Berkshire Hathaway 1Q 2016 Earnings

Berkshire Hathaway reported 1st quarter earnings for 2016 on Friday, May 6.

• Earnings News Release (PDF)
• 10-Q Filing (PDF)

Berkshire Takes a Hit on Insurance and BNSF Performance in 1Q16 (Yahoo)

Berkshire Hathaway reported its first quarter earnings on May 6, 2016. The company missed the operating EPS (earning per share) analyst estimate of $2,609 and reported $2,275. The company also reported operating earnings of $3.7 billion, as compared to $4.2 billion in the prior year quarter. These earnings were mainly impacted by lower operating profits in the Insurance and BNSF divisions. [...]

Diversification Helped Berkshire Out in First Quarter (Morningstar)

Berkshire Hathaway released results for the first quarter of 2016 that were basically in line with our expectations, with weaker results from BNSF being largely offset by better results from insurance and finance and financial products, as well as the addition of Precision Castparts to overall results. [...]

First-quarter revenue increased 7.7% year over year to $52.4 billion, with the biggest contributions coming from Berkshire's insurance operations (where earned premiums rose 16.6% year over year), followed by its manufacturing, sales and retail operations (which benefited from the closure of the Precision Castparts acquisition) and finance and financial products (which posted 11.1% revenue growth year over year). Excluding the benefits from the Precision Castparts acquisition, first-quarter revenue increased 2.8%. [...]

Book value per Class A equivalent share was $157,369 at the end of the first quarter--up 7.1% year over year and 1.2% when compared with the fourth quarter of 2015. [...]

At Berkshire Hathaway, Cash Tumbles as Float Inches Up (WSJ CFO Journal)

More interesting: what kind of money chief executive Warren Buffett has on hand for acquisitions. The company’s position in cash and cash equivalents totaled $58.3 billion at the end of March down 18.7% from $71.7 billion at the end of the year.

That fall off is no surprise. Berkshire Hathaway completed its acquisition of Precision Castparts Corp., its largest ever, on January 29, and its purchase of the Duracell Co. from the Procter & Gamble Co. a month later.

The decline in cash may mean Mr. Buffett will be content with smaller “bolt on” acquisitions at its wholly-owned companies for a while. [...]