3 Highlights of Berkshire’s Form 10-Q for the Second Quarter of 2024
(1) Berkshire sold about half of its stake in Apple during Q2 and increased its cash by $88 billion from $189 billion to $277 billion. Since Buffett focuses on cash levels excluding cash at the company’s railroad and utility businesses, by that measure, cash stood at $271.5 billion, up from $182 billion on March 31.
(2) Berkshire’s operating earnings increased by 15.5% during Q2 almost entirely from insurance-underwriting and insurance-income.
(3) Berkshire repurchased just $345 million of stock in Q2, one of the lowest quarterly totals in several years. That compares with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2024 and $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023.
