Berkshire Made a Record Stock Buyback as Insurance Profit Fell 43%

Berkshire Hathaway spent $9.6B on its own shares in July through September. The prior quarter's figure was $4.5B; Bloomberg called the new amount a quarterly record for the company.

The company reported on Saturday, so no reaction is priced until markets open Monday. It is the third full quarter run by Greg Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as CEO in January.

The same week, Berkshire shares hit record highs despite the sell-off in AI stocks. According to Reuters, the stock is up more than 13% in 2026, beating the S&P 500 by more than five points.

Insurance Profit Nearly Halved

Operating earnings fell to $12.7B from $13.5B a year earlier. Almost the entire decline came from insurance.

After-tax underwriting profit, meaning premiums minus claims and costs, dropped to $1.35B from $2.37B. Reuters reported that GEICO's loss ratio rose to 76.6% from 71.5%.

Insurance investment income also fell 14.1% to $2.73B. The company attributed that to lower short-term interest rates.

Railroad and energy earnings rose but did not offset the insurance shortfall. Net earnings fell 28.2% to $22.1B, mostly because gains on the stock portfolio were smaller.

A Cash Pile That Loses Income When Rates Fall

By Berkshire's own count, it held $352.3B in cash and Treasury bills at the end of September. The $6.8B Taylor Morrison acquisition, completed in July, was paid from that pile.

Cash of that size means lost income whenever rates fall. Abel's faster buybacks should be read alongside that fact.

The market priced Berkshire as a safe harbor from the AI trade. Abel kept buying the same stock with the company's money.

This is where Berkshire's rule applies: it repurchases only when the stock trades below conservatively determined intrinsic value. With about $2B more bought in October, management still sees the record price below that line. Buybacks stop if cash would fall below $30B.

The chart only offers context; the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 over the same window is below for comparison.

Berkshire Stayed a Net Seller of Stocks

While buybacks rose, the stock portfolio barely moved. According to reports, Berkshire bought $2.4B of stocks in the quarter and sold $2.8B, a net sale of about $0.4B.

That is a sharp slowdown after net buying of about $19.8B in the second quarter. The question from our August story remains open: will the cash become an acquisition big enough to change the scale?

What It Means for Investors

• The market priced Berkshire as a refuge from the AI sell-off all week; Saturday's weak insurance results are not yet priced.
• For Berkshire B on Monday, the question is whether the 42.9% insurance drop or the doubled buyback weighs more.
• The November 16 13F filing will show which holdings were trimmed in a quarter of net selling.
• The risk to the thesis: if GEICO's higher losses persist, insurance keeps eating the growth in rail and energy.

This story is based on Berkshire Hathaway's third-quarter 10-Q, published November 7, 2026. The October buyback, GEICO loss ratio and share performance come from Reuters. The buyback-to-book ratio is Bill Stone's estimate in Forbes. Quarterly stock purchase and sale figures are as reported by StockTitan; the ~0.9% and ~$3.5B figures are Açılış Zili calculations.