Berkshire Hathaway Q3: operating earnings dip 5.8% as buybacks hit record $9.6B
What happened
Berkshire Hathaway reported third-quarter 2026 results on Saturday, November 7. Operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.705 billion ($8,954 per Class A share, roughly in line with the $8,822 FactSet consensus) from $13.485 billion a year earlier, while revenue rose 11% to $105.65 billion, above estimates of about $101 billion. Net earnings, which include swings in the stock portfolio, fell 28% to $22.11 billion. The headline move was capital allocation: Berkshire bought back about $9.6 billion of its own stock in the quarter, more than double the $4.5-4.8 billion spent in the first half of the year and a quarterly record topping the $9.3 billion set in Q3 2020, plus roughly another $2 billion in the first four weeks of October. Insurance drove the earnings weakness: underwriting profit fell 43% to $1.352 billion and insurance investment income fell 14%, with GEICO's pretax profit down about 45% on higher accident losses, more advertising and price cuts.
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Who’s affected
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRKB) — record buyback and Abel's capital-allocation signal are directly supportive, though the insurance earnings miss tempers it; the stock was already at a record high. Insurance sector (GEICO is a major auto insurer) — the 43% underwriting-profit drop and 45% GEICO decline flag rising accident losses and pricing pressure across auto insurance. Apple (AAPL), Coca-Cola (KO), Chevron (CVX) and other large Berkshire holdings — the 10-Q due later in November will show which stocks Berkshire traded in Q3
- Berkshire was a net seller of about $400 million of equities in the quarter after buying roughly $20 billion in Q2.