Catenaa, Monday, February 24, 2025– Berkshire Hathaway fourth-quarter operating profits have skyrocketed by 71%, a report released on Saturday said, mainly driven by performance in insurance while Buffet struggles to find the next best investment.
The Warren Buffett-led conglomerate said its operating profit, was up by 71% to $ 14.5 billion during the final three months of 2024, led by a whopping 302% jump in insurance underwriting from the year-earlier period to $ 3.4 billion. Insurance investment income also ballooned by nearly 50% to $ 4 billion.
Operating earnings for 2024 rose by 27% compared to 2023 white per-share operating income increased by 28%, indicating the value of share repurchases.
“In 2024, Berkshire did better than I expected though 53% of our 189 operating businesses reported a decline in earnings. We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury Bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities,” Buffett, the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire, said in his annual letter to shareholders. “
Berkshire’s most significant business by annual operating earnings is insurance, followed by the manufacturing, service, and retailing segments.
Berkshire also warned that the wildfires that broke out in Southern California will lead to an estimated pre-tax loss of about $ 1.3 billion for its insurance business.
Berkshire Hathaway ended 2024 with $ 334.2 billion in cash, up from $ 325.2 billion at the end of the third quarter as Buffett struggles to find his next big investment target.
In his annual letter, he said despite what some commentators currently view, the cash holding of the company as an extraordinary cash position, the great majority of shareholders’ money remains in equities. That preference won’t change.
While its ownership in marketable equities moved downward last year from $354 billion to $272 billion, the value of our non-quoted controlled equities increased somewhat and remains far greater than the value of the marketable portfolio.
