SUMMARY

• Soaring insurance underwriting profits drive Berkshire Hathaway's Q1 earnings boost
• Geico stages a major comeback with a $703 million underwriting profit
• Berkshire's cash reserves grow, and stock repurchases hit their highest since Q1 2021

Picture this: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is cruising into some smooth vibes with their Q1 earnings looking hella fly, thanks to a little boost from the insurance biz. Operating earnings got a nice 12.6% bump, hitting $8.065 billion compared to last year's $7.16 billion. Who doesn't love a comeback story?

Insurance underwriting profits soared to $911 million, and insurance investment income jumped 68%. Geico's got its groove back too, making a major comeback with a $703 million underwriting profit. Turns out, telematics was the sneaky villain behind their previous underperformance.

Now, not all was groovy; the railroad business BNSF and the energy company faced a few year-over-year declines. Still, "other controlled businesses" and "non-controlled businesses" had some subtle gains.

Berkshire's got a mountain of cash, swelling to $130.616 billion, and they spent $4.4 billion on stock repurchases, making it rain like it's 2021. Meanwhile, net earnings bumped up to $35.5 billion, thanks to some savvy equity investments like Apple.

As Berkshire gears up for their annual shareholders meeting – "Woodstock for Capitalists" – their Class A shares are up 4.9%, not too shabby even though the S&P 500's got a 7.7% lead. But hey, the stock's less than 3% below its all-time high, so Berkshire's still got some serious swagger.

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