Berkshire cash pile climbs to $380bn as stock sales streak hits 14th quarter
Greg Abel to address shareholders at first gathering since he succeeded Warren Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway continued to sell stocks in its first quarter under the command of new chief executive Greg Abel, pushing its cash pile above $380bn as it held off on using its war chest to dive into a volatile market.
The sprawling insurance to industrials conglomerate said its cash and short-term Treasury bills climbed by $7bn from the end of 2025, excluding the value of US government debt it has bought but must still pay for.
That cash has been a focus for investors, given the company has been shedding stocks for more than three years.
Some of it must be held to meet regulatory limits designed to safeguard insurance policyholders, but analysts and investors believe the company still has considerable dry powder that it could use to clinch a mammoth acquisition or buy minority stakes in publicly traded stocks.
Berkshire disclosed that it had sold $24bn worth of stocks, with purchases of $15.9bn, stretching its net sales streak to 14 consecutive quarters.
It marked Berkshire’s largest quarter of stock sales from its $288bn equity portfolio since 2024, when it dumped a large portion of its stake in Apple.
Net income more than doubled from a year earlier to $10.1bn. Berkshire’s preferred measure of profitability, the operating earnings of its hundreds of subsidiaries, rose 18 per cent year-on-year to $11.3bn.
Those figures strip out the price movements in Berkshire’s stock portfolio, which US accounting rules dictate the company must report in its net profit figure.
The results come hours before Abel takes the stage at the company’s annual meeting, an event sometimes referred to as the “Woodstock for capitalists”.
Abel replaced longtime Berkshire chief executive Warren Buffett at the helm of the company earlier this year.
In classic Berkshire style, at this weekend’s gathering the company was selling novelty cards adorned with Abel’s and Buffett’s faces and the phrase “Card Carrying Capitalist”. They cost: $2, with the proceeds going to the non-profit organisation Girls Inc.
The event, which takes over an arena and exhibition hall in downtown Omaha, has attracted tens of thousands of Berkshire shareholders.
On Friday afternoon Abel walked through the convention area, where dozens of Berkshire subsidiaries including chocolatier See’s Candies and the BNSF railroad had stands to sell products and meet shareholders.
The company’s rodent control business, Bell Laboratories, was selling limited-edition rat traps branded with the Berkshire Hathaway name.
Security guards flanked Abel as he stopped to take pictures and hear from shareholders.
Dan Sheridan, the chief executive of Berkshire subsidiary Brooks Running, said the question for most of those gathered in Omaha was how the transition from Buffett to Abel was progressing and whether the new chief executive was deviating from his predecessor.
“It’s the question of the weekend: How’s the transition going?” he said. “Greg is his own man. He’s going to make changes. I don’t know what those are, but I can tell you initially it’s been very consistent with how he led in his other roles.”