Berkshire Hathaway Q3 Profit Falls, Buybacks Hit $9.6 Billion

Berkshire Hathaway bought back about $9.6 billion of its own stock in the third quarter, its biggest repurchase pace in the figures it published on Saturday, even as operating profit slipped from a year earlier.

The Omaha, Nebraska company reported operating earnings of $12.705 billion for the third quarter of 2026, down from $13.485 billion in the same quarter last year. Reuters put the fall at about 6 percent and said weaker insurance underwriting results drove it. Net earnings attributable to shareholders were $22.112 billion, down from $30.796 billion a year earlier, a drop of about 28 percent.

Buybacks accelerate

Berkshire said it acquired approximately $9.6 billion in treasury shares during the third quarter, bringing buybacks for the first nine months of 2026 to about $14.4 billion. The company had 1,418,900 Class A equivalent shares outstanding on September 30, 2026.

The buyback is the clearest signal in the release about how the company sees its own shares. A repurchase on this scale means cash that could sit in the company's stockpile is instead going back out to buy stock from selling shareholders.

The nine-month picture is stronger

The quarter looks softer than the year so far. For the first nine months of 2026, net earnings rose to $57.885 billion from $47.769 billion in the same period of 2025. Nine-month operating earnings rose to $37.034 billion from $34.286 billion.

Investment gains were $9.407 billion in the third quarter. Berkshire repeated its standing warning about that line in the release: the amount of investment gains or losses in any quarter is usually meaningless and produces net earnings per share figures that can be extremely misleading. Net earnings per average equivalent Class A share were $15,502 for the quarter, down from $21,413 a year earlier.

Read the 10-Q, the company says

Berkshire posted the release and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q on its website on Saturday morning. The release itself tells investors and reporters to read the 10-Q, and says the summary in the release is not adequate for making an informed investment judgment.

The results land on a Saturday, when United States stock markets are closed, so the first market reaction will come when trading opens on Monday. Berkshire announced the timing on November 4, telling shareholders the earnings release and the 10-Q would be posted on November 7 at about 7:00 a.m. Central time.