Berkshire Hathaway fourth-quarter operating earnings fall 8%, cash hoard swells to nearly $130 billion

Berkshire Hathaway’s operating profits fell during the fourth quarter as inflationary pressures weighed on the conglomerate’s businesses.

Berkshire Hathaway’s operating earnings totaled $6.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, a release read Saturday. That’s down 7.9% from the year-earlier period when profits totaled $7.285 billion. Operating earnings refers to the total profits made from the businesses owned by the conglomerate.

Earnings from Berkshire’s railroad, utilities and energy businesses came in at $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is slightly down from the year-ago period. Meanwhile, the firm’s insurance-underwriting business fell to $244 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from $372 million the year-earlier period.

For the year, the conglomerate’s operating earnings totaled $30.793 billion. That’s up 12.2% from $27.455 billion in 2021.

Meanwhile, Berkshire used $2.855 billion to buy back shares in the fourth quarter. That’s lower than the year-earlier period when share repurchases totaled more than $6 billion but more than the third quarter’s repurchase total of around $1 billion. For the year, Berkshire bought back nearly $8 billion in common stock.

Despite this, Berkshire’s cash hoard grew to $128.651 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s up from nearly $109 billion in the third quarter.

Buffett said in his annual shareholder letter that Berkshire will continue to hold a “boatload” of cash and U.S. Treasury bills along with its myriad of businesses. He specified that future CEOs in the company will have a “significant part” of their net worth in Berkshire shares.