By Jonathan Stempel
Aug 10 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway shares rose on Monday to their highest level since Warren Buffett announced his departure as chief executive in May 2025, after his successor Greg Abel began spending the conglomerate's huge cash pile and financial results topped analysts' expectations.
• Cash fell to $364.7 billion on June 30 from a record $380.2 billion three months earlier, Berkshire said in its quarterly report on Saturday.
• Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its own
stock and bought $23.5 billion of other stocks during the second quarter, including a $10 billion investment in Google and YouTube parent Alphabet.
• The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate spent at least $10.1 billion more cash in July on stock buybacks and the acquisition of home builder Taylor Morrison.
• Second-quarter operating profit rose 16% to $12.98 billion, as gains from railroad, service and some insurance businesses offset rising accident claims and advertising spending at the Geico car insurer. Net income more than doubled to $25.67 billion, including paper gains on investments such as Alphabet and Apple. Revenue grew 10%, following more than two years of largely stagnant growth.
• Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and UBS raised their share price forecasts for Berkshire, with KBW analyst Meyer Shields calling the quarter "very solid" and UBS analyst Brian Meredith saying the "meaningful" cash deployment reflected Berkshire's disciplined capital allocation.
• Shields still rates Berkshire "underperform" because of macroeconomic uncertainty and pricing pressures in property and casualty insurance. Meredith rates Berkshire "buy."
• In morning trading, Berkshire Class A shares rose as much as 3.3% to $806,102.81. Class B shares, which trade for about 1/1500th as much, rose as much as 3.1% to $537.74. The shares last traded higher on May 2, 2025, the day before Buffett said he was stepping down after 60 years as chief executive.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing by Mark Potter)
