Berkshire Hathaway Earnings: Q3 Operating Profit Down 6%, Nine Months Up 8% to $37.0B

Berkshire Hathaway opened its new era with a nine-month report that showed the operating machine doing the heavy lifting. Operating earnings for the first nine months of 2026 rose 8.0% to $37.0 billion, from $34.3 billion a year earlier, even as the insurance businesses that powered recent years cooled. Net earnings attributable to Berkshire shareholders rose 21.2% to $57.9 billion, a comparison helped by a 2025 period that included a $3.76 billion other-than-temporary impairment charge on the Kraft Heinz holding.

The third quarter told the softer half of the story. Operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.7 billion from $13.5 billion, and net earnings fell 28.2% to $22.1 billion from $30.8 billion. The gap between the two lines is the usual Berkshire distortion: investment gains. Berkshire recorded $9.4 billion of investment gains in the quarter, against $17.3 billion a year earlier, and most of the 2026 figure — $7.7 billion — was unrealized appreciation rather than realized profit. Realized gains on sales were $1.7 billion in the quarter, down from $8.1 billion. Berkshire itself warns readers about exactly this: the release again cautions that the amount of investment gains in any given quarter "is usually meaningless" and that per-share earnings built on them can be "extremely misleading," and it points readers to the Form 10-Q for the full picture. Earnings per Class A share were $15,502, against $21,413 a year earlier; Class B shares earned $10.33 against $14.28.

Third quarter, by segment (after-tax earnings, $ millions)

Segment	Q3 2026	Q3 2025	Change
Insurance underwriting	1,352	2,369	−42.9%
Insurance investment income	2,734	3,181	−14.1%
BNSF	1,729	1,449	+19.3%
Berkshire Hathaway Energy	1,612	1,489	+8.3%
Manufacturing, service and retailing	4,042	3,616	+11.8%
Other	1,236	1,381	—
Operating earnings	12,705	13,485	−5.8%

The segment detail explains the quarter. Insurance underwriting earnings fell 42.9% to $1.35 billion, and insurance investment income fell 14.1% to $2.73 billion — the two insurance lines together gave back more than the rest of the group gained. What offset them was breadth. BNSF, the railroad, earned $1.73 billion, up 19.3%. Berkshire Hathaway Energy earned $1.61 billion, up 8.3%. Manufacturing, service and retailing — the largest operating block — earned $4.04 billion, up 11.8%. The other line fell to $1.24 billion and absorbed a swing in foreign-exchange results on non-dollar debt: a $343 million loss in the quarter against a $331 million gain a year earlier.

Nine months, by segment (after-tax earnings, $ millions)

Segment	9M 2026	9M 2025	Change
Insurance underwriting	4,800	5,697	−15.7%
Insurance investment income	8,472	9,441	−10.3%
BNSF	4,664	4,129	+13.0%
Berkshire Hathaway Energy	3,617	3,288	+10.0%
Manufacturing, service and retailing	11,711	10,277	+13.9%
Other	3,770	1,454	—
Operating earnings	37,034	34,286	+8.0%

Across nine months the pattern holds with the volume turned up. Insurance underwriting is down 15.7% to $4.8 billion and insurance investment income down 10.3% to $8.5 billion, while BNSF is up 13.0% to $4.7 billion, energy up 10.0% to $3.6 billion, and manufacturing, service and retailing up 13.9% to $11.7 billion. The nine-month investment picture is friendlier than the quarter alone: investment gains of $20.9 billion against $17.2 billion, with unrealized gains of $11.6 billion against $3.3 billion in the 2025 period and realized gains of $9.3 billion against $14.6 billion. The other line also reflects a foreign-exchange swing the other way over nine months: a gain of $232 million in 2026 against a loss of about $1.3 billion in 2025. Per Class A share, nine-month earnings were $40,377 against $33,214; Class B shares earned $26.92 against $22.14.

Capital return ran at a scale few companies can match. Berkshire bought back about $9.6 billion of its own shares in the third quarter and about $14.4 billion over nine months, taking Class A equivalent shares outstanding to 1,418,900 at September 30. Insurance float — the premium money Berkshire holds and invests before claims come due — stood at about $178.5 billion, up about $2.1 billion since the end of 2025.

All of it arrived under new signatures. This was the first earnings release since the September 18 succession, when Warren Buffett, 96 and in charge since 1965, became Chairman Emeritus while remaining a director. His son Howard G. Buffett, a director since 1993, was elected Chairman, Greg Abel is chief executive, and Susan Decker remains Lead Independent Director. In his letter, Buffett wrote that Abel "has exceeded" his sky-high expectations, and summed up the new structure in one line: "Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values." The numbers in this report are a first read on that structure: an operating portfolio broad enough that a 43% drop in quarterly underwriting profit still leaves nine-month operating earnings growing at 8%. "Father Time always wins," Buffett wrote. "He has, however, been generous with me." The machine he handed over, on this evidence, is still compounding.

Figures are as reported in Berkshire Hathaway earnings releases; this is a news summary, not investment advice.