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Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile soared to a record $334.2 billion late last year as Warren Buffett dumped stocks and took it from the group’s massive fiscal bills Billions of dollars in interest.
Omaha-based Berkshire said on Saturday that its cash position rose by $9 billion in the last three months of last year as Buffett’s stake in Blue-Chip US Revised shares, which include billions of dollars in stock sales from Citigroup and Bank of America. The group’s cash pile has nearly doubled over the past year.
The massive conglomerate reported operating revenue of $47.4 billion in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023, and its insurance business performed stronger.
The operating results do not include changes in the value of Berkshire’s $27.2 billion stock portfolio, which Buffett has long been considered meaningless.
Berkshire disposes $143 billion in stock in 2024, far exceeding the $9 billion it invests in shares and puts most of its earnings into short-term Treasury bills.
Buffett’s deal has been hit in recent years as U.S. stocks have reached record highs, leading to large acquisitions that have long been the backbone of billionaires’ strategy.
The group’s fourth-quarter results were released along with Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders following.
“Berkshire performed better than I expected in 2024, although 53% of our 189 operating businesses reported a decline in revenue,” Buffett wrote. “We get predictable as Treasury yields rise With the help of predictable returns from investment income, we have greatly improved our holdings in these high-liquid short-term securities.”
Since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022, Berkshire has increasingly moved to U.S. government debt. From its stock portfolio.
The 94-year-old investor told shareholders on Saturday that he didn’t mind the group’s growing cash pile, but instead pointed to the rising value of Berkshire’s nearly 200 operating subsidiaries, including BNSF Rail, Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cream, Suppliers and underwear manufacturers loom fruits.
“Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that we will always allocate a large amount of funds in stocks,” he wrote. “Berkshire never wants to have ownership of cash equivalent assets, rather than ownership of good businesses.”
The billionaire also warns that the danger to a country’s debt value and currency should be “financially stupid.”
“If fiscal stupidity prevails, paper money can see its value evaporate.” “In some countries, this reckless approach has become a habit, and in the short history of our country, the United States has come to the brink of fixed alliances. Bonds do not protect against escape currency.”
