Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B) has had a pretty good start to the year. Net earnings per Class A share rose to $3,143 in the quarter, from $2,862 a year ago. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $2,583 per class A share, from $2,149 a year ago.
The conglomerate reported net earnings of $5.16 billion in the first quarter, compared with $4.70 billion a year ago.
Berkshire Hathaway – Growth drivers
Berkshire Hathaway reported that earnings from its insurance underwriting business grew 4% to $480 million during the quarter while earnings from railroad, utilities and energy jumped 24.6% to $1.466 billion.
However, net earnings at Berkshire Hathaway Energy, fell 7% in the first quarter, to $421 million. Lower revenue from mild weather in some markets weighed on results at the energy unit.
Berkshire Hathaway’s investment income from its security portfolio rose to $875 million in the first quarter, up about 22% from a year ago.
Berkshire’s insurance float amounted to $83.5 billion at the end of the first quarter, down by around $500 million from the end of 2014. Berkshire’s railroad, BNSF contributed more than $1 billion in first-quarter net profit, or roughly one-fifth of Berkshire’s overall net profit of $5.2 billion.
Since the end of 2014, Berkshire’s book value, Warren Buffett’s preferred yardstick for measuring growth, has increased by 0.5%, standing at $146,963 per Class A share as of March 31.
Berkshire’s cash pile had risen to $64 billion at the end of the last quarter.
Weapons of mass destruction
During the first quarter Berkshire Hathaway also reported significant gain from its long-term derivative bets on the global stock markets.
Once labeled by Buffett “financial weapons of mass destruction†it’s interesting to see him making such a large gain from financial products he’s discouraged others from using in the past.
