…and the board is discussing new board systems
Amazing
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OK, i’ll do my part…
Swing you bum’s! 
m
Try hitting and looking down the most rec’d posts, I’ve read a lot of them in my 20 years lurking here, they’re very good. There’s a book in there.
Less than 2% above 52-week lows, it’s crazy. Time to sell a kidney so I can back up the truck!
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Santa's early this year folks 1.17x peak to date book value. Your gonna be pissed when you find out how much Buffett bought!
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What will you sell next when it goes to $250, or $225, or $200? You have no idea how low the stock price will go.
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King, for once I am 100% with you!
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Your gonna be pissed when you find out how much Buffett bought!
From 2011:
At our limit price of 110% of book value, repurchases clearly increase Berkshire’s per-share intrinsic value. And the more and the cheaper we buy, the greater the gain for continuing shareholders. Therefore, if given the opportunity, we will likely repurchase stock aggressively at our price limit or lower. You should know, however, that we have no interest in supporting the stock and that our bids will fade in particularly weak markets. Nor will we buy shares if our cash-equivalent holdings are below $20 billion*. At Berkshire, financial strength that is unquestionable takes precedence over all else.
Are we in a particularly weak market?
Does this still apply?
- Now officially $30 billion.
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“Are we in a particularly weak market?
Does this still apply?”
Feels weak but not particularly weak imo like the GFC. I would be quite surprised if he is not doing meaningful buybacks here, but we were surprised at the 2020 annual meeting at the lack of buybacks during the initial pandemic. Hard to find better investment alternatives to combat inflation/ rising rates than the hundreds of businesses within BRK itself and we have nearly $50B of steady normalized annual earnings coming in that needs allocation and he has such great real time insight into all of our businesses.
There are two ways to be pissed about how much Buffet bought: 1) he bought a lot and you missed buying more. 2) he bought very little because he went chasing rainbows in a weak market instead.
Since you point out the cash equivalent minimum changed, we should also mention the 110% of book value no longer applies as well. This changed to 120% of book value before they got rid of it altogether. The limit now is what management agrees is a discount to intrinsic value, or something like that.
At one point I focused on the “likely repurchase stock aggressively” bit, but I’m not seeing it. Now that it’s an S&P 500 component, Berkshire seems to only go down along with the rest of the market, and then it’s a “weak market” that Buffett likes to use to add occidental stock, IBM, airplanes, or some new idea…
Don’t forget, WEB has paid as high as $322/Share. Obviously, some conservative discount to IV and not some meaningless P/B metric.
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and he has such great real time insight into all of our businesses
Agreed. Buffett has, or should have a much clearer insight into Berkshire than into new businesses.
That’s why I consider Berkshire the Bird in the Bush for investment money, and other investments (specially new industries) I consider Birds in a Bush.
I recently listened to the 2000 Annual Meeting, and someone asked given Berkshire’s investment in Energy, if they’ve looked at transportation. Buffett mentioned trains and poo-pooed on the idea because of the intensive capital requirements. Less than 6 years later they started buying up railroad stocks.
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Don’t forget, WEB has paid as high as $322/Share. Obviously, some conservative discount to IV and not some meaningless P/B metric
The board was so harsh on many managers who did buyback and subsequently their share price decline, it doesn’t matter in the long-run those buyback’s were absolutely right thing to do, but in the short-run when the price declined, there were pretty harsh criticism.
I know WEB will not be subject to such criticism, which is okay, but companies buyback when they can, not necessarily when the price is cheap. Price gets cheap when the business prospects looks bit weak, and that is the time companies want to hoard cash. This plays out at every company. When you feel like being super critical remember this next time.
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I would be quite surprised if he is not doing meaningful buybacks here, but we were surprised at the 2020 annual meeting at the lack of buybacks during the initial pandemic.
I suspect he sees this as a particularly weak market.
Hard to find better investment alternatives to combat inflation/ rising rates than the hundreds of businesses within BRK itself and we have nearly $50B of steady normalized annual earnings coming in that needs allocation and he has such great real time insight into all of our businesses.
$50B of steady normalized annual earnings coming in?
I don’t think so. Isn’t it more like $25 billion?
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“$50B of steady normalized annual earnings coming in?
I don’t think so. Isn’t it more like $25 billion?”
Op earnings yes. However, I like the Bloomstran smoothed normalized earnings including op, dividends, retained investee earnings, underwriting, value projected to future use of cash, etc. It is quite thoughtful and gets rid of the 2017 change in GAAP earnings reporting that is so volatile incorporates all of the unrealized gains and such. I like to think about the smoothed “normalized” version he and mungo have thoughtfully presented. The Bloomstran/Semper reports are outstanding reads imo which I refer to often.
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and GOOGL even weaker than BRKB recently …
“Your gonna be pissed when you find out how much Buffett bought!”
Curious why people think WEB should be buying Berkshire shares in a down market when there are a lot of other oversold securities out there? Not disagreeing, just curious. I know why we want him to do that in an overpriced market when there aren’t many other good places to invest. But in a down market, wouldn’t we rather have him buying cigar butts at a discount? Or even a few “great companies at good prices?” Or am I being old-fashioned lol?
abromber
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