturing — provide a snapshot of the health of the US economy.
Abel has previously said that he and Buffett had determined that the intrinsic value of the firm’s shares was higher than their market value, prompting them to restart buybacks. Berkshire’s stock declined 5.9% this year as of market close on Friday.
Underwriting earnings from the firm’s collection of insurance businesses surged to $1.7 billion, up about 29% from a year ago, when the units were hit by losses tied to the Los Angeles wildfires.
Geico Struggles
Still, Geico posted a 35% decline in pretax underwriting earnings, as the unit faced more losses and spent more to gain new clients.
“Most of Geico’s peer group this quarter posted significantly improved underwriting results,” said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research, on the contrast between competitors and Geico. “They’re a big unit and that’s a big deterioration.”
Net profit at its railroad unit BNSF rose 13% to $1.4 billion, relieving pressure on BNSF management, led by CEO Katie Farmer, to improve the unit’s operating margin and close the gap with its most efficient peers. Abel had given the division’s management a clear mandate to improve the business on those fronts. He said at the meeting that while he’s pleased with the first-quarter results, there’s still room for improvement.
“We had heard that there was some cost efficiencies being implemented at BNSF, and that showed up in the first-quarter results,” Seifert said.
Abel decided to sell the equity holdings that were previously managed by Todd Combs, Berkshire’s former stock picker, the Wall Street Journal reported last month, citing unnamed people familiar with Berkshire’s investments. JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced in December that it hired Combs for a broad investing advisory role.
Berkshire decided against a new impairment charge on Kraft Heinz Co. — one of its largest equity holdings — for now, even as the book value of its holding in the packaged food giant exceeds its fair value by $1.4 billion. Last year, the firm took a $3.8 billion hit, as the stock’s performance continued to disappoint.
Total operating earnings added up to $11.35 billion, up nearly 18% from a year earlier, in the three months through March.
(Updates with additional details and context throughout.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
