Photo

Click on photo to enlarge

Billionaire financier and Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett eats ice cream as he walks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska in this May 2, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said third quarter net income tripled, as rising stock markets boosted its investment holdings and a quiet hurricane season contributed to higher insurance profit.

Results were announced three days after Buffett revealed the biggest acquisition in his 44 years running Berkshire, a $26 billion takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Berkshire had already owned 23 percent of the nation's second-largest railroad operator.

Third-quarter net income for Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire rose to $3.24 billion, or $2,087 per Class A share, from $1.06 billion, or $682, a year earlier.

Excluding investments, operating profit fell less than 1 percent to $2.06 billion, or $1,325 per share, from $2.07 billion, or $1,335. On that basis, analysts expected profit of $1,308.25 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 7 percent to $29.9 billion.

Berkshire benefited as rising stock markets boosted the value of its investments in companies such as Coca-Cola Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co.

Results included $1.13 billion of derivatives gains, mainly from contracts related to junk bond credit quality and to a lesser extent from the performance of four stock market indexes in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Rising stocks helped boost Berkshire's book value to $126.07 billion, or $81,247 per share, up 10 percent from three months earlier and 15 percent from year end.

Buffett often touts book value, which reflects assets minus liabilities, as a good gauge of Berkshire's health.

Insurance, which typically generates half of Berkshire's results, benefited from the quietest Atlantic hurricane season in more than a decade. Only a single named storm, Claudette, made U.S. landfall.

Class A shares of Berkshire closed on Friday up $500 at $102,400, while Class B shares rose $30 to $3,425. Both are about one-third below their record highs set in December 2007.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Lilla Zuill; editing by Carol Bishopric