Berkshire Hathaway speeds up stock buybacks

Berkshire Hathaway has increased its pace of repurchasing its own shares, a sign that longtime Chairman Warren Buffett considers them undervalued and a good place to spend excess cash, reports Reuters.
In its proxy filing on Friday, Berkshire said it repurchased the equivalent of 3,808 Class A shares this year through March 6, spending approximately $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion depending on the dates of the buybacks.
Nearly three-quarters of the repurchases took place after Feb. 12.
Berkshire repurchased $2.2 billion of its own stock in last year's fourth quarter, and $9.2 billion in all of 2023.
Its peak year for buybacks was 2021, when they totaled $27 billion.
Buffett, 93, has run Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire since 1965, and oversees buybacks and other major capital allocation decisions.
Repurchases help Buffett deploy some of the conglomerate's cash and equivalents, which totaled $167.6 billion at year end.
Berkshire has said it will maintain a $30 billion cash cushion, and that "financial strength and redundant liquidity, opens new tabwill always be of paramount importance."
Through Friday, Berkshire's share price was up 14per cent this year, about twice the gain for the Standard & Poor's 500.