Berkshire’s general meeting of shareholders was held in Omaha at 7 a.m. EST on April 30 (8 p.m. Beijing time on April 30).
This is also two years later, Berkshire’s general meeting of shareholders returned to be held offline.
At present, Berkshire Hathaway has released its first quarterly report.
Data show that Berkshire Hathaway’s revenue in the first quarter was US $7.04 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.3%. The net profit was US $5.46 billion, compared with us $11.71 billion in the same period last year, a year-on-year decrease of 53%.
The company spent US $3.2 billion to buy back the company’s class A and class B shares. The net loss of investment and derivatives was US $1.58 billion, compared with a net profit of US $4.69 billion last year. Cash reserves fell to $106.3 billion and stock purchases were worth about $51.1 billion.
As of the end of the first quarter, about 66% of the fair value of Berkshire Hathaway’s total investment was concentrated in American Express, apple, Bank of America and Chevron.
According to the documents submitted by Berkshire Hathaway to the SEC, the investment in chevron is $25.9 billion. This is equivalent to holding about 159 million shares, which is higher than the group’s holding of about 38 million shares at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.
In addition, the company holds US $42.6 billion worth of Bank of America shares, US $28.4 billion worth of American Express shares and US $159.1 billion worth of Apple shares.
The company’s railway business profit reached US $1.371 billion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 9.6%, compared with us $1.251 billion in the same period of last year; The profit of public utilities and energy business was US $750 million, compared with us $703 million in the same period of last year; The profit of manufacturing, service and retail business reached US $3.025 billion, compared with us $2.619 billion in the same period of last year; The profit of insurance underwriting business was US $47 million, up from US $764 million in the same period last year; The income from insurance investment business was US $1.17 billion, compared with us $1.208 billion in the same period last year.
The question and answer session of the shareholders’ meeting is expected to start at 9:15 local time and last for about five hours. In addition to Buffett, 92, and Munger, 98, Berkshire executives DD Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, who are regarded as potential successors of Buffett in the industry, will also attend and answer questions this year.
