Lower insurance returns send profit down 77%

Billionaire Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. posted a fourth straight profit drop, the longest streak of quarterly declines in at least 13 years, on falling returns at insurance businesses and investment losses.

Third-quarter net income decreased 77% to $1.06 billion, or $682 a share, from $4.55 billion, or $2,942, a year earlier, the Omaha-based company said Friday.

Berkshire, which owns National Indemnity Co., General Re Corp. and Geico Corp., said profit from underwriting insurance policies fell 83% to $81 million. Its reinsurance group, which sells catastrophe coverage to other insurers, posted a $166-million pretax loss for the quarter. Berkshire typically gets about half its revenue from insurance.