Buffett’s Berkshire Reports $50 Billion Net Loss In First Quarter
May 3, 2020 | Investopaper
Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate managed by Warren Buffett has posted a net loss of $49.75 billion in the first-quarter of 2020. Despite the rise in Operating profit by 6 percent to $5.87 billion, the company suffered loss due to the plunge in its investment in common stocks.
With the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, the stock market saw a rapid decline. Berkshire faced a $54.52 billion losses from its investments.
In the previous year, Berkshire earned $21.66 billion in net profit in the first quarter.
The S&P 500 index plunged by 20 percent in the first quarter. This led many Berkshire holdings such as Bank of America, Well Fargo , American Express and four airline stocks to fall with the impact of COVID-19.
Berkshire is stuffed with $137.3 billion of cash and didn’t make any major stock investment during this period. It however, sold all the four airlines stocks-American, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines.
