Shareholders arrive outside CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 5, 2023, in Omaha, Neb. Warren Buffett's company said its first-quarter profits soared along with the paper value of its investment portfolio -- giving the thousands of shareholders who filled an arena Saturday to listen to the billionaire and several other top executives answer questions some good news to start the day.
One of the few concessions Buffett makes to his age is that he no longer tours the exhibit hall before the meeting. In years past, he would be mobbed by shareholders trying to snap a picture with him while a team of security officers worked to manage the crowd. Munger has used a wheelchair for several years, but both men are still sharp mentally.
But Buffett has long cautioned that those bottom line figures can be misleading for Berkshire because the wide swings in the value of its investments -- most of which it rarely sells -- distort the profits. In this quarter, Berkshire sold only US$1.7 billion of stocks while recording a US$27.4 billion paper investment gain. Part of this year's investment gains included a US$2.
At the end of this year's first quarter, Berkshire held US$130.616 billion cash, up from US$128.585 billion at the end of last year. But Berkshire did spend US$4.4 billion during the quarter to repurchase its own shares.