Berkshire earnings climb 16% as Abel puts cash to work

Berkshire Hathaway's operating earnings rose 16% in the second quarter, hitting $12.98 billion versus $11.16 billion a year earlier, the company reported. The results show CEO Greg Abel beginning to deploy the record cash hoard Warren Buffett left him, with buybacks accelerating and the conglomerate turning into a net buyer of stocks for the first time in 14 quarters.

Energy and manufacturing drove the beat. Berkshire Hathaway Energy's profit surged 27% to $891 million. Manufacturing, service and retailing earnings jumped 24% to $4.47 billion. BNSF, the railroad, posted a 6% gain to $1.56 billion.

Insurance was a weak link. Underwriting earnings fell 13% to $1.73 billion from $1.99 billion. Insurance investment income dropped 9% to $3.06 billion.

Berkshire repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own shares in the quarter, a sharp jump from the $235 million spent in the first three months of 2026. The cash pile declined to $365.5 billion from a record $397.4 billion at the end of March. The quarter included the closing of the Taylor Morrison acquisition.

On the equity side, Berkshire became a net buyer of stocks with nearly $20 billion in net purchases, reversing a 14-quarter streak of net selling. The filing showed Alphabet is now among Berkshire's five largest equity holdings by market value, alongside American Express, Apple, Bank of America and Coca-Cola. Berkshire disclosed a $10 billion investment in the Google parent earlier this year to help fund AI development.

Berkshire Class B shares carry an Alpha Score of 53 out of 100, a Mixed rating, on AlphaScala. The stock has risen 9% over the past three months but is up only 3% year to date, trailing the S&P 500's 13% gain.