TenQ

The Berkshire Hathaway story

Berkshire Hathaway combines insurance, a railroad, utilities, manufacturers and a stock portfolio, with the question of whether its noninsurance businesses can sustain earnings growth as insurance earnings soften.

Written from Berkshire Hathaway's own filings with the SEC, and rewritten when it publishes a new earnings release. Updated 2026-09-30.

  • $503.09share price, last close
  • $1.08Tmarket value
  • 17/36TenQ Score checks passed

The story in brief

  • Operating businesses advanced. Operating earnings rose to $12,983 million in the quarter to June 2026 from $11,160 million in the same period of 2025, led partly by manufacturing, service and retailing.
  • Insurance earnings softened. Insurance underwriting earnings and insurance investment income both declined in the quarter to June 2026, despite float reaching approximately $177.5 billion at June 30, 2026.
  • Capital returned through repurchases. Berkshire repurchased approximately $4.5 billion in shares in the quarter to June 2026, bringing the total for the first six months of 2026 to about $4.8 billion.

What drives the business

  • Berkshire operates a decentralized collection of insurance, freight rail, utility, energy, manufacturing, service and retail businesses, while its chief executive controls significant capital allocation and investment decisions.
  • Insurance supplies funds held for investment before claims are paid, known as float, which grew from approximately $138 billion at the end of 2020 to approximately $176 billion at the end of 2025.
  • GEICO primarily distributes auto insurance directly to customers and held approximately 11.6% of the private passenger automobile insurance market in 2024, while Berkshire’s U.S. insurers had approximately $333 billion of combined statutory surplus at December 31, 2025.
  • A significant portion of NICO Group’s annual reinsurance premium comes from a 20% quota-share agreement with Insurance Australia Group Limited that expires on December 31, 2029.
  • Manufacturing, service and retailing earnings increased to $4,470 million in the quarter to June 2026 from $3,601 million in the same period of 2025, alongside earnings increases at BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

What the price assumes

TenQ does not measure the growth implied by Berkshire’s price through a reverse DCF because its finance industry classification means free cash flow may not measure what it earns.

At $503.09 per share, Berkshire trades at 12.7x earnings, and its 7.9% earnings yield exceeds the 5.2% Treasury benchmark in TenQ’s check.

Berkshire generated $24.2 billion of free cash flow over the last twelve months, but its 2.2% free cash flow yield falls below TenQ’s 3.0% threshold and its own historical 4.5% yield.

What could change the story

  • Insurance underwriting earnings fell to $1,731 million in the quarter to June 2026 from $1,992 million in the same period of 2025, while insurance investment income fell to $3,059 million from $3,367 million.
  • Berkshire’s equity investments are unusually concentrated in relatively few companies, and changes in unrealized investment gains contributed $10.9 billion to earnings in the quarter to June 2026, making reported net earnings a volatile measure of business performance.
  • Operating earnings also benefited from $326 million of foreign currency exchange gains on debt in the quarter to June 2026, compared with $877 million of losses in the same period of 2025.
  • Revenue growth of 3.9% over the last twelve months trails the annual three-year pace of 7.1%, failing TenQ’s growth acceleration check.
  • Interest coverage of 4.16 falls short of TenQ’s 5.00 threshold, while its cash conversion quality measure of 0.54 falls below the 0.80 bar.

What to watch next

  • Berkshire gave no financial guidance in its release for the quarter to June 2026, leaving segment earnings as the clearest test of whether operating growth continues.
  • The next releases will show whether manufacturing, service and retailing sustain their gains and whether insurance underwriting and investment income recover.
  • Float, underwriting results and investment income together will show whether Berkshire’s insurance funding base is translating into stronger earnings.
  • Further repurchase disclosures will show how capital returns develop after approximately $4.5 billion of repurchases in the quarter to June 2026.

Sources

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