Could Autonomous Vehicle Insurance Threaten Berkshire Hathaway's Most Profitable Segment?

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) has crushed the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) over the last 60 years thanks in part to savvy investment decisions about long-held stocks like American Express and Coca-Cola -- and more recently Apple. But Berkshire's stakes in public companies may no longer be the driving force behind its success.On May 3 Berkshire published its first-quarter results, which included a new record position in cash, cash equivalents, and investments in U.S. Treasury bills of $342.39 billion. As of May 2, the value of Berkshire's public equity portfolio was $277.41 billion, or roughly a quarter its market cap of $1.16 trillion. The rest of Berkshire's value comes from its subsidiaries.Berkshire has plenty of valuable wholly-owned businesses, from the BNSF railroad to utility giant Berkshire Hathaway Energy. But by far the most important category is its property and casualty (P&C) insurance businesses. At Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, investors had plenty of questions about the future of the P&C businesses: from how they will fare in the face of an onslaught of private equity investment to the changing landscape of insurance in the autonomous age.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool