Berkshire Hathaway shares climb on earnings beat, stepped-up spending under CEO Abel

Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( NYSE:BRK.A ) shares gained about 2.5% on Monday after the conglomerate reported stronger-than-expected second quarter results and increased its capital deployment under new CEO Greg Abel. Revenue came in at about $101.8 billion, above analyst expectations of $96.52 billion. The company posted earnings per share of $6.02, above estimates of $5.13. Operating earnings rose to $12.98 billion from $11.16 billion. Investment gains contributed significantly to the increase in net earnings. Berkshire recorded $12.68 billion in investment gains during the quarter, including $10.9 billion from changes in unrealized gains on its equity investments. The results also highlighted a more active approach to capital deployment under Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as chief executive earlier this year. Berkshire repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own shares during the second quarter and was estimated to have spent another $3.4 billion on buybacks in July. The company also deployed $10 billion into Alphabet through a private placement and allocated $6.8 billion toward the acquisition of US homebuilder Taylor Morrison. Berkshire became a net buyer of equities during the quarter, purchasing $23.5 billion of stocks while selling $3.7 billion. This marked a change from Berkshire's previous pattern, ending a 14-quarter streak in which the company was a net seller of stocks.