Berkshire claims to have bought close to $ 1 billion of its own shares

Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by billionaire Warren Buffett, said Saturday that its operating profit in the third quarter had almost doubled, as its insurance business helped avoid hurricanes and benefited from Tax reduction.

This solid result gave Mr. Buffett more money, and he used some of it to buy close to $ 1 billion worth of shares in his own company.

Operating profit doubled during the quarter to $ 6.88 billion from $ 3.44 billion a year ago, which is higher than the $ 6.11 billion expected by Wall Street, according to the Refinitiv data.

The Company's insurance business was favored by reducing the estimated liability for property and casualty insurance compared to previous years and lowering taxes. Last year, insurance companies suffered significant losses as a result of three hurricanes in the United States and an earthquake in Mexico.

Revenues from insurance sales were $ 441 million in the third quarter, compared to a loss of $ 1.4 billion in the same period last year.

Berkshire's results also improved in the railways, utilities and energy, manufacturing, services, retail and financial products sectors.

"This is absolutely one of the biggest quarterly results ever published by any US company," said Bill Smead, chief executive of Berkshire shareholder, Seattle-based Smead Capital Management.

Berkshire said its net profit for the third quarter had risen more than 355% to $ 18.5 billion, although this reflects a new accounting rule requiring it to report unrealized gains on investment with results. .

Berkshire also said it bought $ 928 million of its own shares in the third quarter.

Berkshire closed September with $ 103.6 billion in cash, short-term treasury and similar investments.

The last major acquisition of Mr. Buffett took place in January 2016, when Berkshire has spent about $ 32 billion on the Precision Castparts aircraft parts manufacturer.