Key Notes
- Berkshire repurchased $9.6 billion of shares in Q3, twice its spending during the entire first half.
- Operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.71 billion as insurance underwriting profit and investment income declined.
- Higher railroad, energy and manufacturing earnings helped keep nine-month operating profit up 8%.
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) bought back about $9.6 billion of its shares in the third quarter, its largest quarterly repurchase of 2026, even as operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.71 billion. The purchases were twice the amount spent during the entire first half.
The results exposed a widening gap between Berkshire’s insurance operations and its other businesses. Underwriting profit and investment income at the insurers declined, outweighing higher earnings from the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the group’s manufacturing, service and retail companies.
Saturday’s earnings release put nine-month buybacks at approximately $14.4 billion.
Buybacks Accelerate Under Abel
Berkshire’s $9.6 billion third-quarter purchase compares with approximately $4.8 billion in the first six months of the year. That makes the July-to-September period responsible for roughly two-thirds of its repurchases through September.
September accounted for approximately $5.4 billion of the quarter’s purchases, based on the share counts and average prices in the filing. That was more than half the quarterly total, with both Class A and Class B shares acquired.
The program works differently from a fixed-dollar authorization that a company promises to complete over a set period. Berkshire permits purchases when chief executive Greg Abel, after consulting the board chairman, believes the stock trades below a conservative estimate of intrinsic value. There is no expiration date, minimum spending commitment or maximum purchase amount.
Its quarterly filing also retains a liquidity safeguard: repurchases cannot bring consolidated cash, cash equivalents and Treasury bills below $30 billion. The insurance and other businesses alone held $352.3 billion in those assets at September 30, net of unsettled Treasury purchases.
The buying preceded Berkshire’s October run to record highs, when Class B shares reached $543.34 intraday on October 21.
Insurance Earnings Come Under Pressure
Insurance underwriting earnings fell about 43% to $1.35 billion from $2.37 billion a year earlier. Insurance investment income declined roughly 14% to $2.73 billion from $3.18 billion, creating a second drag on the group’s largest earnings engine.
Insurance float, the funds Berkshire holds against obligations under its insurance contracts, reached about $178.5 billion at September 30, up $2.1 billion since the end of 2025.
GEICO’s results show where some of the pressure originated. Its pretax underwriting profit dropped to $982 million from $1.77 billion, while earned premiums rose just 1.3%. Claims and related expenses increased 8.5%, and underwriting expenses climbed 17%.
The auto insurer’s combined ratio rose to 91.4% from 84.3%. A ratio below 100% still represents an underwriting profit, but the increase means substantially more of each premium dollar went toward claims and expenses. Berkshire cited more frequent and more expensive claims, lower average earned premiums per policy, and higher commissions and advertising costs.
Investment Gains Complicate the Bottom Line
Net earnings attributable to Berkshire shareholders fell about 28% to $22.11 billion from $30.80 billion. The steeper decline largely reflected lower investment gains, which dropped to $9.41 billion from $17.31 billion.
Accounting rules require changes in the value of Berkshire’s stockholdings to pass through its income statement, including gains on shares it has not sold. Its operating earnings measure removes investment gains and losses and certain impairments, giving investors a clearer view of the underlying businesses.
Railroad and Energy Profits Provide Support
BNSF’s after-tax earnings rose about 19% to $1.73 billion, while Berkshire Hathaway Energy contributed $1.61 billion, up roughly 8%. Manufacturing, service and retailing earnings increased nearly 12% to $4.04 billion.
The comparison also includes recently acquired businesses. Berkshire completed its approximately $9.4 billion acquisition of OxyChem on January 2 and bought homebuilder Taylor Morrison for around $6.8 billion on July 24. Berkshire began consolidating each business on its acquisition date; neither was included in the year-earlier quarter.
Together, those three groups added about $829 million to quarterly earnings compared with a year earlier. That was insufficient to cover the roughly $1.46 billion decline in insurance underwriting and investment income. Other earnings also fell, with foreign-exchange movements contributing to the weaker comparison.
The broader nine-month record remained stronger: operating earnings reached $37.03 billion, up 8% from $34.29 billion.
