Berkshire Hathaway Earnings Winner On No Hurricanes (BRK-A)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A) posted reults after Friday’s close that are probably going to be hard to complain about, and not just because very few analysts make projections on the diversified insurance and investment/holding company conglomerate.  For a company that was a beneficiary of no major hurricanes in the U.S. again, you might wonder why the earnings were’t better on a per share basis.  Maybe the old sage just didn’t bilk the insurance customers enough.   

The conglomerate posted quarterly net earnings of $4.55 billion, or $2,942 per share, up from last year’s third-quarter net income of $2.77billion, or $1,797 per share.  Berkshire’s operating income of $2.56 Billion was actually down slightly from last year’s $2.6 Billion operating income.

24/7 Wall St. still wants to know why Warren Buffett hasn’t done that whale of a deal he said he’d like to do.  We previously gave a long list of candidates the Oracle of Omaha might want to consider.  The company had roughly $47.07 Billion cash on hand at the end of the quarter, yet it has committed about $16.9 Billion to stocks in 2007.

Jon C. Ogg
November 2, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he produces the 24/7 Wall St. subscriber-based Special Situation Investing Newsletter.