Key facts
- Berkshire Hathaway invested $10 billion in Alphabet, Google's parent company, in the second quarter.
- The company repurchased approximately $4.5 billion of its own shares.
- Berkshire's cash reserves fell to $365.5 billion from $397.4 billion.
- Overall profit more than doubled to $25.667 billion, driven by investment gains.
- The acquisition of Taylor Morrison Home Corporation was completed in July.
Berkshire Hathaway, under its new CEO Greg Abel, significantly reduced its cash reserves in the second quarter by investing $10 billion in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and repurchasing approximately $4.5 billion of its own shares. The conglomerate's cash pile shrunk to $365.5 billion from $397.4 billion at the end of March.
In addition to the Alphabet investment, Berkshire also added over $21 billion in other stocks to its portfolio. The company also completed a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison, which closed in July. Berkshire's overall profit more than doubled to $25.667 billion, largely due to a significant paper gain in its investment portfolio. Operating earnings, which exclude investments, grew to $12.983 billion.