Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B) reported a record $324.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term Treasury investments as of March 31 in 10-Q filings released Saturday — up from $321.4 billion at year-end and the seventh consecutive quarter of cash-pile growth. Operating earnings of $11.6 billion missed consensus by 4.1%, dragged by a $1.4 billion underwriting loss in GEICO and lower investment income on the largely Treasury-bill-positioned float.
The Apple position was trimmed for a fourth consecutive quarter to approximately 280 million shares from 300 million at year-end and a peak of 905 million in late 2023. At the Friday close of $214.50, the residual Apple stake is worth $60.1 billion and represents 23.6% of Berkshire's $254 billion equity portfolio — down from 49.7% at the year-end 2023 peak. The trim implies pretax proceeds of approximately $4.3 billion in the quarter.
Cash Allocation
The 10-Q discloses that 96.4% of the cash pile is invested in U.S. Treasury bills with weighted-average maturity of 79 days, generating an average yield of 4.42% — implying approximately $14.3 billion of annualized interest income, by far the largest single revenue stream in the conglomerate's history. The position effectively makes Berkshire the third-largest holder of U.S. T-bills behind only the Federal Reserve and Japan, ahead of China and the U.K.
Buyback Pause and Equity Activity
Berkshire repurchased no shares in Q1 — the fifth consecutive quarter without buybacks — implying CEO Warren Buffett continues to view the BRK.A class A shares trading at $632,400 as above the long-standing intrinsic-value-plus-margin formulation. Net equity selling totaled $9.6 billion in the quarter; the only material additions were a $1.4 billion incremental purchase of Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and an undisclosed but Bloomberg-reported $810 million addition to Constellation Brands (