Warren Buffett, Berkshire Buy Back $1.3 Billion of Stock in 6 Weeks

• Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway likely spent $1.3 billion on buybacks over the past six weeks.
• The outlay is notable, given Buffett didn’t repurchase any Berkshire shares in April.
• Berkshire spent about $52 billion on buybacks over the course of 2020 and 2021.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway spent an estimated $1.3 billion on stock buybacks over the past six weeks, suggesting the famed investor deemed his company’s stock a bargain once again.

There were about 2,823 fewer outstanding Berkshire “A” shares on June 14 versus April 20, Insider calculated, based on a company filing this week. Buffett didn’t repurchase any shares in April, and Berkshire “A” shares traded at an average of $465,000 over the course of May and the first half of June, indicating an outlay of around $1.3 billion in six weeks.

Buffett and his team may have resumed buybacks, but they have sharply slowed their pace. Berkshire plowed roughly $52 billion into repurchases over the course of 2020 and 2021; it’s on track to spend under $5 billion in the first half of this year.

The slowdown largely reflects Berkshire shifting its spending to other companies’ stocks. It piled $41 billion into equity purchases on a net basis in the first quarter of this year.

Berkshire “A” shares also soared to a record $544,000 in late March, but have plunged 23% since then, to below $419,000. Buffett may have balked at their lofty price tag in April, then resumed buying them in May and June after the shares slumped.

Buffett prides himself on being prudent with buybacks, and reiterated that approach during Berkshire’s recent annual shareholders’ meeting.

“We never do anything that we don’t think adds to the value of Berkshire Hathaway,” he said. “We only repurchase the shares when that is the most attractive thing.”

Read more: Insider recently interviewed the CEOs of 5 Berkshire Hathaway businesses: See’s Candies, Dairy Queen, Borsheims, Cort, and Brooks Running. They offered a rare glimpse inside Warren Buffett’s company, and shared how they’re dealing with the pandemic and inflation.