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- Warren Buffett is no longer at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, but you might not know it.
- Berkshire bought and sold few stocks last quarter, echoing Buffett's final years in charge.
- New CEO Greg Abel did ramp up stock buybacks to $9.6 billion worth, the highest figure in years.
Warren Buffett is no longer running Berkshire Hathaway, but you almost wouldn't know it.
The famed investor's conglomerate reported third-quarter earnings on Saturday, showing minimal stock buying and selling.
That was typical during the final years of Buffett's six decades in charge, as the bargain hunter struggled to find deals on stocks and businesses during a historic stock-market boom.
He stepped down as Berkshire's CEO at the end of 2025, and as chairman this September.
Under new CEO Greg Abel, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks last quarter, buying $2.4 billion and selling $2.8 billion. That's a striking slowdown from the second quarter, when it bought a net $20 billion of stocks.
Berkshire's cash pile shrank by around $8 billion, to $365 billion, after subtracting $20.5 billion in Treasury payables. It has still more than doubled in size since the end of 2023, reflecting Buffett's prolonged struggle to find value.
One of Abel's key changes, in consultation with Buffett, has been to accelerate buybacks. He repurchased $9.6 billion of Berkshire stock last quarter, marking the busiest period for buybacks in years.
That looks to have been a good call, as Berkshire stock has surged from below $500 at the end of September to a record high above $570 this week.
Berkshire reported $12.7 billion of operating income, a 6% drop from the same quarter last year. That was fueled by a sharp decline in insurance underwriting income and lower insurance investment income, which offset higher profits from BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and the manufacturing, service, and retailing businesses.
The conglomerate owns scores of businesses, including Geico, See's Candies, and Duracell, and also holds multibillion-dollar stakes in public companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, and American Express.
Berkshire shareholders will have to wait until next week, when it files its third-quarter portfolio disclosure, to learn what stocks it bought and sold last quarter.
Abel has hewed closely to Buffett's approach during his first year as CEO, appearing to follow some classic advice for successors: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
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