John Hjorth

Actually, I agree with you. I also would be surprised, if the outcome will be differently. Mr. Buffett wouldn't have written that in the "past-present-future" shareholder letter if it wasn't backed by the board. But time passes on, and things changes over time, so I think it's better to stay open-minded, like longinvestor's comment earlier in this topic also implied. The most important thing is that we actually have seen real and material changes in management and the relation between management and board to the better for the future, so it won't eventually end like [- after which "everything" dissolves & falls apart]. I can't help it - about Mr. Buffett's irony : 2000 Shareholder Letter :

Your basis does not support your conclusion here, longterminvestor, Suggested reading : Berkshire Hathaway Corporate Governance Guidelines [last amended January 28th 2014], especially section 4 to 10 [both included].

Agreed, and somewhat striking.

writser, have you now reached your personal peak?

I really hope this now works out satisfactory for you, Spekulatius, -Pretty impressive, what combined brain-storming on CoBF actually can accomplish!

Thanks, rb. [And now I'll just keep my ignorant mouth shut here.]

Thanks, writser, I'm certainly an ignorant about this kind of back office stuff. So just consider it a try to get a name of my primary brokers custodian for BCAM [if any now] for Spekulatius - hopefully - to get a direction for a potential "hole" through which to communicate.

Ref. Nate's post, I've now opened a support ticket at my primary broker [in Danish, here translated to English] like this :

I just hung up the phone on a conversation with my primary broker. I ended up in contact with a guy at the trading desk in Stockholm. He was very patient with me, listening to me through my lengthy explanation of the situation. His suggestion how to approach the situation was very much - if not fully - identical to the latest suggestions here in this topic from rb and Greg, while he also mentioned the alternative originally posted in this topic by Greg to ask for the share certificates combined with the DIY method for the rest of the process.

Christ that sucks, Spekulatius, As you may be aware of, I own shares in a few French companies, too. This week is winter vacation week in Denmark, so all IRL stuff that I have as work in progress is pretty much standing still right now. I'll try to make some calls for you, to both my primary broker and my secondary broker. The shares in my largest French position [MC.PA] is at my primary broker, the rest is at my secondary broker. I'll call them both. It's my experience, that you get better outcomes by dealing with something like this by using the phone than trying to write page up-page down in an e-mail. And it's much easier [read : free] to handle by phone on this side of the Atlantic Ocean related to a French stock [ref. the Forward Pharma A/S situation some time ago]. I've been in some weird situations with stocks and corporate actions at my primary broker a few times, too, and I've never been let down on anything. - - - o 0 o - - - To simplify things just a bit, would it be an idea to get the shares "traded out" of the Roth IRA into a taxable account ["substituted" by cash from one of your taxable accounts]? -I mean, you have an "objective"/visible value of the shares [from the tender]. [internal records/transactions at IB.]

rb, That would be the day! [Well, at least intentionally!] Tomorrow, I'll review my settings, to get this right! -I'm so embarrassed about this as of right now. Personally, I'm very happy to see you back active here on CoBF!

They went upwards, like everything else.

Jeff, Thanks! [sometimes, threats actually work! - With regard to humor, it's still terrorism, but in a harmless way - And terrorists aren't to be relied on! - See CoBF tomorrow - nag-nag!]

None since November 8th 2019? - Really? - If there aren't anyone, I'll post tomorrow about my migration from a Samsung S4 to an iPhone 11 Pro Max around Christmas. [Consider yourself warned.] - - - o 0 o - - - Please wake up, you buggers!

211 votes as of now. [i suppose for 2019 we won't come even close to the number of votes reached for 2018 - 264 votes.]

Boersen.dk [February 5th 2020] : Ringkjøbing Landbobank A/S [RILBA.CPH] CEO John Fisker : "Negative interest on deposits sends bank customers on cottage hunting: "It's not because I stand and want to sell real estate". It makes a lot of sense to me, if the customer is affluent. Great time of the year to be a buyer in that particular market here in Denmark. Not sure though, if it's a great time to be a buyer in that particular market, taking the whole & overall picture right now into consideration. Instead of suffering from minus 0.75 percent annually, plus the drag from inflation [YoY ~1.5 percent here in Denmark as of now], why not get at least some joy out of the capital, perhaps even some rental income from the season, if you're not there in that period? [Like rkbabang has done recently.] No matter the entry point and time of entry during the cycle [well, almost], this kind of capital allocation will likely kill holding cash dearly long term.

