Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported a pointy rebound in working earnings within the third quarter of 2025, with its legendary money pile climbing to an all-time excessive of $381.7 billion, even because the conglomerate as soon as once more held off on share buybacks.
Working earnings rose 34% year-on-year to $13.5 billion, pushed primarily by a surge in insurance coverage underwriting earnings amid an unusually quiet catastrophe season. In response to firm filings launched Saturday, Berkshire’s insurance coverage and reinsurance items each returned to profitability, marking a stark reversal from the losses recorded a yr earlier.
The group’s insurance coverage underwriting revenue skyrocketed over 200% to $2.37 billion, reflecting robust outcomes throughout main and reinsurance segments. Nonetheless, auto insurer Geico noticed its pretax underwriting revenue slip 13% as increased claims offset the advantage of new coverage progress.
Regardless of the mounting money reserves, Buffett’s firm offered $6.1 billion price of shares in the course of the quarter and noticed its web funding earnings dip 13% to $3.2 billion, hit by decrease short-term rates of interest.
For the fifth consecutive quarter, Berkshire shunned repurchasing its personal shares, even after they fell about 12% following Buffett’s announcement in Could that he would step down as CEO on the finish of the yr. The 95-year-old investor will stay chairman of the board, whereas Greg Abel, vice chairman for non-insurance operations, will assume the CEO function beginning 2026, together with authorship of the corporate’s annual shareholder letters.
Berkshire’s sprawling portfolio — spanning insurance coverage, railroads, vitality, and manufacturing — is usually seen as a barometer of US financial power. In 2025, Berkshire’s Class A and B shares have risen 5%, lagging behind the S&P 500’s 16.3% achieve, as traders eye how the post-Buffett period could reshape the conglomerate’s famously cautious capital technique.
