{"id":44777,"date":"2025-08-04T14:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T14:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/44777\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T14:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T14:43:09","slug":"berkshire-shares-dip-after-earnings-decline-lack-of-buybacks-disappoint-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/44777\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkshire shares dip after earnings decline, lack of buybacks disappoint investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.<\/p>\n

CNBC<\/p>\n

Berkshire Hathaway<\/a>\u00a0shares dipped after Warren Buffett’s conglomerate reported a small decline in operating earnings, while continuing a stock-selling spree and a buyback halt.<\/p>\n

The Omaha-based giant saw operating earnings<\/a> including those from its insurance and railroad businesses decline dip 4% year over year to $11.16 billion in the second quarter. While railroad, energy, manufacturing, service and retailing all reported higher profits from a year ago, a drop in insurance underwriting dragged down overall results.<\/p>\n

Class A and B shares of Berkshire both declined more than 2% Monday following the results. The stock has fallen about 12% from its all-time high in early May right before the 94-year-old Buffett announced that\u00a0Greg Abel is taking over as CEO<\/a>\u00a0at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon\"hide<\/p>\n

Berkshire Hathaway Class A year to date<\/p>\n

A move that caught many by surprise was a big write-down for Berkshire’s underperforming Kraft Heinz<\/a> stake. The conglomerate for the first time recorded a loss of $3.8 billion from its 27% Kraft Heinz stake. The move came as reports emerged that the consumer goods giant has been eyeing a spinoff of its grocery business. Two Berkshire executives resigned as directors from Kraft Heinz’s\u00a0board in May.<\/p>\n

“The investment had been carried on Berkshire’s books for more than its market value for some time,” said Bill Stone, CIO of The Glenview Trust Company and a Berkshire shareholder. “Buffett has long acknowledged that he paid too much for Kraft Heinz, especially in light of the increased competition in the branded food category.”<\/p>\n

Buffett’s cash hoard of $344.1 billion remained near a record high. Berkshire was a net seller of stocks for a 11th quarter in a row, dumping $4.5 billion in equities in the first six months of 2025.<\/p>\n

The conglomerate also didn’t repurchase any stock in the first half of 2025 and through July 21 even as shares suffered a sizable correction.<\/p>\n

“While we believe Mr. Abel will build credibility with investors over time, we think near-term catalysts for BRK are increased investment activity, a potential large acquisition, and share repurchases,” Kyle Sanders, analyst at Edward Jones, said in a note. “None of those happened this quarter, which we view as somewhat disappointing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025. CNBC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[29961,4467,4497,1386,45,161,49,48,28015,1385,31609,100,3097,6495],"class_list":["post-44777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-berkshire-hathaway-inc","tag-breaking-news-business","tag-breaking-news-investing","tag-breaking-news-markets","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dividends","tag-investment-strategy","tag-kraft-heinz-co","tag-markets","tag-stock-markets","tag-wall-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}