Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett, on Saturday ventured its quarterly operating profit nearly doubled from the year previous due to stronger insurance results and lower taxes.
Helping the company’s weighty insurance operations were lower estimated liabilities from fortune and casualty insurance in prior years and lower taxes.
The year last included major losses due to three U.S. hurricanes and an earthquake in Mexico. The public limited company added that it had made $928 million in share repurchases in the three-month time.
Operating profit in the second quarter rose to $6.88 billion from $3.44 billion a year earlier, and violent than the $6.11 billion expected by Wall Street.
Insurance upholding income was $441 million in the third quarter, compared to a loss of $1.4 billion in the year-ago interval.
“This is absolutely one of the biggest quarterly earnings reports that has for ever come out of a United States corporation,” said Bill Smead, chief kingpin of Smead Capital Management in Seattle, a Berkshire shareholder.
Smead distinguished that Buffett has told investors that tax policy changes were contemporary to help Berkshire and be positive overall for the company.
—CNBC’s Matt Cuddle contributed to this report.