Berkshire's Revenue Jumps 11.2% as Greg Abel Puts His Own Stamp on the Giant

Berkshire Hathaway posted $105.65 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 11.2 percent from just under $95 billion a year ago, in the first earnings report that clearly carries Greg Abel's fingerprints. The Saturday release showed a mixed picture: operating earnings fell 5.8 percent to $12.71 billion, even as several of Berkshire's largest subsidiaries delivered stronger profits.

The standout was BNSF Railway. The railroad's earnings climbed 19.3 percent from a year earlier — a number that matters well beyond the rail segment itself. Abel singled out BNSF in February, in his first letter to shareholders as CEO, writing: "We will be disappointed if we do not deliver a substantial improvement over the next few years."

That's a strikingly specific commitment from a company famous for patience. And it's landing.

Who Is Greg Abel and What Has He Changed?

Abel took over as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway less than a year after succeeding Warren Buffett, and he's following the billionaire's playbook with one major exception: he's acting as an operator, not just a capital allocator.

Buffett built Berkshire into a conglomerate by deploying capital with discipline and letting managers run their businesses. Abel, by contrast, is drilling into the operations of the subsidiaries themselves — with BNSF the most visible test case.

He set the tone himself. "My role," Abel wrote in his February shareholder letter, "is to ensure our liquidity levels and capital deployment remain intentional and deliberate." The BNSF turnaround push is where that intentionality meets the railroad tracks.

What Do the Q3 Numbers Actually Say?

The third-quarter report, released Saturday, splits cleanly into two columns:

• Revenue: $105.65 billion, up 11.2 percent from just under $95 billion in the year-ago quarter
• Operating earnings: $12.71 billion, down 5.8 percent year over year
• BNSF Railway: earnings up 19.3 percent from a year earlier
• Several of Berkshire's largest subsidiaries posted higher profits alongside the railroad

The revenue growth outpacing the operating-earnings decline tells you the top line is doing the heavy lifting while costs or one-off items weigh on the bottom line. But the subsidiary-level strength — BNSF chief among them — is the figure Wall Street is watching as the marker of Abel's tenure.

Why Wall Street Sees a Break From Buffett

Some observers read the latest results as evidence of a real distinction between the new CEO and his storied predecessor. Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust, told The Wall Street Journal that Abel is "more interested in being a better operator than Warren Buffett ever was, and maybe you're seeing some of that coming through."

That's the core shift. Buffett prioritized capital allocation above operational involvement; Abel is putting operational improvement — visibly, at BNSF — at the center of his agenda. It's something Buffett never prioritized, and it's now showing up in the earnings line of one of Berkshire's biggest businesses.

What Comes Next?

Abel set his own yardstick in February: substantial improvement at BNSF "over the next few years." The 19.3 percent earnings climb in Q3 is an early data point against that promise, and the coming quarters will show whether the operating-earnings decline reverses as the operational fixes compound. Berkshire's investors now have a measurable way to judge the post-Buffett era: watch the railroad.