Berkshire Hathaway Q1 2026 Earnings, Greg Abel's First Quarter as a new CEO. $397,000,000,000 in cash pill and Still Not Buying Anything

Berkshire Hathway had a solid quarter. Operating earnings up 18% YoY, net income more than doubled, and cash hit a jaw-dropping $397 billion record. Slight miss on analyst expectations. Key Numbers Operating earnings came in at **$11.35 billion**, up \~18% from $9.64 billion a year ago though it narrowly missed the Wall Street estimate of $11.56 billion. Net income attributable to shareholders more than doubled to $10.1 billion, up from $4.6 billion in Q1 2025. The cash hoard jumped to **$397 billion**, after Berkshire offloaded a net $8.1 billion of equity holdings during the quarter. Berkshire also resumed share buybacks, repurchasing $234 million of its own stock and its first buybacks since May 2024. These results mark Greg Abel's first quarterly report as CEO, having taken over from Warren Buffett on January 1, 2026. At this year's annual meeting in Omaha, Abel led proceedings, Buffett, now Chairman, addressed the gathering from the floor rather than from the stage. Berkshire recorded $5.8 billion in realized gains on stocks sold during the quarter, though its overall investment portfolio slipped to just over $288 billion. With $397B in cash and no major acquisitions, what does Abel do with the war chest?