Key Highlights

  • Berkshire Hathaway ended the quarter with roughly $364.7bn in cash and Treasury bills, a 4% fall, and turned a net buyer of equities for the first time in fourteen quarters.
  • Loews Corporation reported second-quarter Net Income of $444m, up from $391m, with Book Value per share rising to $93.52 from $90.71 at the end of 2025.
  • Principal Financial Group reported second-quarter net income of $403m and returned $427m to shareholders, including $250m of Buybacks and $177m of dividends.

Capital allocation has become the defining question for three very different S&P 500 balance sheets, and second-quarter results published across July and August 2026 gave investors fresh dated evidence of how each is choosing to spend. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B), Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) and Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ:PFG) all sit on substantial capital, yet they are deploying it in contrasting ways: one hoarding then tentatively spending, one steadily buying back stock, one distributing a rising share of earnings.

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B): Berkshire Finally Spends

Berkshire Hathaway Class B, the Omaha-based insurance and industrial conglomerate, reported (8 August 2026) that it ended the quarter with roughly $364.7bn in cash and Treasury bills, a reported 4% fall from the prior quarter that broke a multi-year run of rising balances. Operating Earnings were $12.98bn, up about 16% year on year, though the company noted currency movements flattered the comparison. More striking for allocation-watchers, Berkshire repurchased about $4.5bn of its own shares and turned a net buyer of equities for the first time in fourteen quarters, buying $23.5bn against $3.7bn of sales.

Loews Corporation (NYSE:L): Loews Compounds Quietly

Loews Corporation, the diversified Holding Company controlled by the Tisch family, embodies a long-running buyback-and-book-value model. Q2 2026 net income was $444m ($2.16 per share), up from $391m ($1.87) a year earlier, and the group repurchased about 1.4 million shares in the quarter. Book value per share rose to $93.52 at 30 June 2026 from $90.71 at the end of 2025. Its holdings span insurer CNA Financial, which contributed $294m of net income, Boardwalk Pipelines and Loews Hotels, where quarterly net income jumped to $48m.

Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ:PFG): Principal Leans on Returns

Principal Financial Group, the Iowa-based retirement, asset-management and insurance group, is the clearest income-and-buyback story of the three. It reported (27 July 2026) Q2 net income of $403m ($1.84 per diluted share) and non-GAAP operating earnings of $547m ($2.50), up 16%. The company returned $427m to shareholders, comprising $250m of buybacks and $177m of dividends, and lifted its quarterly common Dividend to $0.84, an 8% increase on the year-earlier payout, payable on 25 September 2026. Management frames Capital return as central to its programme, though its earnings mix leaves it more exposed to markets and fund flows than the other two.

How They Differ

The contrast is instructive. Berkshire is the reluctant spender only now deploying scale after years of accumulation; Loews is the patient compounder buying its own shares at a discount to intrinsic value; Principal is the yield-oriented distributor leaning on dividends and repurchases. Each reflects a distinct philosophy rather than a single correct answer: Berkshire prizes optionality and waits for outsized opportunities, Loews trusts share count reduction to lift per-share value, and Principal treats a growing, covered dividend as a discipline in itself. Investors should judge them against their own objectives rather than expect the three to converge on one model.

What to Monitor

Watch whether Berkshire sustains buybacks and Equity buying now that Abel leads it, and any commentary on discipline in the succession era. For Loews, the pace of repurchases relative to book-value growth and CNA's Underwriting will matter. For Principal, track net fund flows, which were a talking point during the quarter, alongside the durability of dividend growth.