valueinvesting101

Most likely this is just a way to lock in some high yield effectively in dollars given recent Indian government efforts to bring in dollars to shore up rupee. It also helps them get some brownie points with Indian government to speed up approval for their investments.

Interesting thoughts from 2012 AGM about IBM, Google and Apple. They changed their positions on IBM and Apple few years after those comments and finally on Google from Q4 2025. Starting at 3:03:48 As some poster alluded this 10 billion investment could be coming on top of additional purchases beyond Q1 2026 and in effect serves to quickly increase position in Google by 20-30%. We will know about that in few months. I am sure @gfp will sleuth out exact prices of their purchases if any.

Does this mean they bought 23 million shares on 03/27? Seems high compared to volume that day.

I saw some posts about buying options for Berkshire. Does anyone prefer longest duration available right now of Dec 2027 or does shorter one is more preferred?

Berkshire Hathaway Share Repurchases (2020–2026) Year Approximate Amount Context 2020 $24.7 billion Heavy buybacks initiated as the stock traded at a lower multiple to book value. 2021 $27.1 billion The peak record year for repurchases. 2022 ~$8 billion Buybacks slowed significantly as the stock price rebounded. 2023 ~$9 billion Maintained modest buyback activity, but far below the 2020/2021 peak levels. 2024 ~$3 billion Repurchases slowed to a trickle and completely paused by May 2024. 2025 $0 No share repurchases were made during the entire year. 2026 ~$234 million (Year-to-Date) Buybacks finally resumed in March 2026 after a 21-month pause. Berkshire market cap averaged $494 billion in 2020 and $623 billion in 2021. Quarter Amount Repurchased Est. Average BRK.B Price Paid Q1 2020 ~$1.7 billion ~$210 Q2 2020 ~$5.1 billion ~$176 Q3 2020 ~$9.0 billion ~$206 Q4 2020 ~$9.0 billion ~$225 Total ~$24.7 billion (Weighted Avg: ~$205) Quarter Amount Repurchased Est. Average BRK.B Price Paid Q1 2021 ~$6.6 billion ~$245 Q2 2021 ~$6.0 billion ~$275 Q3 2021 ~$7.6 billion ~$280 Q4 2021 ~$6.9 billion ~$290 Total ~$27.1 billion (Weighted Avg: ~$273)

Also how is buyback of 375K shares equals to 1.1% reduction of shares outstanding? Is that after offsetting shares issued?

I always wondered why they didn't consider buying stake in something like IDFC First Bank. It was being shopped around and it has done other large offering with recent one around 1.1 P/B may be they didn't like the jockey. Interestingly I had asked Mr. Deepak Parekh about his favorite mid-sized bank in India during last AGM for Fairfax India and he had mentioned IDFC First Bank. Now I don't know how that translates into favorite investment or valuation but there are definitely some elements which match with what Fairfax is looking for in their investments.

Can you please share details about Sokol’s earlier attempt to resign from Berkshire? I wonder when that happened and what caused it. Was it after mid American was purchased or after GFC?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/does-tiger-global-leave-investors-confused-or-finally-put-economic-substance-over-legal-form/articleshow/126550812.cms?from=mdr Fairfax has structured investments of Fairfax India via Mauritius entity to get favorable tax treatment. This was established pattern for foreign investments in India for last two decades. This mostly adds new tax/legal complications for realizing Fairfax India's all investments.

I agree this arrangement is unique and one of the most shareholder friendly SBC plan. I am wondering if this mechanism of buying shares in treasury when prices are low and then issues few years later when prices are high creates value for the shareholder or does that the benefit of increasing prices flows to employee for bonus issued but not vested. Based on above disclosure compensation expense for 2024 was $164.9 for shares issued in 2024 but these issued shares had cost basis of $108.3. I guess that benefits flows to the Fairfax equity account.

How to think about shares reserved in treasury for share-based payment awards? As per last annual report there were 1,967,008 (~10%) of the outstanding. Are these shares already accounted for previously promised compensation to be issued in future or is it a reserve for paying part of the future compensation? If it is for paying future compensation, does that mean Fairfax will have lower expenses in future if stock price is higher? So if Fairfax needs to pay compensation of $1800 they will issue one share but if stock price is $3600 then they only need to issue 0.5 share.

Thanks a lot @Bridgington Holdings for sharing this. Looks like there were number of plays Buffett did in his personal portfolio related to REIT liquidations. Has anyone done this in the past or in the recent years? I wonder if 1980/1990s were particularly good years for these type of plays due to market or tax policies around that time.

