Berkshire Hathaway shares fall for 4th day

Warren Buffett Berkshire CEO

NEW YORK - Shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. fell below $100,000 for the first time since 2006 yesterday, dropping for a fourth day after posting a 77 percent profit decline last week.

Berkshire's class A shares slipped as much as $7,283, or 7.1 percent, to $96,050, before ending the day at $102,800, down $533 from Wednesday.

The stock of the Omaha-based firm, up in 17 of the last 20 years, has plunged 27 percent this year.

Berkshire has posted four straight profit declines, the worst streak in at least 13 years, on investment losses and falling returns at insurance businesses. October's slump in debt and stock markets reduced the value of Berkshire's holdings and derivative contracts and lowered its shareholders' equity, a measure of assets minus liabilities, by about $9 billion in the month, the company said in a regulatory filing Nov. 7.

"There have been larger declines in the rest of the insurance industry, and Berkshire isn't immune to that," said Bill Bergman, an analyst for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

Declining investments, catastrophe claims, and falling property and casualty rates caused third-quarter losses at 15 of the 24 companies in the KBW Insurance Index.

Berkshire's net income for the period fell to $1.06 billion from $4.55 billion a year earlier.

Funds holding Berkshire stock may have been forced to sell to keep up with customer redemptions, and individual investors may be cutting their holdings to raise cash, said Guy Spier, principal at hedge fund Aquamarine Funds LLC, which owns Berkshire shares.

"There are very few buyers around for anything right now," Spier said. "There are some people who got caught with their pants down, and they need cash for all sorts of reasons."