New Green Elephant Edition on its way - [Amazon ETA February 20th 2020][ - And no, I don't think I'm hallucinating [ <- [ ; - D]]]. - - - o 0 o - - - longinvestor, there is nothing forcing you to buy it. [ : - ) ]

Greg, I do, and for for 2019, I must just say, that I've failed personally - miserably - for 2019. It's about misallocation of effort and time, based on complentancy, instead of trying to keep some overall structure what to do and when - based on the theme "I'll fix that tomorrow...", instead of handling the task now! When I was younger, and much, much more hungry, I would spend the time between Christmas & New Year, to create a specific target list [with regard to specific [named] potential new clients to go for], in the new year, with follow-up, next year [name specific success rate, based on specific target list, measured YoY]. - - - o 0 o - - - I suppose, I'm just getting old & "self-fat".

What does it matter to us?

...economic theory suggests the share prices of “sin” businesses will become depressed if a large enough proportion of investors choose to avoid them. Such stocks would have a higher cost of capital because they would trade at a lower price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, thus providing investors with higher expected returns. ...as more investors express their personal beliefs through their investments, shunning sin stocks, it seems likely their prices would be further depressed, further raising their forward-looking return expectations. Thus, it is possible the sin stock premium (relative to the market) could not only persist, it could increase... https://www.etf.com/sections/index-investor-corner/swedroe-sin-stocks-are-profitable?nopaging=1 +1 If you're holding for the long-term, you don't need a re-rating if you have a low multiple and you, or the company, can reinvest those earnings at a sufficiently high return. If you're getting a 20% return per annum by buying a company at 5x it's earnings - you don't need it to relate relative to it's book or earnings. Just that those earnings continue to be retained and redeployed at attractive returns OR paid out as a dividend for you to reinvest for more shares. No turnover. No transaction charges. Few taxes. And 20+% compounded pending how well you/company did on reinvesting the earnings. The problem is precisely when it DOES re-rate and then you need to pay to sell it, pay the taxes on it, and find another opportunity worthy of the capital. I agree totally with TwoCitiesCapital here. If you have a high reported ROE combined with a low P/E at the point in time of purchase, you don't really need some kind of rerating, nor even expected/projected growth in the investment, to get good returns. If you actually can see growth, more icing on the cake. The issue at hand is, that the combination of a high ROE and low P/E for an investment almost always imply, that there is "some hair" on the investment, that one has to relate to. There are not two persons who have the same limit for start puking for "hair", on individual "hairy" investments, nor the identical ability to stomach total amount of "hair" on total portfolio level. That part of it is about individual position sizing.

Friendly & polite bump! [ : - ) ] [At total members voted : 217.]

Perhaps it's time to take a closer look at something like : Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited [J36.SI] &/or Jardine Strategic Holdings Limited [J37.SI]. [Perhaps not.]

Personally, I'll second redskin's question whole-hearted. I can't remember the sources any longer, and I've got no time to dig them up [perhaps it was actually posted by a fellow CoBF on here], but if I remember correctly, Berkshire has asked for permission not to reduce its position in BAC below 10 percent, while it continues to reduce its position in WFC. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and if I'm not wrong [i may be], what do you get out that? I mean, perhaps, with regard to the forced WFC selling at Berkshire, it may be considered at Berkshire's convenience in the situation. [No kick-a** one-liners from Mr. Buffett nor Mr. Munger for years about WFC being a "good bank" - perhaps for a reason.]

Given the divergence BRK has actually starting creeping up my list of "attractive" investments the last few weeks/months. I hate the inaction and cash build, but given the circumstance, if anything, I would adjust the lens I look through and perhaps see it as a way to maintaining a modest, but impactful access point to investing if reasonably priced equities. Even if they hold AAPL to eternity, the huge cash surplus balances out the volatility in the portfolio, should there be any. I do think the above conversation reveals one thing; it may be great that companies are paying out more. Definitely! But at around 100% payout for the average company, the things RuleNumberOne has been harping on, like earnings and revenue growth, will really start to matter. Given that the future valuations will be dependent upon this...it is hard not to argue that we arent getting very much if any margin of safety at these prices. Koompaya! [ ;-) ] You'll never get a cash dividend from BRK as long as Mr. Buffett is [still] around.

What does it matter? [Does it matter to your buying decisions?] The CoBF members are stock pickers.