Heavy losses on   April storms in Australia contributed to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reporting lower-than-anticipated earnings in the   June quarter, which fell well short of analyst forecasts.
The group said it had lost about $US115 million ($155 million) on the storms, and investment returns were lower.
Net income slumped 37 per cent to $US4.01 billion, or $US2442 a share, from $US6.4 billion, or $US3889, a year earlier, the company said. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, were $US2367 a share - well short of the average $US3038 that had been estimated by analysts covering the stock. 
"The property-and-casualty insurance industry certainly occasionally takes large hits," said David Kass, a professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. "What matters is how you do over time."
Berkshire's insurance units posted a net underwriting loss of $US38 million, compared with a gain of $US411 million a year earlier, driven by lower profit at auto insurer Geico and a wider loss at the company's reinsurance operation.
Geico contributed $US53 million to earnings, compared with $US393 million a year earlier because of an increase in the frequency and cost of claims. It said it was raising premiums to account for the higher losses.
Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group's loss widened to $US411 million from $US9 million on storm costs in Australia and foreign currency fluctuations. The decline in net income was primarily driven by lower investment gains. Berkshire's profit soared to a record in last year's second quarter as the company had a benefit of more than $US2 billion from derivatives and investments.
In the   June quarter this year, the investment and derivative figure was $US123 million. Buffett's company said that third-quarter results would include a pre-tax gain of about $US7 billion tied to the merger that formed Kraft Heinz in   July. Berkshire owns more than a quarter of the combined company after helping to fund the deal.
The anticipated gain hasn't reversed Berkshire's stock slump this year, with its A shares down 4.7 per cent since the start of the year compared with a 0.9 per cent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
Buffett's favoured yardstick - book value - rose 1.9 per cent to about $US149,735 a share during the second quarter. He has said the metric is a good, though understated, proxy for the company's true worth. Investors often use the figure to gauge whether the stock is attractively priced.
Berkshire's biggest non-insurance unit, railroad BNSF, contributed $US963 million to quarterly earnings, compared with $US916 million a year earlier. Total carloads were relatively flat, and the revenue per car dropped as demand for hauling oil and coal slumped.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co, the utility business led by Greg Abel, added $US502 million to earnings, compared with $US375 million a year earlier. The unit benefited from higher profit at its Iowa power business, the addition of a transmission business in Canada and a lower tax rate. Abel has been investing heavily in wind generation, which earns Berkshire credits it can use to offset its tax liabilities.