Berkshire bought back $9.6B of its own stock in Q3, a record for a single quarter.

Berkshire bought back $9.6B of its own stock in Q3, a record for a single quarter. Add roughly $2B more in October and $4.8B in the first half, and repurchases this year come to about $16.4B. Under Greg Abel, more of the cash pile is getting put to work.

The quarter itself was soft. Operating earnings fell 5.8% year over year to $12.71B. Net earnings dropped 28% to $22.11B, or $15,502 per Class A share, down from $30.8B a year earlier. Insurance drove most of it: underwriting income fell 43%, and insurance investment income slid 14% to $2.7B as short-term rates came down.

Still, AP put operating earnings at about $8,907 per Class A share, slightly above the $8,821.84 four FactSet analysts expected. So it was a weaker quarter, but not a miss.

My read: Abel is telling the market, through the repurchase pace, that he thinks the stock is undervalued. That's a real departure from Buffett, who was famously patient with cash.

The question I keep coming back to is whether this is conviction about value or a practical answer to a hard problem: at Berkshire's size, the stock may be the easiest big thing left to buy. Either way, watching how Abel allocates capital is now the most interesting part of following Berkshire.

Sources:
Bloomberg: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-07/berkshire-hathaway-s-operating-earnings-fall-buybacks-rise
Business Times: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/berkshire-ramps-buybacks-under-new-ceo-greg-abel-q3-operating-profit-falls-6
AP via WSOCTV: https://www.wsoctv.com/news/business/berkshire-hathaway/GFJ47YHIKA7H3AGQQEAGHNLIWU/

Not financial advice. For informational and educational purposes only.