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.