Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) earnings Q1 2025

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Saturday's first-quarter results reportedly showed a sharp decline in operating revenues starting from the annual period. The conglomerate has a large number of insurance, transportation, energy, retail and other businesses, and has also warned that tariffs could further hit profits.

Operating revenues, including the full insurance and rail business of the conglomerate, fell 14% to $9.64 billion in the first three months of the year. In the first quarter of 2024, they totaled $11.22 billion.

Earnings per share was $4.47 in the previous quarter, down from $5.20 in the same period a year ago. By comparison, the estimated value of UBS per tier B shares is $4.89, and the overall consensus estimate of $4.72 per share per analyst.

The majority of this decline is caused by a 48.6% drop loss. Revenues in the first quarter were $1.34 billion, down from $260 billion a year ago.

Berkshire's bottom line also took a hit from the value of the dollar loss in the first quarter. The company said the losses related to foreign exchange were about $713 million. This time last year, it benefited from $597 million in foreign exchange earnings.

The U.S. dollar index fell nearly 4% in the first quarter. For yen to yen, 4.6% was lost.

Berkshire said President Donald Trump's tariffs and other geopolitical risks have created an uncertain environment for the owners of the BNSF Railway, Brooks Running and Geico Insurance. The company said it is currently impossible to predict any potential impact of the tariffs.

“Our regular operating results may be affected by the impact of future macroeconomic and geopolitical events and changes in industry or company-specific factors or events,” Berkshire said in its earnings report. “The speed of change in these events, including international trade policies and tariffs, accelerates in 2025. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the end result of these events.”

“We are currently unable to reliably predict the potential impact on our business, whether through product costs, supply chain costs and efficiency changes, and customer demand for our products and services,” it said.

The report is struggling as Berkshire enjoys its age to date. Berkshire Class A shares rose nearly 19% in 2025, while S&P 500 Uncertainties in technologies and other areas fell by 3.3% due to tariff pressure.

Berkshire's cash hoards were fresh in the first quarter, climbing to $347 million from $334 billion at the end of 2024 as Buffett continued to work hard to find opportunities to deploy the money.

Berkshire became a net seller of stocks for the 10th consecutive quarter.

As Buffett's publicly traded portfolio began the year, the company's overall earnings also fell by nearly 64% year-on-year. That said, Berkshire always advises investors to go beyond these quarterly changes.

“The amount of investment earnings (losses) in any given quarter is usually meaningless, and the figures of net earnings per share may be misleading for investors who have little or no knowledge of accounting rules,” Berkshire's release said.

– Yun Li of CNBC contributed the report.