The Bloomstran quote: “Berkshire’s normalized net earning power is $47.8 billion at yearend. Pre-tax earnings are $53.3 billion.
Of the pre-tax normalized earnings, $5 billion comes from dividends earned and $11.7 billion is the portion of Berkshire’s share of the stock portfolio companies retained and not distributed as profit.”
using Mr Buffett’s definition of look-through to mean earnings NOT paid out as dividends.
I estimate earnings around $22.3bn and dividends around $6.2bn, making retained/look through about $16.1bn. Same ballpark.
Excluding dividends, isn’t Bloomstran saying $11.7 billion?