Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett (R) and his wife Astrid (Photo : REUTERS/Anthony Bolante)
Is investment guru Warren Buffet losing his touch? That would be the question observers of his career and company Berkshire Hathaway would ask on reading the second quarter report of the company released on Friday.
Reuters reports that Berkshire's Q2 profit tumbled down 37 percent because of "a significant decline in investment gains and weaker results in its insurance operations." Net income went down to $4.01 billion from $6.4 billion 12 months ago, causing shareprice to go down to $2,442 from $3,889.
Also down was Berkshire's quarterly operating profit by 10 percent to $3.89 billion or $2,367 per share, from $4.33 billion or $2,634 per share. It was below analysts' average expected operating profit of $3,038 per share, according to Reuters.
Commenting on the Q2 results that Wall Street Journal also reported, Paul Rinderle wrote, "I hope he loses every penny he ever made." Rinderle accuses Buffett of using his money to support abortion of babies and sterilization of women. Besides Buffett, Rinderle said Bill Gates, the Rockefellers, Oprah Winfrey and Bloomberg "are a pack of wolves attacking the heart of society in poor countries."
Replying to Rinderle, Hamza Rashid said not to count on Buffett losing all his money because Berkshire would recover in a few quarters "once Geico gets a handle on frequencies."
Robert Sherman finds it weird that Berkshire's insurance business is losing money even if there are no major disasters, adding, "Sounds like they are operationally blind." Brian Earley suggested for Berkshire to cut back on Geico's annoying commercials, banners and radio ads.
