NEW YORK (Bloomberg) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may post a fourth straight drop in quarterly net income, the longest streak of declines in at least 13 years, on falling profit at its insurance businesses.

The most costly hurricane season since 2005 and lower prices for commercial coverage may weigh on results at Berkshire, which typically gets about half its revenue from insurance. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company's housing-related businesses and investment holdings may also slump.

Mr. Buffett has committed at least $28 billion this year to acquire companies, finance buyouts and purchase securities for Berkshire as prices fall and competitors are hobbled by limited access to credit. Mr. Buffett, who said he is buying US stocks with his own money amid the market decline, is deploying Berkshire's cash in industries including investment banking, chewing gum and nuclear power while insurance earnings fall.

"Hurricanes Ike and Gustav have not been overly kind to insurance companies as they report third quarter results, and there's no reason to think that Berkshire would be any different," said Tom Kersting, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. Berkshire units selling paint, carpet and manufactured homes "are going to be affected by the slowing economy", he said.

Berkshire is scheduled to disclose results today after the close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Twenty two of the companies in the KBW Insurance Index have posted a third-quarter loss or earnings decline, compared with one, Cincinnati Financial Corp., which had a profit gain.

Mr. Buffett, 78, warned investors in February that it was a "certainty" that profit margins at Berkshire's insurance businesses would fall.

He scaled back insurance sales in areas prone to natural disasters as rivals drive down prices for property coverage. Rates spiked following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and competitors retreated from coastal areas for a time, allowing Berkshire to increase premium revenue. "That party is over," Mr. Buffett wrote in his letter to shareholders that accompanied the firm's 2007 results.

"He's telegraphed for some time that insurance earnings would be down," said Julius Ridgway, a financial adviser at Medley & Brown in Jackson, Mississippi, which owns Berkshire shares. "Pricing has been weak across the insurance industry."

Ike and Gustav cost insurers a combined $10 billion when they struck the Gulf Coast in September, the most since Katrina contributed to a record $58.7 billion of claims in 2005, according to preliminary data from Insurance Services Office Inc. Gustav struck Louisiana on September 1, sparing New Orleans a direct hit. Ike smashed into Galveston, Texas, two weeks later.