ValueMaven

With regards to insurance re: Jain...Kara Raiguel was hand kicked by Jain to run Gen Re ... you also have Joe Brandon of Alleghany ... and the whole group over at BHSI (Eastwood etc) that are very talented. It takes a village. To pin all of Insurance on Jain is simply an uninformed view.

https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/604852/could-buffett-buy-out-occidental-petroleum-oxy

@John Hjorth You are missing a 1 in total cash section ... whats a $100B typo, lol

Very interesting. Thank you @gfp

Within the next quarter or two, Berkshire will have 20% stakes in both OXY and AXP. This will require the company to account for both positions using the equity method of accounting...Berkshire will report their % ownership of OXY and AXP's earnings as their own Operating Income going forward. This could likely added $300-400M in OI over the coming quarters. Thoughts?

Old man is addicted to OXY !! Just bought another $500M worth. Hard to keep track what total economic exposure is w/the warrents. Gotta be over 20% at this point

@Parsad8% - 10% in operating income growth is much more realistic going forward! Add timely buybacks, modest interest on the cash pile $2-$3B a year now, and some bolt on acquisitions like Y - and you could see 10% - 12% over a full cycle. Those are my working assumptions. Random thought but the timing of this recent market decline couldnt have been any better for Berkshire fully closing the Y deal. Dont forget Berkshire lost to Y when trying to acquire Trans Re over a decade ago...now they are buying Y outwrite.

@Parsad wont disagree w/you there - but we all know Berkshire's BV of 1.3x is understated. BNSF for example is worth ~4x Berkshire's purchase price from just a decade ago. Really depends how you define margin of safety I guess. What would you pay for a durable ~$40B in FCF w/meaningful buybacks and 8-10% growth throughout a market cycle....it should be a lot more then 1.3x BV !!

@no_free_lunchinteresting ... you dont have a free hour to listen to one of the greatest investors of all time talk about the current state of markets .. ?? The talk is highly informative and insightful. I'd suggest carving out time if you can!

Thought I would share. Great interview

@ParsadI am sorry - but that is a REALLY poor way to look at such a HIGH quality company as Berkshire. Quality wins, and is never 'Graham and Dodd' cheap. Hmmm...Let's see, operating income in 2022 will likely be $37B - $40B, they are aggressively buying back stock (true reduction of 10% over the last two years), putting sizable capital to work across the Energy and Insurance businesses...Which is more attractive - Berkshire at 1.3x BV, or Citigroup at 0.6x BV ... LOL

Yes. I bought a lot at $270 - which is about 1.3x BV

Think about it - this 1 year is going to represent over 30% of all $$ raised over the past 22 years. What a blessing to the folks in San Fran! I'd suggest people on this site personally donate to Glide directly (you can give any amount) ... what a way to honor Mr. Buffett's last lunch!!

Bought a bunch today at $270 !!

Awesome. Thank you !! @wabuffo

God I wish I could...

Added to my position here at $295

Yes - most people here allocated in Dec-21 and Jan-22 and have benefited; it was a unique period not likely to be repeated ... personally I'm using this has a semi-illiquid emergency fund.

Berkshire is fairly cheap here given the earnings stability of the business, and Warren's recent capital allocation moves have been brilliant. Ramping up OXY equity aggressive (cost basis in the high $40s vs. common at $70 day), acquiring Y, and some recent CAPEX approvals at BHE in the midwest (one was $3B in regulated electric power lines for renewable energy which was recently approved). We are now also actually earning something on our cash pile as well!

This OXY investment is turning into one hell of an investment for Berkshire. Warrents are deeply ITM now and Warren is sitting on a very nice paper gain in the common stock as well. As of this AM OXY is trading north of $72, which puts the warrents which have a strike of $59 ITM by $13 with 8 years to go. Total economic exposure is something like ~21% of o/s with the $10 preferred as well.

Thank you @Cigarbutt

Yes. If you look at BHE's annual investor presentation they have this as pending CAPEX --- along with another $25B or so of upgrades that are required. This is regulated, long duration return type of stuff - but a great example of a public/private infra buildout which is needed in the USA in a big way.

Added to AAPL, added to TDG as well. I'm starting to see really decent values out there

LBRDP

I took a modest loss in Sirius and swapped into Broadband about a week ago. The buyback story for Broadband is a lot easier for me to understand + I think Charter is oversold. NAV discount is basically -20%, and Charter continues to buyback stock aggressively which is a positive for Broadband which has to sell into it. I like that they sold Skyhook in the quarter as well. We shall see how it plays out. There is also a really interesting Liberty preferred which went from ~$29 to $25 during this whole selloff. It's small, but is noncallable, and has a 7% yield. From the old GCI ideas and is fairly illiquid but is also attractive IMHO if you like that type of stuff.