Berkshire Q2 profit rose 16% as buybacks hit $4.5 billion
What's new: Cash fell to about $365 billion as Greg Abel turned Berkshire into a net stock buyer after 14 straight selling quarters.
Berkshire Hathaway reported a 16% rise in second-quarter operating earnings to $12.98 billion, with gains in manufacturing, energy and the BNSF railroad offsetting weaker insurance results. The bigger shift was in capital deployment: Berkshire repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own shares in the quarter and bought nearly $20 billion more stocks than it sold, ending 14 consecutive quarters as a net seller. Cash dropped to roughly $365 billion at the end of June from a record near $397 billion three months earlier. The quarter was Greg Abel’s second as chief executive after succeeding Warren Buffett at the start of 2026, and included Berkshire’s closing of its Taylor Morrison acquisition.