OMAHA, Nebraska, July 5, 2026, 10:07 CDT
- Berkshire reported $373.5 billion in net cash and U.S. Treasury bills across insurance and other businesses as of March 31, equal to 1.22x its equity and fixed-maturity securities book.
- The company unloaded roughly $24.1 billion in equities in Q1, over five times what it sold a year ago.
- Buffett’s warning on a “gambling mood” in markets faces a new test as high valuations and more complex ETFs keep piling up. The Motley Fool
Berkshire Hathaway NYSE:BRK.B set the number on Warren Buffett’s latest market caution: $373.5 billion. That’s how much cash and U.S. Treasury bills, less pending T-bill buys, sat in its insurance and other operations as of March 31. That total is $67.8 billion above the book value of equity and fixed-maturity securities in those units.
Investors get a clearer take from the number than just the quote. On July 4, Motley Fool pointed to Buffett’s 11-word warning about people getting more into gambling. The Economic Times tied his warning to hidden market risk. NewTraderU put it in the lens of household debt and crowd behavior. Berkshire’s latest filings echoed that, with moves to sell stocks, buy more T-bills, and keep buybacks modest.
U.S. stocks last traded ahead of the holiday break. NYSE and Nasdaq list July 3 as the observed Independence Day, with normal hours, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. Berkshire Hathaway Class B ended at $507.78, up 1.6% from its last close on Sunday data.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting on May 2, Buffett said, “We’ve never had more people in a gambling mood than now.” He also said “prices for an awful lot of things will look awfully silly.” Reuters
| Berkshire gauge | Latest figure | Earlier figure / comparison | Investor read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net cash and T-bills, insurance and other units | $373.5 bln | $305.7 bln equity and fixed-maturity securities | Cash held at 1.22 times securities |
| Short-term U.S. Treasury bills | $339.3 bln | $321.4 bln at Dec. 31 | Rose 5.5% for Q1 |
| Equity securities | $288.0 bln | $297.8 bln at Dec. 31 | Fell 3.3% in Q1 |
| Equity-sale proceeds | $24.1 bln | $4.7 bln in Q1 2025 | 5.1 times last year |
Berkshire listed its top five stocks as American Express NYSE:AXP, Apple NASDAQ:AAPL, Bank of America NYSE:BAC, Coca-Cola NYSE:KO, and Chevron NYSE:CVX. Those names accounted for 61% of the equity book at March 31, a slip from 65% at the end of December.
This matters since cash now pays. Berkshire’s bigger Treasury-bill bets boosted after-tax corporate investment income by $98 million in the first quarter, though some of that was offset by lower rates. If short-term rates move down, that income drops off. If stocks drop, the cash can be put to work.
| Market signal | Latest or recent reading | Investor problem |
|---|---|---|
| Shiller P/E | 41.60 as of July 2, just below the dot-com high of 44.19 | Valuations offer little buffer if earnings disappoint |
| U.S. ETF assets | $15.7 trillion at the end of May, up 17% since end-2025 | More risk is built into mainstream ETF products |
| 2026 ETF launches | Almost 700 so far, with about 200 leveraged or inverse funds | Packing vehicles for quick bets is now common |
| Buffett indicator cited by Motley Fool | Over 233% | Total market value is well above GDP |
ETF growth puts some weight behind Buffett’s old warning. Morningstar NASDAQ:MORN analyst Dan Sotiroff told Reuters that the new filings make it hard to tell what counts as an investment product and what makes public markets “more of a casino.” Reuters
Goldman Sachs NYSE:GS isn’t buying the idea that valuations are set for a sharp drop. Ben Snider, a strategist at the firm, told Business Insider that investors shouldn’t count on multiples going back to past averages. He now sees the S&P 500 delivering 7% annualized returns over the next decade. That’s above Goldman’s previous 3% estimate but still below the historical pace.
Berkshire, under Greg Abel, made moves. Reuters said June 1 that the company put $16.8 billion to work across two days, with $10 billion going to Alphabet NASDAQ:GOOGL shares and $6.8 billion to Taylor Morrison Home NYSE:TMHC. “Everyone has been waiting for Greg to do his thing,” said Steven Check, president of Check Capital Management. Reuters
Berkshire is still sitting on a huge pile of cash. The company ended March with $380.2 billion in cash, Reuters reported. Operating profit for the first quarter jumped 18% to $11.35 billion. Stock buybacks were just $234 million. “It doesn’t mean you need to deploy all your capital and spend all your money,” Abel said to shareholders. “It is very difficult to sit there and do nothing,” vice chair Ajit Jain added. Reuters
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