Here’s how Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway performed in Q1

Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) says its operating earnings went up 12.6% to about $8.1 billion in the first quarter on the back of a rebound in its insurance business.

Berkshire Hathaway Q1 earnings snapshot

Thanks to a massive increase in the company’s equity portfolio, total earnings shot up more than six folds to $35.5 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway noted a 7.0% year-on-year increase in its books value to $347,800 per Class A share in the recently concluded quarter. Legendary investor Warren Buffett reiterated that cash is “not” trash as he revealed his company to be sitting on just over $130 billion currently.

In comparison, the cash hoard was worth about $129 billion at the end of the last year. Higher interest rates (short-term) resulted in a whopping 68% boost to the company’s insurance investment income in Q1.

Berkshire also held its annual shareholders meeting over the weekend.

What else was noteworthy in the Q1 report?

Berkshire Hathaway repurchase $4.4 billion worth of its stock in the first quarter versus $2.6 billion in Q4. But the pace at which it bought back shares was still significantly down compared to the range of $6 billion to $7 billion in 2020 and 2021.  

Also on Saturday, the conglomerate reported a 46.3% hit to post-tax earnings from its energy business, as per the press release.

The decrease reflected lower earnings from the United States regulated utilities, other energy businesses and real estate brokerage businesses.

In Q1, the Warren Buffett company trimmed its stake in Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) by about 20%. Wall Street currently has a consensus “hold” rating on Berkshire Hathaway shares.