Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s first quarter earnings release and its quarterly report have been published by the company on Saturday, May 6, 2023. Net earnings attributable to Berkshire shareholders amounted to $ 35,504 million during the quarter.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made first-quarter profit of $35.5 billion, reflecting gains from common stocks such as Apple Inc, while higher income from investments bolstered operating profit. Net income equaled $24,377 per Class A share, and swelled from $5.58 billion, or $3,784 per share, a year earlier. Quarterly operating profit increased 13% to $8.07 billion, or about $5,561 per Class A share, from $7.16 billion.

Investment gains (losses) include gains of approximately $23.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023 and losses of approximately $771 million in the first quarter of 2022 due to changes during the first quarters of 2023 and 2022 in the amount of unrealized gains that existed in our equity security investment holdings. Investment gains (losses) also include after-tax realized gains on sales of investments of $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2023 and after-tax realized losses on sales of investments of $612 million in the first quarter of 2022. In 2023, investment gains also include a net remeasurement gain of approximately $2.4 billion related to Berkshire’s acquisition of an additional 41.4% ownership interest in Pilot Travel Centers.

However, the company cautions investors about quarterly investment gains or losses. The amount of investment gains (losses) in any given quarter is usually meaningless and delivers figures for net earnings per share that can be extremely misleading to investors who have little or no knowledge of accounting rules.

Approximately $4.4 billion was used to purchase shares of Class A and Class B common stock during the first quarter of 2023. On March 31, 2023, there were 1,450,152 Class A equivalent shares outstanding.

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Berkshire Hathaway held its 2023 Annual Shareholders Meeting on Saturday May 6, 2023. Prior to the Annual Shareholders Meeting, Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s Vice Chairman, Greg Abel, Vice Chairman Non-Insurance Operations and Ajit Jain, Vice Chairman Insurance Operations, held a question-and-answer session.

Warren Buffett manages $347 billion in invested assets, but 89% of his holdings—just 11 stocks—make up the majority of his portfolio. The Oracle of Omaha has referred to the tech stock Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) as one of Berkshire Hathaway’s “four giants.” Apple has by far been Berkshire Hathaway’s greatest investment in terms of market value, and this quarter it generated $214 million in dividend income.

Berkshire has a history of outperforming the S&P 500 during recessions, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group, and performing especially well during bad markets. Since 1980, Berkshire shares have outperformed the overall market by a median of 4.41 percentage points during the course of six recessions.

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Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, retailing and services. Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A and BRK.B