Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. raked in even more cash during the first quarter, pushing its pile up 5.2% from three months earlier to a near-record $145.4 billion.
Buffett has struggled in recent years to keep up with the conglomerate’s ever-gushing cash flow. That’s led him to repurchase significant amounts of Berkshire stock in recent years, pulling a lever for capital deployment that he had previously avoided in favor of big acquisitions or stock purchases.
The company repurchased $6.6 billion of its stock in the first quarter, short of the $9 billion quarterly record set in the third quarter of last year.
Buffett’s company was a net seller of stocks in the first three months of the year, selling $3.9 billion more in stocks than it bought in the period. That’s the most net sales since the second quarter of last year.
Operating earnings at the conglomerate climbed 19.5% thanks in part to gains at the firm’s insurers and its group of manufacturers, servicing businesses and retailers.
Berkshire Class A shares climbed almost 11% in the first quarter, outpacing the 5.8% gain in the S&P 500 during the same time
