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Berkshire turns net buyer, boosts buybacks under Greg Abel
Berkshire authorized more than $4.5 billion in share repurchases in the quarter, and also closed its $6.8 billion all-cash purchase of Taylor Morrison.
Berkshire Hathaway signaled a shift after two years of accumulating cash, as CEO Greg Abel began putting more capital to work following the company’s second-quarter results released Aug. 8, according to Yahoo Finance.
Operating earnings rose 16.0% year-over-year to $12.98 billion, as gains in energy, railroads, and manufacturing outweighed weakness in the insurance sector. Net earnings attributable to shareholders more than doubled to $25.67 billion, helped by $12.68 billion in investment gains, including $10.9 billion in unrealized gains on Berkshire’s equity holdings.
Berkshire authorized over $4.5 billion in share buybacks during the quarter, compared with $235 million in the first quarter, and repurchased more than $3.3 billion of stock during July alone. It also became a net buyer of shares for the first time in 15 quarters, buying about $23.5 billion of stock while selling $3.7 billion.
The move did not materially reduce its balance sheet, with cash and Treasury holdings ending the quarter at $365.5 billion, down from $397.4 billion three months earlier. Berkshire also completed a $6.8 billion all-cash acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison, while directing a large portion of net share purchases toward Alphabet and distributing the rest across other commercial and industrial names.