Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s business conglomerate reported a quarterly profit up by 72%, helped by better results from betting on shares and increased earnings in the railway industry, writes Bloomberg.
Net income rose to $3.9 billion or $2.373/share, from $2.28 billion or $1.380/share reported a year ago, the company announced in a statement.
Operating profit, which excludes some investment results, was $2.057/share, below the average estimate of $2.063/share coming from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Buffett, 82 years old, made in the last decade stock derivative contracts to bet on long-term growth of stock market indexes in the U.S., Europe and Japan. When indexes are down, as they did in the third quarter last year, Berkshire bonds under those contracts rose, putting pressure on earnings.
“Equity market had a good run so far this year. I do not know if I would count on a continuing trend,” said an analyst at KBC Inc.
Berkshire Class A (NYSE:BRK.A) shares fell by 0.65% to $130,550 yesterday. Berkshire shares have advanced 14% this year, surpassing the Standard & Poor’s growth of 12%.
Berkshire: strong gains on derivatives
Book value, which indicates the value of assets minus liabilities, rose to $184.6 billion from $177.4 billion at the end of June.
Loss from derivative contracts on stock market indexes fell to $534 million from $2.09 billion a year ago. Also, earnings from default risk contracts – Buffett has bet on the ability of borrowers to pay their debts – amounted to $316 million after a year ago these bets had caused a loss of $247 million.
Buffett’s biggest takeover of the railway company Burlington Northern Santa Fe was a $26.5 billion transaction. This business contributed this quarter with $937 million in earnings, compared to $766 million the previous year.
Buffett’s company is sitting on a pile of money
Given that Buffett has not made any large purchase (a $22 billion transaction failed), Berkshire’s amount of cash has increased in the last three months with over $7 billion, up to $47.8 billion (€37 billion).
Berkshire spent $1.18 billion last quarter on stock and $2.08 billion on fixed income financial instruments. It sold shares worth $3.18 billion and $1.2 billion worth of bonds.
Where Berkshire’s gains come from
Insurance segment reported a profit of $392 million, compared with $1.09 billion the previous year.
Share portfolio held by Berkshire was valued at $88 billion on September 30, up from $86.2 billion at the end of June, as Wells Fargo shares were up during this period by 3.3% and IBM shares rose 6.1%.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings utility company added $438 million to Berkshire’s profit in the third quarter this year, up from $372 million the year before. Gains in manufacturing sectors, services and retail grew to $991 million from $836 million in the third quarter of 2011.
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