(AOF) – Berkshire Hathaway unveiled sharply lower profits in the fourth quarter on Friday evening. Warren Buffett’s investment firm reported net income of $18.16 billion, or $12,412 per Class A share, compared to net income of $39.65 billion, or $26,690 per share of class A, a year earlier. An accounting rule obliges the company to record unrealized losses or gains on its portfolio of securities and derivatives.
These are, this quarter, lower unrealized capital gains than last year at the same time. They represent 11.46 billion dollars against 32.36 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Operating income, which excludes unrealized capital gains or losses and exceptional items, fell 7.9% to $6.7 billion, or $4,596 per share. This decrease is explained by an exchange loss of $1.2 billion. In 2022, operating income increased by 12% to 30.79 billion dollars.
In the fourth quarter, its insurance activities recorded a net profit of 244 million dollars against 372 million dollars a year earlier. Warren Buffett notably owns the reinsurer General Re.
Profits from operations in the railroad sectors (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) fell 12.8% to $1.47 billion. On the other hand, they increased by 23.6 to 739 million dollars in utilities (PacifiCorp) and energy.
The group ended the year with cash of $128.6 billion, up from $109 billion three months earlier. It bought back $2.6 billion of its own shares, bringing the total to $7.9 billion in 2022.
Last year, Berkshire Hathaway stock gained 4%, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 index, which fell 18.1%.
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A strong development momentum for French life insurance
The growth of life insurance continues over the months. Over the first four months of the year, contributions reached 53.7 billion euros, a level not seen for more than ten years. At 10.5 billion euros, net inflows also returned to their highest level since 2011 over a similar period. In the end, at the end of April 2022, outstanding life insurance contracts reached 1.847 billion euros, up 1.1% over one year. These good performances are partly linked to the growing success of the PER (Retirement Savings Plan). Since the start of 2022, PERs marketed by an insurer have posted 592,000 additional policyholders and 9.3 billion euros in payments. At the end of April 2022, 3.2 million policyholders held a PER, which represented an outstanding amount of 39 billion euros. Without taking transfers into account, 87% of new holders of a PER (at the end of December 2021) had taken it out with an insurer.