Happy New Year everyone. Have a great one ahead!

This blog post from brklyninvestor had good summary about Berkshire float, asset and equity. https://brklyninvestor.com/2020/08/20/is-buffett-really-bearish/

@Viking does above calculation of share of associates, dividend from associates and eventual investment gains double counting some of the earnings? If associate earned X and then paid 0.2X in dividend then increase in value of the business is driven by growth in the existing business and return on remaining 0.8X of the retained earnings.

Thanks a lot @gfp for posting these. Does this mean they bought 4.3 million shares of Chubb on 09/23/2025? Seems like almost 30% of the volume on that day. Even for Google that seems to be 29% of the volume for that day. I thought WEB always wanted to stay below 25% of the traded volume.

There will be some cost basis so not entire $5150 will NOT be taxable. May be it can even offset some losses in other part of the portfolio.

Berkshire was buying BRK.A around $620K in March-April 2024 when book value per share was $400K. So seems like they were paying multiple in excess of 1.5 Buffett had set the threshold to buyback shares to 1.1 P/B in 2011 and increased to 1.2 in 2012. He also talked about his rationale for increasing it and how they thought about it. Increasing value of operating companies not being captured in book value and growing percentage of total assets being presented by operating companies was the main reason. Zero cost deferred tax liability, accelerated depreciation and float were also the factors. If these factors are extrapolated from 2012->2025, it is easy to see why Buffett is paying a higher multiple for repurchasing the stock. The small amount of repurchases makes me think that the difference between market price and intrinsic value was small but market price was definitely less than conservatively calculated intrinsic value. I would definitely defer to Buffett's valuation of the intrinsic value of Berkshire Hathaway. I hope Berkshire does drop to 1.3 P/B or closer to it but I think buyback will start/pick up around 1.5 P/B multiple. There might be some large block selling coming from Charity donation/estate planning of existing shareholders.

May be that was a DEI questionnaire

Mr. Buffett repurchased stock at $625K around April/May 2024. I am assuming intrinsic value has increased by 10% in the last 12 months. So repurchase around $687K might happen and most likely assessed intrinsic value is at least slightly (5-10%) above that. So intrinsic value could be around $725-750K. At the current price of $800K, it might be slightly above intrinsic value but not very high. Explanation given in an earlier annual report to purchase stock above book value multiple of 1.1 (in 2011) and then of 1.2(in 2012), can be extrapolated to 2025. After considering growth of operating companies since 2011 and buybacks in early 2020s, higher P/B multiple might be justified.

All stocks discussed in this thread : Returns from 1 Jan 2015 - Jan 1 2025 Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO): Approximately 1,100% return TransDigm Group (TDG): Approximately 900% return Mastercard (MA): Approximately 700% return Visa (V): Approximately 650% return Alphabet Inc. (GOOG): Approximately 600% return Pool Corporation (POOL): Approximately 550% return Moody's Corporation (MCO): Approximately 500% return Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR): Approximately 450% return Morningstar (MORN): Approximately 400% return Martin Marietta Materials (MLM): Approximately 350% return Vulcan Materials Company (VMC): Approximately 300% return WD-40 Company (WDFC): Approximately 250% return McCormick & Company (MKC): Approximately 200% return Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Approximately 150% return Stericycle (SRCL): Approximately 100% return Looks like all except last 3 outperformed S&P return of 242%

It seems sale of IDBI bank is getting closer: https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/idbi-bank-disinvestment-sale-bidders-due-diligence-financial-turnaround-125012200526_1.html That could a reason behind the recent move.

Given cash generation and business growth at Berkshire via various ways, intrinsic value is mostly rising every month/quarter. In the last 12 months Berkshire has increased its cash position considerably and hence increasing income from short term investments. It has also bought around 3700 A shares at approx. 625K/share. Has intrinsic value increased by 40K/share or 6.4% or around $55 billion since March of last year? If it has or likely to increase in the next 2-3 months then stock price could be getting into repurchase territory.

Today's volume were about 215K shares. May be they also purchased 0.5-0.7% of the outstanding shares today.

I wonder if he is planning to do something with his own holding of Berkshire Hathaway. He recently made a change for donation to Gate's charity. It could a trade to swap Apple holding for a large buyback. With the recent sale of BAC in July, possibly more shares sales of other holdings such as CVX, continued cash generation from operating companies, dividend interest income in the next few months, cash could easily top $300 billion soon. I wonder if he is planning to make an announcement around his birthday.