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Warren Buffett continued to sell shares in the first three months of this year and told investors in his Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company that he had not seen great opportunities to spend his assembly cash.
The figures showing that he has unloaded the actions for the consecutive tenth quarter came on Saturday in a quarterly report of the results which provided the backdrop to the 60th historic annual meeting of Berkshire in Omaha, in Nebraska.
The event participants questioned when Buffett could finally release part of the company’s financial fire power. Buffett sold $ 4.7 billion in shares in the three months on March 31, more than the $ 3.2 billion he bought.
This has helped to inflate the cash reserves of Berkshire, which reached another record of $ 348 billion while the money weakens of a sprawling commercial empire which covers insurance, manufacturing, public services and one of the largest railways in North America, as well as the interest paid on its wallet of American treasury bills.
Asked about the huge cash reserves, Buffett said: “Things become extraordinarily attractive very occasionally.” At one point, he said, the company would be “bombed with offers that we will be happy that we have the money”.
Tens of thousands of Berkshire shareholders attended the event, with high -level figures, notably Hillary Clinton and the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, in the crowd. Some participants said they hiked Omaha in case it was the last time Buffett chairs the meeting, often called “Woodstock for capitalists”.
The event provided Buffett the first opportunity to weigh on the markets and the economy since the American president Donald Trump launched a trade war last month by revealing plans to slam new prices on imports of most other nations.
Buffett tries to avoid commenting on politics, but during a marathon question and answers session, the 94 -year -old brutally criticized the prices without mentioning Trump. He said: “There is no doubt that trade can be an act of war.”
“Trade shouldn’t be a weapon,” he said. “We should try to exchange with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best. ”
Later, he raised his shoulders on a question on American exceptionalism, arguing that the country has undergone waves of cataclysmic change since its foundation.
Berkshire has built big investments abroad in recent years. Buffett recently increased his participation in the five largest commercial houses in Japan, which he said on Saturday that she intended to hold for the next “50 years”.
The 60th annual meeting met against one of the most uncertain economic sets of recent memory, to which Berkshire himself was not immune to the first months of the year.
Variations in net profit in Berkshire largely reflect fluctuations in the value of its equity portfolio of $ 264 billion and other investments. In the first quarter, the final results were $ 4.6 billion, compared to $ 12.7 billion in the first quarter last year.
Buffett orders shareholders to pay more attention to operating profit, which was $ 9.6 billion, compared to $ 11.2 billion. The decline largely reflects the lower insurance subscription benefits, including a stroke of $ 1.1 billion California Fires. Forest fires raged for days in Los Angeles, destroying thousands of houses in some of the richest districts in the country.
The actions of Berkshire Hathaway were tearing in 2025, increasing by 20% to close on Friday to a record of $ 809,808.50 for the action “A Class”. Berkshire once again authorizes any acquisition of shares in the first quarter.
Questions about the question of whether the event would be the last Buffett meeting is looming. The nonagenarian referred to his age and mortality several times, often lightening the atmosphere with jokes that have laughs at the crowd.
“It could be the last Hoorah,” said Lawrence Cunningham, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance of the University of Delaware, and the author of five books on Buffett. “It could live at 104 or 110, but the actuarial tables indicate the growing probability that it is not here next year.”
Additional reports by Eric Platt
