Berkshire doubled net profit, and the cash pile grew to nearly $360 billion

Berkshire Hathaway reported a sharp jump in second-quarter results, supported by rising share prices in its massive stock portfolio. At the same time, CEO Greg Abel continued to accumulate cash, and the company's giant cash pile grew to $359.2 billion.

Net profit attributable to shareholders more than doubled, reaching $25.67 billion, compared to $12.37 billion in the same quarter last year. Earnings per Class A share climbed to $17,868, compared to $8,601 last year.

Alongside the volatile bottom line, Berkshire's operating profit — the figure the company prefers investors to focus on — rose by 16.3% to $12.98 billion, compared to $11.16 billion in the same period. Industrial, retail, and service operations led the growth, with a profit of $4.47 billion. Profits from the BNSF railway company rose to $1.56 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy contributed $891 million. Conversely, profit from insurance underwriting fell to $1.73 billion, compared to $1.99 billion last year. Investment income from the insurance business also weakened, from $3.37 billion to $3.06 billion.

Berkshire recorded investment gains of $12.68 billion after taxes. Of this, $10.9 billion stemmed from unrealized appreciation in the stock portfolio and $1.8 billion from realized investments. Among the company's prominent holdings are Alphabet, Apple, American Express, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola. The company consistently emphasizes that quarterly investment gains can distort the picture, as accounting rules require it to include changes in the value of unsold shares in the bottom line.

In the three months ending in June, Berkshire repurchased its own shares for about $4.5 billion — a sharp acceleration compared to the first quarter. For the first half of the year, the volume of share buybacks reached about $4.8 billion. According to the company's policy, a buyback is carried out only when management estimates that the share price is conservatively below its intrinsic value, and provided that at least $30 billion remains in the coffers. The acceleration of buybacks, even as the cash pile reached $359.2 billion, signals that Abel is willing to return capital to shareholders when the share price provides an opportunity to do so. At the end of the quarter, Berkshire's insurance reserves stood at $177.5 billion, an increase of $1.1 billion since the beginning of the year.