What is Berkshire Hathaway’s dividend payout?

If you’re looking for dividend income, good for you! It’s hard to beat the power of dividend investing. Not only do you get regular stock that will ideally grow in value over time, but it will regularly bring additional dollars into your investment account.

If you’re retired, that retirement income can come in very handy — without having to shave off any stocks. If you’re a pre-retiree, you might reinvest those dividends in more stocks. Better yet, healthy, growing companies that pay dividends will generally increase their payouts over time.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

It’s reasonable to wonder if Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.69%) (BRK.B -0.49%) it would be a good stock that pays dividends for you. It is definitely a great stock to own. It specializes in insurance, energy, and transportation, and includes many directly owned businesses (such as GEICO, Benjamin Moore, Dairy Queen, McLane, and the entire BNSF railroad), along with sizable portions of other companies (such as Apple, American Express, Coca colaand Bank of America).

Here’s the problem though: Berkshire doesn’t pay dividends!

Buffett do what love the dividends though. Thanks to the shares held by Berkshire, the company collects more than 5 billion dollars in annual dividend income. So why not dividends FROM The company? Well, remember that when a company gets revenue, it can do many things with it. They could use that money to fuel growth – and that’s why many young, faster-growing companies choose not to pay dividends. It could alternatively pay down debt, acquire other companies, buy investments or buy back shares. Buffett likes to buy back stocks when he thinks they are undervalued, and is famous for buying other businesses when he finds ones he likes available at a good or good price.

Buffett explained that, essentially, when Berkshire has more cash than it can deploy in useful ways, it could initiate a dividend. But that might not happen for a long time. For now, the company recently had about $277 billion in cash!