Time to Purchase BRK.B

May 5 Uncle Warren announced his retirement. BRK.B is down nearly 15%

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I am not sure 15% decline makes it a buy. For me $400 is the price.

It is not a bad time, but not a great time. Although, it might be better than the index.

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I have my 5% allocation, that I established some time back. So if I have to add to it, then I need a compelling price not just “not bad” price… :slight_smile: Also, it is not clear Berkshire done sliding…

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PBV is 1.5. BRK will be a buy at PBV below 1.35.

Greg will not buy above PBV of 1.3

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It is not WEB who is old, but most of his shareholder base also old, some say very old. The reason I am pointing this is, until now that shareholder base was very comfortable WEB managing the money and overlooked many things, especially a conglomerate that had interests in shoes, to insurance to electric utility to railroad.

One of my long-term belief is post WEB, the next CEO is going to rationalize and divest certain businesses and concentrate on few core lines like insurance, railroad, utility, and some industrial assets and probably going to divest many areas that have no growth or strategic fit.

When these moves happen, it may unlock value, but going to create lot of noise and many older shareholders are going to leave, i.e., along with Buffett foundation, retail investors are going to be seller of the stock on any rally. This is going to continue until a new class of investors emerge.

So we may be seeing next 3 to 5 years of under performance of BRK shares compared to your preferred BV metric or market.

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WEB did well with large numbers. Keep in mind that BRK has ~$500m to $1B of cash gushing in every week.

It may seem like a good problem to have but it is very hard to deal with these numbers and even harder to compound effectively with low risk.

One of the easiest way to deal with that is buyback. Don’t do any exotic math, just regular, steady buyback. They can retire significant # of shares, while the foundation, and retail sells. It is not supporting the share price, but right sizing the cash, company portfolio, and preparing for the future.

Buy back is not advisable when the stock is overvalued

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It is amazing that people think they can value a company with $1 T market cap and owns subsidiaries that operate from candies, ice cream, shoes, construction, chemicals, utilities, rail road to insurance…

You have no idea what is the correct valuation. Saying it is overvalued, not advisable to buyback all just empty talk.

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You also said …………….

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I mentioned your preferred metric… I am not saying it is overvalued.. get it?

Buy back is not advisable when the stock price is not compelling