Warren Buffett walks the floor and meets with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ahead of their annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3rd, 2024.
David A. Grogan
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported first-quarter results on Saturday that showed a steep drop in operating earnings from the year-earlier period. The conglomerate, which owns a vast array of insurance, transportation, energy, retail and other businesses also warned that tariffs may further hit profits.
Operating earnings, which include the conglomerate’s fully owned insurance and railroad businesses, fell 14% to $9.641 billion during the first three months of the year. In the first quarter of 2024, they totaled $11.222 billion.
On per share basis, operating earnings were $4.47, down from $5.20 per class B share one year ago. That compares to an estimate of $4.89 per class B share from UBS and an overall consensus estimate from 4 analysts of $4.72 a share per FactSet.
Much of that decline was driven by a 48.6% plunge in insurance-underwriting profit. That came in at $1.34 billion for the first quarter, down from $2.60 billion a year prior.
Berkshire’s bottom line also took a hit from the dollar losing value in the first quarter. The company said it suffered an approximate $713 million loss related to foreign exchange. This time last year, it benefited from a $597 million forex gain.
The dollar index fell nearly 4% in the first quarter. Against the Japanese yen, it lost 4.6%.
Berkshire said President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other geopolitical risks created an uncertain environment for the conglomerate, owner of BNSF railway, Brooks Running and Geico insurance. The firm said it’s not able to predict any potential impact from tariffs at this time.
“Our periodic operating results may be affected in future periods by impacts of ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical events, as well as changes in industry or company-specific factors or events,” Berkshire said in the earnings report. “The pace of changes in these events, including international trade policies and tariffs, has accelerated in 2025. Considerable uncertainty remains as to the ultimate outcome of these events.”
“We are currently unable to reliably predict the potential impact on our businesses, whether through changes in product costs, supply chain costs and efficiency, and customer demand for our products and services,” it said.
BRK.A vs S&P 500 in 2025
The report comes as Berkshire enjoys a stellar year-to-date performance, while the broader market languishes. In 2025, Class A shares of Berkshire are up nearly 19%, while the S&P 500 is down 3.3% as uncertainty from tariffs pressures tech and other sectors.
Berkshire’s cash hoard ballooned to a fresh record during the first quarter, climbing to more than $347 billion from around $334 billion at the end of 2024, as Buffett continues to struggle to find opportunities to deploy the money.
Berkshire was a net seller of stocks for a 10th quarter in a row.
— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed reporting.
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