BackBerkshire Q4 profit declines 17% to $4.16 billion on investments
Net income fell to $4.16 billion from $4.99 billion a year earlier
Premium(Bloomberg)
Seattle: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said fourth-quarter profit slipped 17% as investment gains narrowed and underwriting results deteriorated at insurance units.
Net income fell to $4.16 billion, or $2,529 per share, from $4.99 billion, or $3,035, a year earlier, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said Saturday in a statement on its website. Operating earnings of $2,412 per share missed the $2,702 estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Buffett, 84, is aiming to make 2015 a celebratory year. He took control of Berkshire five decades ago and transformed it from a struggling textile maker into a sprawling business empire. Early on, he bought insurers, then used premiums from those businesses for stock picks and acquisitions. Operations now include electric utilities, manufacturers, retailers and one of the largest US railroads.
“The growth rate’s impressive," Meyer Shields, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, said in a phone interview before results were announced. “It’s a very successful, long-term utilization of the investable cash related to the insurance business, with no enormous mistakes."
While investment results can cause volatility in earnings, Berkshire now derives most of its income from operating subsidiaries. Even as underwriting profit decreased 52 percent at the insurance units to $191 million, Berkshire’s dozens of other operations posted a 10% increase in earnings to $3.03 billion.
Annual results
Full-year net income rose to $19.9 billion from $19.5 billion in 2013, which had been a record. Book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, climbed to $146,186 per share at the end of December from $144,542 three months earlier.
Underwriting results slipped in the fourth quarter at Geico and at Berkshire’s two main reinsurance businesses. Investment income at the insurance units also fell, dropping 2.7% to $880 million.
Many units have benefited in recent quarters from a rebound in the US economy. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.2% annualized rate in the fourth quarter after gaining at a 5% pace in the three months ended 30 September.
Berkshire’s biggest unit, railroad BNSF, contributed $1.19 billion to quarterly earnings, compared with $1.12 billion a year earlier.
Profit at the Berkshire Hathaway Energy unit rose to $358 million from $325 million a year earlier. The business operates electric grids in the UK, natural gas pipelines that stretch from the Great Lakes to Texas and power companies in states including Iowa and Nevada. The December 2013 purchase of Nevada’s largest electric utility, NV Energy, bolstered results.
Bolt-on deals
Buffett often highlights the prospects for business in the US. Most of Berkshire’s units are based in the country, and the billionaire continues to buy more. Last year, he agreed to purchase Van Tuyl Group, a network of car dealerships, as well as battery-maker Duracell.
He’s also been expanding in other nations. Berkshire acquired an electric transmission business in Alberta last year and said last week that it was purchasing Detlev Louis Motorradvertriebs GmbH, a motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer based in Hamburg, for about $450 million.
In all, Buffett said Berkshire agreed to spend $7.8 billion on 31 bolt-on deals last year, with Duracell the largest. The cash pile increased to a record $63.3 billion on 31 December from $62.4 billion three months earlier.
GE, Goldman
Berkshire had a fourth-quarter gain on investments and derivatives of $192 million. That compares with $1.21 billion a year earlier. Berkshire benefited in 2013 from a $1.2 billion one-time gain on Buffett’s financial crisis-era investments in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and General Electric Co.
Climbing earnings at Berkshire’s operating units have helped push the company’s market value past $360 billion, making it the fourth-largest publicly traded business in the world. Class A shares have risen 29% in the last year to $221,180, double the gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Some fourth-quarter results were calculated by subtracting figures for the first nine months from the full-year data provided Saturday. Bloomberg
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