Berkshire Hathaway doubles its buybacks to US$9.6 billion as Greg Abel bets on his own stock and Geico slips

Berkshire Hathaway is buying itself.

The conglomerate spent about US$9.6 billion repurchasing its own shares in the three months to 30 September, it said in its quarterly results on Saturday, US time. That is more than double the June quarter and takes buybacks this year to about US$14.4 billion. Berkshire only buys its shares back when it judges them to be trading below their intrinsic value, so investors read every dollar as a statement of what management thinks the company is worth.

Operating earnings, the profit from the businesses Berkshire owns outright, fell 5.8 per cent from a year earlier to US$12.705 billion. Overall earnings, which include paper gains and losses on its stock portfolio, fell 28 per cent to US$22.1 billion. Revenue rose 11 per cent to about US$105.7 billion.

What went wrong?

Insurance, the engine of Berkshire for six decades. Underwriting profit across its insurance businesses fell 43 per cent to US$1.35 billion, and investment income from insurance fell 14 per cent.

Geico, the US car insurer, had the worst of it: pre-tax profit fell 45 per cent as accident losses and spending on advertising climbed. The share of premiums paid out in claims rose to 76.6 per cent from 71.5 per cent a year earlier.

What went right?

The businesses that move goods and power. BNSF, Berkshire’s railroad, lifted profit 19 per cent to US$1.73 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy grew 8 per cent to US$1.61 billion. Precision Castparts, which makes aircraft parts, increased pre-tax profit by 30 per cent.

How is Greg Abel changing Berkshire?

Abel, 64, took over as chief executive from Warren Buffett, now 96, at the start of 2026, ending Buffett’s six decades in charge. Buffett’s final years were defined by a growing mountain of cash he said he could not find good uses for.

Abel has started to put that money to work: US$6.8 billion for homebuilder Taylor Morrison in July, a 4 per cent stake in Italian software company Bending Spoons, and now the faster buybacks. Berkshire bought about US$2 billion more of its own stock in the first four weeks of October.

Even so, its cash and Treasury bills still top US$350 billion, enough to buy almost any company on the ASX outright. Its five biggest stock holdings, Alphabet, American Express, Apple, Bank of America and Coca-Cola, were unchanged in the quarter.

Why are investors piling in?

Berkshire has become a refuge as money pours out of technology stocks. Its Class A shares rose more than 12 per cent in the past month while the S&P 500 fell 5.5 per cent, and they are up about 13 per cent this year against less than 8 per cent for the index.

That matters for the many Australians who own US shares directly or through funds: the sell-off in AI and chip stocks that hit Wall Street and the ASX this week has pushed investors towards companies with steady cash flows from railways, power and insurance, which is exactly what Berkshire sells.

Berkshire itself warned of “considerable uncertainty” from economic and geopolitical events, including tariffs and wars.