Berkshire Hathaway – Page 2

Berkshire Hathaway’s performance vs S&P 500

March 7, 2015

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,…

Berkshire Hathaway’s fifteen common stock investments that at FY2013 yearend had the largest market value

December 27, 2014

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…

Berkshire Hathaway repurchase program

December 6, 2014

In a September 26, 2011, news release, Berkshire Hathaway announced, to the surprise of many, a program to repurchase Class A and Class B shares of Berkshire. Here is an insight into Warren Buffett’s thinking about share repurchase. In his annual letter (March 1, 2000) to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders for Year 1999, he said, among…

Why Warren Buffett wants IBM shares to languish…

Berkshire Hathaway’s common stock investments include IBM or International Business Machines Corp. Based on Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders dated February 25, 2012, for FY2011, Berkshire Hathaway has a stake of 5.5% in IBM. Given this 5.5% IBM stake, why did Warren Buffett said this in his annual letter: “We should wish for IBM’s…

Warren Buffett invests in IBM

In 2011, in what appeared to be another sign of Warren Buffett triggering his elephant gun, reports said the Berkshire Hathaway chairman had invested over US$10 billion in IBM. A Reuters report (Nov 24, 2011) headlined “Buffett sheds tech aversion with big IBM investment” said: “Warren Buffett has always made his distaste for technology investments…

Berkshire Hathaway’s Big Four marketable securities

Warren Buffett’s views on Berkshire Hathaway’s Big Four marketable securities can be seen in his annual letter (dated February 25, 2012 for FY2011) to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders: “…we now have large ownership interests in four exceptional companies: 13.0% of American Express, 8.8% of Coca-Cola, 5.5% of IBM and 7.6% of Wells Fargo. (We also, of…

Berkshire Hathaway A and B shares

December 5, 2014

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…

Tracing Berkshire Hathaway’s listing

Warren Buffett’s letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders (March 3, 1980) for Year 1999 gave readers a glimpse of Berkshire Hathaway’s listing. Here is a relevant excerpt: “During 1979, NASDAQ trading was initiated in the stock of Berkshire Hathaway. This means that the stock now is quoted on the Over-the-Counter page of the Wall Street journal under…