Berkshire Hathaway stock is doing well and is hovering near its all-time high as investors move to its safety amid the ongoing rout in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Its class A shares were trading at $856,612 on Friday, a few points below its all-time high of $878,395. It has soared by over 25% from the year-to-date high.
Berkshire Hathaway boosts buybacks as profits dive
Berkshire Hathaway, the 12th-largest company in the world, has done relatively well this year, a trend that has continued amid the artificial intelligence (AI) jitters.
The company published its financial results on Saturday, showing that it boosted its share repurchases as its profits dropped. It repurchased shares worth over $9 billion in the quarter. It bought 4,536 Class A shares and 12.38 million Class B shares. This is in top of the $2.4 billion buybacks it made in the second quarter.
Berkshire Hathaway’s results were mixed. Most notably, its profit dropped during the quarter, driven by its investments and underwriting business. Its insurance segment has remained under pressure in the past few quarters, mostly because of Geico. Its unrealized investment gains stood at $11 billion, much lower than the $21 billion it made in Q3’23.
The insurance and other segments made over $91 billion in revenues in the last quarter, much higher than the $81.6 billion it made in the same period last year. The railroad, revenue rose to $6.8 billion, while its utilities and energy and services rose to $6.5 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.
Berkshire Hathaway maintains the biggest cash in the United States. A look at its balance sheet shows that its insurance and other cash and cash equivalents stood at over $36 billion, while the short-term investments stood at over $336 billion. Investments in fixed-maturity securities and equity securities stood at $17 billion and $335 billion, respectively. Its railroad, utilities, and energy business has over $4.6 billion in cash.
Analysts have a mixed outlook on Berkshire Hathaway’s stock. UBS has a target of $942,405, while KBW and TD Cowen have $735,000 and $721,000, respectively.
Berkshire Hathaway stock technical analysis
On the charts, the Berkshire Hathaway stock has been in a strong bull run in the past few months. It has already crossed the important resistance level of $812,246, its highest level on May 2nd this year.
The stock has remained above the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMA). Also, it has moved much higher than the Supertrend indicator, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has jumped to the overbought level.
Therefore, the stock will likely continue rising as bulls target the key resistance level of $900,000. On the other hand, there is a risk that the stock may retreat and retest the key support of $812,246 and then resume the uptrend.