Berkshire shares rise on surge in operating earnings, but questions linger about cash

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Berkshire Hathaway shares got a boost after Warren Buffett's conglomerate reported a surge in operating earnings, but shareholders who were waiting for news of what will happen to its enormous pile of cash might be disappointed.

Class A shares of the Omaha-based parent of Geico and BNSF Railway rose 1.2% premarket Monday following Berkshire's earnings report Saturday. Berkshire's operating profit — earnings from the company's wholly owned businesses — skyrocketed 71% to $14.5 billion in the fourth quarter, aided by insurance underwriting, where profits jumped 302% from the year-earlier period, to $3.4 billion.

Berkshire's investment gains from its portfolio holdings slowed sharply, however, in the fourth quarter, to $5.2 billion from $29.1 billion in the year-earlier period. Berkshire sold more equities than it bought for a ninth consecutive quarter in the three months of last year, bringing total sale of equities to more than $134 billion in 2024. Notably, the 94-year-old Buffett has been aggressively shrinking Berkshire's two largest equity holdings — Apple and Bank of America.

As a result of the selling spree, Berkshire's gigantic cash pile grew to another record, $334.2 billion, up from $325.2 billion at the end of the third quarter. 

In Buffett's annual letter, the «Oracle of Omaha» said that raising a record amount of cash didn't reflect a dimming of his love for buying stocks and businesses.

«Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities,» Buffett wrote. «That preference won't change.»

He hinted that high valuations were the reason for sitting on his hands amid a raging bull market, saying «often,