Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Warren Buffett continued to sell stocks in the first three months of 2025 amid a broad market sell-off, according to a regulatory filing ahead of the historic 60th annual meeting of his holding company Berkshire Hathaway.
The figures showing he offloaded stocks for the tenth consecutive quarter came in a quarterly earnings report that also noted Berkshire’s insurance arm took a $1.1bn hit from the January wildfires in California.
Buffett sold $4.7bn in stocks in the three months to March 31, more than the $3.2bn he purchased.
That helped swell Berkshire’s cash pile, which rose to another record of $348bn as money poured in from Buffett’s sprawling business empire, which spans insurance, manufacturing, utilities and one of North America’s biggest railways, along with the interest paid on his portfolio of US Treasuries.
Asked about the huge cash reserves at Saturday’s meeting, Buffett said: “Things get extraordinarily attractive very occasionally.” At some point, he said, the company would be “bombarded with offerings that we’ll be glad we have the cash for”.
Tens of thousands of Berkshire’s shareholders attended the event, with high-profile figures including Hillary Clinton and Apple chief executive Tim Cook in the crowd. Some attendees said they made the trek to Omaha in case it was Buffett’s last time presiding over the meeting.
The event provided Buffett with the first opportunity to weigh in on markets and the economy since US President Donald Trump last month launched a trade war by unveiling plans to slap new tariffs on imports from most other nations.
Buffett tries to avoid commenting on politics but, during a marathon question-and-answer session, the 94-year-old sharply criticised tariffs without mentioning Trump.
“Trade should not be a weapon,” he said. “We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best.”
He later shrugged off a question about American exceptionalism, arguing that the country has undergone waves of cataclysmic change ever since its founding.
Changes in net profit at Berkshire largely reflect swings in the value of its $264bn equity portfolio and other investments. In the first quarter, bottom line earnings were $4.6bn, down from $12.7bn in the first quarter last year.
Buffett directs shareholders to pay more attention to operating profit, which was $9.6bn, down from $11.2bn. The decline largely reflected lower insurance underwriting profits, including the hit from the California fires. Wildfires raged for days across Los Angeles, destroying thousands of homes in some of the country’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.
Berkshire Hathaway shares have been on a tear in 2025, rising 20 per cent to close on Friday at a record $809,808.50 for the “A class” stock. Berkshire once again authorised no share buybacks in the first quarter.
Additional reporting by Eric Platt
Credit: Source link
