Legendary value investors' secrets
April 23, 2024
Berkshire Hathaway
What is the difference between Berkshire Hathaway A shares and B shares? Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett said in a memo dated February 2, 1999 (updated on July 3, 2003 and on January 20, 2010) that Berkshire Hathaway Inc has two classes of common stock designated Class A and Class B. The memo makes it…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway A and B sharesBerkshire Hathaway
A new release by Berkshire Hathaway dated 10 July 2017 said that chairman Warren Buffett that day converted 12,500 of his Class A shares into 18,750,000 Class B shares. “Of these Class B shares, 18,628,189 have been donated to five foundations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway ‘A’ and ‘B’ sharesBerkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway has abandoned its long-time practice of featuring the percentage change in its per-share book value. In his annual letter dated February 23, 2019, to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, chairman Warren Buffett said: “Long-time readers of our annual reports will have spotted the different way in which I opened this letter. For nearly three decades,…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway abandons “book value per share” practiceBerkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought an additional 75 million shares of Apple in the first quarter of 2018, while dumping its remaining stake in IBM, said a Bloomberg May 4, 2018 report (Buffett Buys a Further 75 Million Apple Shares, Sells Out of IBM). The report quoted the Berkshire Hathaway chairman as having said in…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway takes a bigger bite of Apple, dumps IBMWarren Buffett lessons
Back in December 2007, Warren Buffett made a ten-year US$1 million prize bet (background reading: Warren Buffett is set to win this US$500,000 wager) with asset manager Protégé Partners. Essentially, Warren Buffett wanted to prove a point: that his pick – a virtually cost-free investment in an unmanaged S&P 500 index fund – would, over…
Read More about Warren Buffett wins bet and charity gets US$2.2m instead of US$1mBerkshire Hathaway owner-related business principles
Source: Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report 2016 1. Although our form is corporate, our attitude is partnership. Charlie Munger and I think of our shareholders as ownerpartners, and of ourselves as managing partners. (Because of the size of our shareholdings we are also, for better or worse, controlling partners.) We do not view the company itself…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway’s 15 owner-related business principlesInvestment criteria
“Woody Allen once explained that the advantage of being bi-sexual is that it doubles your chance of finding a date on Saturday night,” Warren Buffett said in his FY2015 letter to Berkshire Hathaway. Why did the Berkshire Hathaway chairman say this? “In like manner – well, not exactly like manner – our appetite for either…
Read More about When it comes to stocks, Berkshire Hathaway looks for wonderful companiesBerkshire Hathaway
Berkshire’s Performance vs. the S&P 500 Per share book value of Berkshire Per share market value of Berkshire S&P 500 with dividends included Compounded Annual Gain – 1965-2014 19.40% 21.60% 9.90% Overall Gain – 1964-2014 751,113% 1,826,163% 11,196% Data source: Berkshire Hathaway 2014 Annual Report Excerpt from Warren Buffett’s letter dated February 27, 2015,…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway’s performance vs S&P 500Investment philosophy
Excerpt from a CNN Money report, How to invest like a billionaire, dated 31 December 2014: “The company (Warren) Buffett may regret buying the most this year though is IBM…It’s by far and away the worst performer among the 30 top American businesses in the Dow. IBM is trying to reinvent itself by laying off…
Read More about IBM shares down but Warren Buffett could be happyBerkshire Hathaway
12/31/13 Shares** Company Percentage owned Cost* Market (in millions) 151,610,700 American Express Company 14.2 $1,287 $13,756 400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company 9.1 1,299 16,524 22,238,900 DIRECTV 4.2 1,017 1,536 41,129,643 Exxon Mobil Corp 0.9 3,737 4,162 13,062,594 The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc 2.8 750 2,315 68,121,984 IBM Corp 6.3 11,681 12,778 24,669,778 Moody’s Corporation 11.5…
Read More about Berkshire Hathaway’s fifteen common stock investments that at FY2013 yearend had the largest market value