How much money does Berkshire Hathaway have in cash?
Some financial advisers are asserting that the conglomerate's huge cash hoard - more than $150 billion in cash and short-term investments, largest ever in the company's near-60-year history - indicates that Buffett is finding it harder than ever to find undervalued companies to acquire.
However, there's a third major component to Berkshire Hathaway's assets – its cash. Berkshire ended the third quarter of 2023 with $157 billion in cash on its balance sheet, an all-time high. And there's a high probability that this figure grew even larger by the end of last year.
Total assets can be defined as the sum of all assets on a company's balance sheet. Berkshire Hathaway total assets for the quarter ending September 30, 2023 were $1,019.933B, a 13.04% increase year-over-year. Berkshire Hathaway total assets for 2022 were $948.452B, a 1.08% decline from 2021.
In Hanke's view, Buffett's cash build means he's well placed to snap up discounted stocks and businesses and loan money at attractive rates if the economy tanks — and he'll earn a solid return with zero risk while he waits thanks to higher bond yields.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK. A 1.06%) (BRK. B 1.20%) is a sprawling conglomerate worth over $770 billion. While its main business is insurance, much of Berkshire's value comes from its investment portfolio.
He's pledged to always have at least $30 billion of liquid assets at Berkshire to ensure the company never fails to meet its financial commitments. Having plenty of dry powder also enables him to pounce on cut-price assets and strike lucrative deals at tough times, as he did during the 2008 financial crisis.
However, there's a third major component to Berkshire Hathaway's assets – its cash. Berkshire ended the third quarter of 2023 with $157 billion in cash on its balance sheet, an all-time high.
Bill Gates Berkshire Hathaway Inc. - Class B
Bill Gates's position in Berkshire Hathaway is currently worth $8.68 Billion. That's 19.02% of their entire equity portfolio (2nd largest holding). The investor owns 1.05% of the outstanding Berkshire Hathaway stock. The first Berkshire Hathaway trade was made in Q2 2010.
Institutional investors hold a majority ownership of BRKB through the 65.31% of the outstanding shares that they control. This interest is also higher than at almost any other company in the Multi-Line Insurance industry.
Berkshire Hathaway first started buying Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) stock in 1988 and continued accumulating shares since. Berkshire Hathaway now owns 400 million shares of Coca-Cola stock valued at a whopping $22 billion or about 8% of the company.
Where does Buffett park his cash?
First, don't think that Buffett literally has $147 billion or so of Berkshire's money in cash. Instead, Berkshire primarily parks its money in U.S. Treasury bonds. The company specifically stated in its Q2 report that $97.3 billion of short-term investments were in U.S. Treasury bills.
Buffett, 93, also doubled down on his pledge to donate roughly 99% of his nearly $120 billion fortune to charity, revealing that his children, who share his views on righting wealth inequalities through private philanthropy, will serve as executors of his will.
Most was held in short-term investments in U.S. Treasury bills. The company said in a securities filing that interest and other investment income increased $1.3 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier, primarily because of increases in short-term interest rates.
Berkshire's record cash and equivalents relative to its portfolio are in line with the firm's 20-year average.
| Berkshire Hathaway Quarterly Cash on Hand (Millions of US $) | |
|---|---|
| 2023-09-30 | $30,840 |
| 2023-06-30 | $50,055 |
| 2023-03-31 | $26,747 |
| 2022-12-31 | $35,811 |
Cash on Hand as of September 2023 : $61.55 B
According to Apple's latest financial reports the company has $61.55 B in cash and cash equivalents.
Berkshire Hathaway owns over 9% of Coca-Cola's shares. Investing $1,000 in Coca-Cola: The big bet by Buffett in 1988 marked one of the largest bets on a public company by the legendary investor.
- Apple.
- Bank of America.
- American Express.
- Coca-Cola.
- Chevron.
- Apple (AAPL) $202.6 Billion.
- Alphabet (GOOGL) $169.2 Billion.
- Microsoft (MSFT) $132.3 Billion.
- Amazon (AMZN) $86.2 Billion.
- General Electric (GE) $67.9 Billion.
- UnitedHealth Group (UNH) $67.0 Billion.
- Meta Platforms (FB) $54.8 Billion.
- Pfizer (PFE) $51.3 Billion.
Part of that approach has been an aversion to debt. One would think that one of the biggest companies in the world got that way through using at least some amount of leverage, but the reality is that Berkshire has almost never used debt to fund its acquisitions.
Is Berkshire Hathaway in debt?
Berkshire Hathaway has a total shareholder equity of $534.7B and total debt of $124.8B, which brings its debt-to-equity ratio to 23.3%. Its total assets and total liabilities are $1,019.9B and $485.2B respectively. Berkshire Hathaway's EBIT is $97.8B making its interest coverage ratio 20.1.
Berkshire Hathaway differs from other investment firms, like hedge funds. Anyone can invest in Berkshire Hathaway if they have enough money to buy at least one Class B share (about $360 in late 2023).
Bullish on this entire logistics and supply chain market, regardless of the competitive differences, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation now owns through Cascade Investment 1.53 million shares of FedEx Corp. This is worth $392 million. Gates has the 10th largest holding at FedEx, in contrast to the 15th at UPS.
You can buy or sell BRK. B and other ETFs, options, and stocks.
Despite being a large, mature, and stable company, Berkshire Hathaway does not pay dividends to its investors. Instead, the company chooses to reinvest retained earnings into new projects, investments, and acquisitions.
