Berkshire Hathaway's core operating earnings climbed 16% year over year to $13 billion in the second quarter, while a massive jump in stock repurchases sent $4.5 billion back to shareholders. Consolidated net earnings, which include investment gains, more than doubled to $25.7 billion.
The buyback binge
Berkshire bought back $4.5 billion of its own stock during Q2 2026, a sharp leap from the $235 million repurchased in the first quarter. That puts the quarter among the highest for buybacks in the past decade. The pace didn't slow after June 30 — estimated repurchases through July 29 totaled another $3.4 billion, based on share count analysis.
Why the sudden acceleration? The company doesn't break out its reasoning in the earnings release, but the move signals that management sees its shares as undervalued. The buybacks also soak up excess cash that Berkshire has been sitting on, a topic investors have pressed for years.
Insurance investment income slips
Not everything went up. Insurance investment income came in at $3.1 billion, down 9% from the same period a year earlier. That's a meaningful dip for a segment that has been a reliable profit driver, though it remains a solid chunk of the operating total.
Operating earnings per Class A share rose 17% to $9,050, outpacing the overall growth rate thanks to the reduced share count from buybacks. The math here is straightforward: fewer shares, higher per-share figures.
How operating earnings are counted
Berkshire defines operating earnings as net earnings exclusive of investment gains, impairments of goodwill and intangible assets, and other-than-temporary impairments of equity-method investments. That's a stricter measure than the headline net figure, which swung wildly higher this quarter because of paper gains in the stock portfolio.
Investors who follow Berkshire closely tend to focus on operating earnings because they strip out the noise of market swings. The 16% growth in that metric suggests the underlying businesses — insurance, railroads, utilities, and retail — are humming along.
The buyback pace into July means Berkshire is on track to return even more cash to shareholders in the current quarter. Whether that continues depends on the stock price, which the company has never been shy about adjusting to.
