Berkshire Hathaway posted a profit of $ 11.7 billion in the first quarter

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported earnings growth in the first quarter as its investment portfolio increased in size along with a broad market rally and a broad business group bounced back from the depths of the crisis a year ago.

The company said on Saturday that it had made $ 11.7 billion in profits a year earlier from $ 49.7 billion in losses, with changes in its $ 282 billion portfolio that includes big names like Apple and Bank of America having a big impact.

The main businesses include the Geico insurer, the BNSF railway and the Dairy Queen ice cream chain. Operating profits for these businesses were up 19.5 percent from $ 7 billion a year earlier.

The company’s in-depth pile of money rose to $ 145.4 billion from $ 138.3 billion at the end of 2020. Berkshire reported that it spent $ 6.6 billion in the quarter buying Class A and B shares, as it continued to direct a large portion of its firepower to the stock. repurchases.

The results were addressed by Buffett and a trio of Berkshire executives to the company’s shareholders at the annual meeting, which could be the largest in years.

A large number of shareholders, including California employee pension fund manager Calpers and asset manager Neuberger Berman, have warned that they will hold the votes of some directors sitting on the Berkshire committee to support social and environmental shareholder proposals while pushing the conglomerate.

Buffett will be joined by Charlie Munger, Greg Abel and Vice President of Ajit Jain Berkshire at this year’s annual meeting in Los Angeles, far from the company’s usual Omaha city center.

The coronavirus prevented it from holding an annual meeting for the second year in a row, which usually attracted tens of thousands of Berkshire shareholders in the midwest west.

Berkshire Class A shares rose 18.6% this year and closed at $ 412,500 a piece on Friday. Profit puts the conglomerate ahead of the S&P 500 benchmark total of 11.8 percent, and Berkshire is setting a path to broad market performance in a given year for the first time since 2018.