Xinhua News Agency, New York, May 3 (Reporter Liu Yanan) Berkshire Hathaway, a well-known investor in the United States, announced on the 2nd that the company ’s performance this year was due to a loss of $ 54.5 billion in investment business. There was a loss of US $ 49.75 billion in the first quarter, and a profit of US $ 21.66 billion in the same period last year.
This is the second year since Berkshire-Hathaway ’s loss of $ 1.138 billion in the first quarter of 2018.
Over the same period, Berkshire-Hathaway ’s operating business achieved an operating profit of US $ 5.87 billion, higher than US $ 5.56 billion in the same period last year.
Buffett said at the Berkshire-Hathaway Annual Online Shareholders' Meeting that day that the company had cleared the stocks of the four major US air carriers, involving American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Buffett said he made a mistake in the valuation of aviation stocks. Air travel was almost at a standstill during the epidemic, which caused the share price of aviation stocks to drop sharply. "I don't know if people's mileage will return to 2019 levels after three or four years."
The data also shows that Berkshire-Hathaway had $ 137.26 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term treasury investments at the end of the first quarter, higher than the $ 127.99 billion at the end of 2019.
Buffett said that Berkshire Hathaway has not made large investments in recent years because it did not find attractive things, but is willing to make large-scale investments when it finds suitable targets.
Considering the tax burden and restrictions on capital distribution brought about by the split, Buffett said he would not split Berkshire Hathaway.