Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B) shares – both classes – were wanted in pre-market trading after a typically robust trading update.
The results were released on Saturday, presumably to give the company’s legion of fans time to pore over the numbers, and showed a 67% boost in quarterly operating profit, thanks to a rebound in insurance underwriting and strength in a number of other businesses.
The most gangsta thing Berkshire Hathaway does is releasing their quarterly earnings on a Saturday. Real thugs stay on the low.
— Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) August 6, 2018
The conglomerate, run by legendary investor Warren Buffett, reported that its operating profit for the second quarter rose to US$6.89bn, or US$4,190 per Class A share, from US$4.12bn, or US$2,505 per share, a year earlier. The results beat analyst forecasts.
The “B” shares were up 2.4% at US$205.20 in screen-based trading.
READ Berkshire Hathaway profits pop 67% as insurance businesses boom
If Praxair Inc (NYSE:PX) has a legion of fans, the legion would likely not be best pleased by the latest developments in its proposed merger with German industrial gases group, Linde.
The German company announced on Sunday that the US Federal Trade Commissions had tipped it the wink that further commitments to sell off parts of the combined business may be needed if the US$87bn marriage is to be allowed to go ahead.
Shares in Praxair were 6.2% lower in pre-market trading, which is a worse fall currently being suffered by Linde in European trading, where Linde’s shares are off 3.2%.
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc’s (NYSE:SEAS) stock has been rising in 2018 – in stock market terms, if not in public relation terms – and it received another lift with a return to profits in the second quarter.
The aquatic theme parks operator posted earnings per share (EPS) of 26 cents, or 34 cents once one-off items were stripped out. Analysts had been expecting underlying EPS of 27 cents.
The company’s net income was positive at US$22.7mln, compared to a loss in the corresponding quarter of 2017 of US$175.9mln.
Revenue rose 4.9% to US$391.9mln from US$373.2mln the previous year on the back of a 300,000 increase in attendance figures to 6.4mln guests.
Thomas Cook says it's going to stop selling trips to SeaWorld and other tourist attractions where killer whales are kept captive. It's part of the company's animal welfare policy. https://t.co/gVwGp3uTRC pic.twitter.com/IuZVpvofl3
— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) July 29, 2018
Shares in SeaWorld leapt 11.3%, throwing in a double-backflip for good measure, to US$23.51 in pre-market trading, and are up almost 25% year-to-date.
Consumer brands giant Newell Brands Inc (NYSE:NWL) found the market hard to please with its second-quarter update.
The shares were off 2.2% at US$26 ahead of the bell as sales in the three months to the end of June fell to US$2.2bn from US$2.5bn the year part, in part reflecting the businesses the group has sold off in the last year.
Core sales declined 6.2%, driven largely by a 14.5% decline in the Learning & Development Segment (Writing and Baby), and softness in the coolers, tents and fresh preserving businesses related to the late start to spring in most of the US.
Earnings per share eased to US$27 cents from 46 cents in the same period of 2017.