Berkshire Hathaway turns to buybacks as cash pile approaches $400 billion

Berkshire Hathaway has begun buying back its own stock again, according to reporting on the conglomerate's latest disclosures, marking the first meaningful use of a cash and short-term Treasury position that has swelled to close to $400 billion. The repurchases follow a long stretch in which Berkshire was a net seller of equities and added to cash rather than putting it to work, a pattern that fuelled speculation about a large acquisition. Under Berkshire's buyback policy, management may repurchase shares when it judges them to be trading below a conservative estimate of intrinsic value, and any activity is a signal about how the company views its own valuation. The reaction among shareholders has been divided. Buybacks return capital and lift per-share figures, but some investors have argued that repurchases at current levels are a less compelling use of the balance sheet than an operating business purchase would be, and that the size of the cash pile relative to the buyback still leaves the capital allocation question open.