{"id":9582,"date":"2023-11-04T14:18:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T14:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/warren-buffetts-berkshire-cuts-stocks-for-fourth-straight-quarter\/"},"modified":"2023-11-04T14:18:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T14:18:55","slug":"warren-buffetts-berkshire-cuts-stocks-for-fourth-straight-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=9582","title":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire cuts stocks for fourth straight quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=4ec10c1b-a365-483f-8566-e2ff47435dd5\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire Hathaway continued to sell off stakes in publicly traded companies, shedding more than $5bn of exposure to US and foreign stocks in the third quarter as the firm struggled to find appealing investments in a volatile market.<\/p>\n<p>The sales mean the sprawling conglomerate has sold stocks for four straight quarters, with divestments approaching $40bn. It has cut positions in companies such as oil major Chevron, automaker General Motors and insurer Marsh &amp; McLennan. <\/p>\n<p>The value of Berkshire\u2019s stock portfolio shrank to $319bn from $353bn at the end of June, a decline fuelled by the slide in the broader market as investors came to believe that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates higher for longer. <\/p>\n<p>That has weighed on the valuations of publicly traded companies and prompted some portfolio managers to search for better returns in fixed income markets.<\/p>\n<p>Buffett\u2019s investment shifts are closely followed by fund managers and the wider public for clues as to where the 93-year-old investor sees attractive returns.<\/p>\n<p>He directed the proceeds of those stock sales, as well as the cash flows Berkshire\u2019s many businesses generated, into cash and Treasury bills. The company\u2019s cash pile surged nearly $10bn to a record $157.2bn at the end of September, a sum that gives it formidable firepower for acquisitions.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\"  width=\"2240\" height=\"1600\"><\/source><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\"  width=\"960\" height=\"1280\"><\/source><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/https:\/\/d6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net\/prod\/4f34dc80-7b18-11ee-bdae-b1361447e3e9-standard.pn.png\" alt=\"Column chart of Cash, cash equivalents and short-term Treasuries held ($bn) showing Berkshire Hathaway's cash pile surges to record $157.2bn\" data-image-type=\"graphic\" width=\"2240\" height=\"1600\"><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>Berkshire has been one of the big beneficiaries of rising interest rates, which in the US climbed above 5 per cent this year. The company disclosed that the interest income it was earning on its insurance investments climbed to $1.7bn in the quarter, lifting the sum to $5.1bn over the past 12 months. That eclipsed the total interest Berkshire earned on its cash reserves in the preceding three years combined.<\/p>\n<p>Buffett disclosed that the company repurchased $1.1bn worth of Berkshire stock in the quarter, down from the $1.4bn it spent in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s operating businesses, which span the BNSF railroad, Geico insurer and aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts, reported a 41 per cent rise in profits to $10.8bn during the quarter. The gains were fuelled by its insurance unit, which reported strong underwriting profits of $2.4bn, offsetting weakness at BNSF and its large utility business.<\/p>\n<p>Ajit Jain, a Berkshire vice-chair who oversees its insurance operations, told shareholders in May that the company had wagered heavily on the Florida insurance market and had written policies in the hurricane-prone state. <\/p>\n<p>It was a risky bet that Jain estimated could cost Berkshire as much as $15bn if the state was hit by powerful storms. But this year, the state experienced a relatively tame season.<\/p>\n<p>Berkshire on Saturday reported that significant catastrophe losses \u2014 individual insurance losses that top $150mn \u2014 had only reached $590mn in the first nine months of the year. That figure is down from $3.9bn in the same period last year, when Hurricane Ian pummelled Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the margins have been healthy, we have a very unbalanced portfolio,\u201d Jain said at the annual meeting. \u201cWhat that means is if there\u2019s a big hurricane in Florida, we will have a very substantial loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He estimated in May that Berkshire could register a profit of $7bn if hurricane season ended without a big storm.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s overall results were dragged down by declines in the value of its stock portfolio, which it must account for in its profit statement. Berkshire said it registered a net loss of $12.8bn, or $8,824 per class A share, compared with a $2.8bn net loss a year before.<\/p>\n<p>Buffett has long characterised the net earnings figures as meaningless, saying the figures can be \u201cextremely misleading to investors who have little or no knowledge of accounting rules\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Shares of the company have climbed 13.9 per cent this year, below the 15.1 per cent total return of the S&amp;P 500 stock index.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/4ec10c1b-a365-483f-8566-e2ff47435dd5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Warren Buffett\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire cuts stocks for fourth straight quarter | inFundPros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=9582\" \/>\n<meta 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