OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Berkshire Hathaway repurchased $9.6 billion of its own stock in the third quarter, but Geico’s numbers deteriorated as it invested more in advertising and its overall profit fell more than 28% as the value of its investments changed.
But the buybacks likely ended recently as Berkshire’s Class A stock price rose above $878,000 and reached its previous high. Warren Buffett surprised investors with his retirement plans at the annual meeting in May 2025. renounced the title of president in September after handing over the CEO position to Greg Abel in January.
Berkshire’s huge cash position also started growing again in the third quarter and reached $377.4 billion, up from $365.5 billion at the end of June.
Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research, said Geico is currently in a difficult situation, with insurance premiums falling while the average cost of claims is rising. Berkshire’s underwriting profit across all its insurers fell to $1.35 billion from $2.37 billion last year. Geico is responsible for most of that, generating $982 million this year, up from $1.77 billion a year ago.
Investor Chris Ballard, managing director of Check Capital, said he was not disappointed by Geico’s numbers because they reflect the fact that the company is once again investing in its iconic spokesperson and trying to attract more customers. Being more aggressive in writing new policies always tends to put pressure on an auto insurer’s bottom line.
“It should be better. Progressive is doing better, but they did so well for so long. They had cut their advertising for quite a while there,” said Ballard, whose company has invested in Berkshire. “So we kind of expected that on our end.”
Seifert said Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses that Abel has overseen for years — such as manufacturers like Precision Castparts, utilities and BNSF Railroad — appear to be performing better than its massive insurance unit, even without any major hurricanes or other disasters this year.
“I think we see the companies that play to Greg’s strengths being successful. But the question is what about the rest of the franchise,” Seifert said.
Berkshire reported a profit of $22.1 billion, or $15,502 per Class A share, on Saturday morning. That’s down from $30.8 billion, or $21,413, in last year’s third quarter, but those final numbers still tend to obscure the performance of the dozens of companies the conglomerate owns.
The company has long recommended that investors pay more attention to operating profits, which exclude the value of its investments which can vary widely, but those also fell nearly 6% to $12.7 billion, or $8,907 per Class A share. That’s down from $13.485 billion, or $9,376.15 per Class A share, a year ago.
The four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted that Berkshire would report operating income of $8,821.84 per Class A share.
Berkshire owns several large insurers, including Geico, a collection of large utilities, the BNSF railroad and a diverse assortment of manufacturing and retail companies, including Precision Castparts and See’s Candy.
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This story has been updated to correct that $1.35 billion represents the total underwriting profit of all of Berkshire’s insurers – not just Geico’s underwriting profit.
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