Buffett called 2022 a “good year” for Berkshire in his annual shareholder letter, after the conglomerate’s dozens of businesses generated $30.8 billion of profit despite rising inflation and supply chain disruptions, including from the war in Ukraine.
Berkshire also bulked up its cash hoard, ending the year with $128.6 billion after selling about $16.3 billion of stocks in the fourth quarter.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company found more value buying back its own shares, repurchasing $2.6 billion, and bought back about $700 million more in the first month-and-a-half of 2023.
Though its stock price is down 1.5% this year, lagging the 3.4% gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500, Berkshire shares outpaced the index by 22 percentage points in 2022, reflecting their status as a defensive investment in rocky markets.
Berkshire shareholders “trust us to treat their money as we do our own,” Buffett said in his letter. “And that is a promise we can…
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