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Berkshire resumes net stock buying after 14 quarters of selling
Berkshire bought about $10 billion of Alphabet shares in a private placement at prices below the public deal, lifting overall stock purchases in the quarter.
Berkshire Hathaway ended a 14-quarter streak of net selling by shifting to net stock buying, according to its latest filings covered by Yahoo Finance. The change follows a period that began in the fourth quarter of 2022 and continued through Warren Buffett’s tenure as chief executive.
In a related deal, Alphabet set the price for $18 billion of stock being sold to public investors on June 2, charging $355.1982 per share. Alphabet also agreed the day before to sell $10 billion of stock directly to Berkshire in a private placement rather than through the public offering, with Berkshire paying $351.81 for Class A shares and $348.20 for Class C shares. The private sale closed June 4, the same day as the public transaction.
Yahoo Finance reports Berkshire’s share purchases matter inside the quarter, because the placement accounted for more than 40% of every dollar of stock Berkshire bought. Across roughly 28.6 million shares in the placement, the price gap versus the public sale implied about $100 million.
Berkshire’s second-quarter filing, reported by Yahoo Finance, showed net earnings roughly doubling to $25.67 billion, operating earnings rising 16% to $12.98 billion, and share buybacks increasing to $4.53 billion from $235 million in the prior quarter. Its cash pile declined from $397.4 billion at March 31 to $365.5 billion, according to the same filing.