An early birthday present for Warren Buffett? (He turns 93 years young on August 30.) Berkshire Hathaway’s stock rose 4% Monday and hit a new record high after the Oracle of Omaha’s conglomerate and investing giant reported solid earnings on Saturday morning.
Berkshire Hathaway, the owner of Geico, the BNSF railroad and Dairy Queen (among numerous other things) and a top investor in Apple, reported a quarterly profit of $35.9 billion. Berkshire Hathaway also ended the quarter with nearly $150 billion in its cash. The company is now worth just under $800 billion. (Will it soon join the trillion dollar market cap club?)
Berkshire, like many other blue chip companies, is benefiting from the fact that the US economy continues to chug along. Consumers and businesses keep spending, despite concerns about inflation and a series of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Shares of Walmart, Aflac, Priceline parent Booking Holdings and UGG/Hoka/Teva owner Deckers Outdoor all hit new record highs as well on Monday.
Buffett is fond of saying that investors shouldn’t bet against America. It looks like he’s right. And investors clearly shouldn’t bet against Berkshire either.