ValueMaven

Looks like Berkshire might have sold out of BYD. A block trade occured that was the exact size of Berkshires stake. https://www.ft.com/content/23a53509-d732-41ce-aa40-87c7a9de8f31

Thank you for posting. No mention of the pipeline storage assets in the article, or the terms of the transaction/size

I cant wait till they close the Alleghany deal ... such a great move on many levels!

$50B of normalized earnings power for Berkshire is a bit aggressive. I realize WEB prefers to use look-through earnings on the stock portfolio ... however I've always questioned that approach. Is it really look through if Berkshire cant access them??? I think a much more rational normalized earnings is about $35B of operating income over a cycle with GDP plus 3-5% overtime - coupled with some modest sharecount reduction. Stock is cheap regardless. Will be interesting to see how aggressive the buybacks have bee in the $270 - $280 range...I'm guess BIGLY. I bet Berkshire crushes the SP500 over the next 10 years.

awesome interview - nothing new or major - but Chris makes a lot of interesting points.

There are a lot easier ways to do that for Berkshire if that was his view ...

Wild. I never seen this before out of Berkshire.

I really hope the subs: PCP, Marmon, Alleghany etc are allowed to do more smallish bolt-on deals like they have in the past...

@ParsadCan you expand on this point ... its a rather bold comment! 'And Gaynor's better at risk management than say the likes of Joe Brandon at Alleghany or many of the other Berkshire insurance subs other than National Indemnity.'

@SinbiusNo doubt ... I'm more concerned, or focused if you will on the durable aspect of the ~$40B of operating income annually that the business generates currently ...

Greg Abel is the single most important person at Berkshire outside of Warren currently. He oversees the two largest CAPEX business (BHE and BNSF - also MSR) which are extremely important.

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!!