berkshire hathaways operating profits surged in the fourth quarter and for the full year as the conglomerates businesses continued to roar back to life from the pandemic economic slowdown chairman warren buffett increased his bet on that comeback buying back a record amount of berkshire shares in 2021 the companys operating earnings which encompass profits made from the myriad of businesses owned by the conglomerate like insurance railroads and utilities totaled 7285 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 thats up roughly 45 from the yearearlier periods profit of 5021 billion for the year berkshires operating earnings totaled 27455 billion thats up 252 from 2020s 21992 billion berkshire used 69 billion to buy back shares in the fourth quarter bringing the total in share repurchases to approximately 27 billion for 2021 thats a record amount and up from the 247 billion repurchased as the pandemic raged in 2020 however the fourthquarter buyback pace was a bit slower than the 76 billion repurchased in the third quarter despite these aggressive buybacks berkshires cash hoard at the end of 2021 stood at about 14672 billion thats down only slightly from a record 1492 billion at the end of the third quarter buffett explained in his accompanying annual shareholder letter that he and vice chairman charlie munger found little that excites them in terms of big acquisitions that was once their hallmark instead the pair increasingly finds share repurchases as the best way to deploy cash at this time through that simple act we increase your share of the many controlled and noncontrolled businesses berkshire owns buffett wrote in the letter when the pricevalue equation is right this path is the easiest and most certain way for us to increase your wealth overall earnings which reflect berkshires fluctuating equity investments came in at 39646 billion for the quarter thats up about 10 from the yearearlier period of 35835 billion however berkshire tends to downplay the importance quarterly changes in the companys investment gains or losses the amount of investment gainslosses in any given quarter is usually meaningless and delivers figures for net earnings per share that can be extremely misleading to investors who have little or no knowledge of accounting rules berkshire said earnings from berkshires railroad utilities and energy business jumped 123 to 2241 billion from 1995 billion a year earlier meanwhile berkshires insuranceunderwriting business earned 372 million after losing 299 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 the earnings report came as berkshires b shares broke out to a record high this year up nearly 7 fullyear overall earnings came in at 89795 billion more than double 2020s total of 42521 billion