BNSF continues to expand earnings in 2015

The Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF Railway Company reported net income of $4.92 billion in 2015, an 11.8 percent jump from the previous year, according to the company’s most recent financial statements.    BNSF Railway Company in 2015 grew its net income 11.8 percent to $4.92 billion compared with the previous year, according to the company’s most recent financial statements.
   The Fort Worth, Texas-based Class I freight railroad, a wholly-owned merger subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, reported revenues of $21.4 billion for the year, down 5.8 percent from 2014.
   BNSF managed to increased profits during a year during in the rest of the industry suffered from a sharp downturn in traditional rail-shipped commodities like coal and crude oil.
   The parent company’s iconic figurehead Warren Buffett said in his annual letter to shareholders, the “most important development” of 2015 for his investment firm, which owns a wide variety of companies across different industries like insurance provider GEICO, Helzberg Diamonds, Fruit of the Loom, and Dairy Queen to name a few, took place at BNSF.
   “The most important development at Berkshire during 2015 was not financial, though it led to better earnings,” wrote Buffett. “After a poor performance in 2014, our BNSF railroad dramatically improved its service to customers last year. To attain that result, we invested about $5.8 billion during the year in capital expenditures, a sum far and away the record for any American railroad and nearly three times our annual depreciation charge.”
   “It was money well spent,” he added.
   Buffett noted that 2015 was a “disappointing year” for most North American railroads as volumes and earnings fell seemingly across the board.
   “BNSF, however, maintained volume, and pre-tax income rose to a record $6.8 billion (a gain of $606 million from 2014),” he said.