Berkshire Hathaway Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Results
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has released its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, providing investors with a snapshot of the company’s performance alongside a comparison to the previous year, 2024. While the information shared in this summary offers an overview, Berkshire strongly encourages investors and financial reporters to review the company’s complete 2025 Annual Report, which has been posted on the company’s official website at www.berkshirehathaway.com. The press release emphasizes that the limited data included in this summary should not serve as the sole basis for making investment decisions, as it does not capture the full breadth of the company’s financial operations and performance metrics.
Consolidated Earnings Overview
Berkshire Hathaway’s net earnings attributable to shareholders are presented for both the fourth quarter and full-year periods. For the fourth quarter of 2025, the company reported net earnings of $19.2 billion, slightly lower than the $19.7 billion earned during the same period in 2024. On a full-year basis, Berkshire earned $66.97 billion in 2025, reflecting a decrease from $88.99 billion in 2024.
The composition of net earnings includes investment gains or losses, as well as other items such as impairments. Specifically, investment gains in 2025 were $13.5 billion for the fourth quarter and $30.7 billion for the full year. These gains include both realized gains on sales of investments and changes in the unrealized gains or losses of equity securities. In the fourth quarter, $9.6 billion of the gains came from changes in the unrealized gains on equity securities, while $3.9 billion represented after-tax realized gains on the sale of investments. For the full year, unrealized gains accounted for $12.9 billion and realized gains were $17.8 billion. By contrast, in 2024, investment gains were more volatile: the fourth quarter saw $5.2 billion in gains, while the full year included $41.6 billion in gains, reflecting significant fluctuations in unrealized gains and losses.
It is important to note that Berkshire Hathaway follows Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which require the inclusion of changes in unrealized gains and losses from equity securities as part of investment gains or losses. As a result, quarterly figures for net earnings can be misleading for investors who are not familiar with these accounting standards. The company has repeatedly stressed that short-term fluctuations in investment gains or losses are generally not indicative of its ongoing business performance.
Operating Earnings
To provide a clearer picture of underlying business performance, Berkshire Hathaway reports operating earnings, a non-GAAP measure that excludes investment gains or losses, impairments of goodwill, and other-than-temporary impairments of equity method investments. Operating earnings provide a more meaningful measure of the company’s core operations, separating the performance of its diverse businesses from the volatility of investment markets.
For the fourth quarter of 2025, Berkshire Hathaway reported operating earnings of $10.2 billion, compared with $14.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full year, operating earnings were $44.5 billion in 2025, slightly below the $47.4 billion recorded in 2024.
A detailed analysis of operating earnings by segment demonstrates the diverse sources of Berkshire’s profitability:
- Insurance Underwriting: This segment generated $1.56 billion in operating earnings during the fourth quarter of 2025, down from $3.41 billion in the same period in 2024. For the full year, underwriting earnings totaled $7.26 billion, a decrease from $9.02 billion in 2024.
- Insurance Investment Income: Income generated from invested insurance premiums was $3.07 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $12.51 billion for the full year, compared with $4.09 billion and $13.67 billion, respectively, in 2024.
- BNSF Railway: The freight rail business reported $1.35 billion in operating earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025, slightly higher than $1.28 billion in 2024, and $5.48 billion for the full year, up from $5.03 billion.
- Berkshire Hathaway Energy: Operating earnings in the utilities and energy segment were $691 million in the fourth quarter and $3.98 billion for the full year, representing modest growth compared with $729 million and $3.73 billion in 2024.
- Manufacturing, Service, and Retailing: These operations contributed $3.37 billion in the fourth quarter and $13.65 billion for the full year, both increases from $3.26 billion and $13.07 billion in 2024.
- Other: The remaining businesses, including foreign currency effects and investment income from the parent company and related entities, contributed $159 million in the fourth quarter and $1.61 billion for the full year of 2025, down from $1.76 billion and $2.91 billion, respectively, in 2024.
It is worth noting that foreign currency exchange gains and losses related to non-U.S. dollar denominated debt affected the results of the “Other” category, contributing $617 million in the fourth quarter and losses of $642 million for the full year of 2025. These effects are included alongside other after-tax interest, dividend, and investment income from Berkshire Hathaway parent company activities.
Share Performance and Metrics
At the end of 2025, the company had 1,438,223 Class A equivalent shares outstanding. Net earnings per average equivalent Class A share were $13,349 for the fourth quarter and $46,563 for the full year. For Class B shares, which are 1/1,500th of Class A shares, net earnings per share were $8.90 for the fourth quarter and $31.04 for the full year. These figures compare with $13,695 and $61,900 per Class A share, and $9.13 and $41.27 per Class B share, in 2024.
Insurance Float and Operational Insights
As of December 31, 2025, Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance float—the net liabilities assumed under insurance contracts—was approximately $176 billion, representing an increase of $5 billion compared to year-end 2024. The insurance float provides a low-cost source of capital that the company invests to generate long-term returns, which remains a central component of Berkshire’s financial strategy.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Berkshire Hathaway emphasizes transparency in its reporting by including non-GAAP measures alongside GAAP results. Operating earnings are the company’s preferred measure of ongoing business performance, reflecting the profitability of its operations without the volatility of investment gains and losses. The company maintains that while investment income and gains are integral to its insurance operations, they are largely independent of the core underwriting process and therefore should be analyzed separately when evaluating business performance.
About Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified conglomerate with operations spanning multiple sectors, including insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, services, and retailing. Its common stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols BRK.A and BRK.B. Berkshire continues to pursue its longstanding strategy of acquiring and operating businesses that generate strong and consistent earnings, while leveraging its insurance operations to support investment opportunities.
