Berkshire's stock modestly higher after operating earnings jump 21%

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares rallied as much as 2.2% this week before coming off their highs to end 0.8% above last Friday's close, following Saturday's financial results from the company showing a 21% increase in operating earnings to $6.7 billion for the second quarter.

A week ago, we told you Barron's was expecting a "strong" increase of 10%.

BNSF contributed operating earnings of $2.2 billion, up 28% from last year's second quarter, which has hit hard by a reduction in economic activity as the pandemic was taking hold.

After-tax earnings from Berkshire's insurance underwriting businesses fell to $376 million from $806 million in last year's second quarter, with more automobile insurance claims and "higher losses in the life reinsurance business."

Berkshire repurchased $6 billion of its own stock during the quarter, 9% less than the $6.6 billion it bought back during the first three months of the year.

It was also a net seller of stocks for the third straight quarter, leaving it with $144 billion in cash, about the same as what it had at the end of the first quarter.

Berkshire's Q2 stock moves will be revealed on Monday

We'll find out more about Berkshire's net sales of stocks when it files its latest portfolio snapshot with the SEC.

That's expected to come after Monday's close of trading. It will show the publicly-traded U.S. stocks Berkshire owned as of June 30.

Even as it was selling some stocks, the value of the portfolio increased by 8.7% during the quarter to $293.8 billion from $270.4 billion. The S&P 500 stock index gained 8.2%.

Three months ago, we learned that Berkshire had sold nearly 25 million shares of Chevron during the first quarter after secretly building a 48.5 million share stake over the second half of 2020.

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Aug 13, 2021

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of March 31, 2021 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on May 17, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of March 31, 2021 as disclosed in New England Asset Management’s 13F filing on May 17, 2021.

In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch