ValueMaven

sorry it disappointed you...but I couldn't disagree more actually.

In 2020 BHE's tax rate was negative 40%

BHE has a negative tax rate ... with regulated returns...so I can see why

Story really is the buybacks and stability of operating income at this point.

Annual meeting now in LA this year with Munger. Able and Jain will also be there.

Looks like 4Q buyback was more aggressive then people thought! 'Berkshire has repurchased more shares since yearend and is likely to further reduce its share count in the future'

In typical tradition :-) ... let's get this thread started

really, really, really amazing how Charlie can handle such questions in a rapid fire format ...

Howard Buffett has said something very similar ... dont recall Warren or Charlie saying that specifically. I do agree with that approach :)

great points. thank you

Isnt it fairly aggressive to consider the equity portfolios % of retained earnings as part of Berkshire's normalized earnings profile? I realize Warren has written about this a lot in the past - I just struggle with any model that does this. What do others think?

While his style is extremely verbose – this is hands down the most complete and comprehensive valuation update on Berkshire. Period. Really interesting example on what buybacks and a shrinking sharecount could look like over the next 5 – 10 years, and what this might mean for future returns for shareholders. He has shares currently at a deep discount to IV valuation among his various methodologies. Extremely interesting to see BHE have a negative effective tax-rate. Not many distressed utility deals out there - but I'd love to see BHE be more active there (ONCOR anyone??) over the coming years.

'The sum total of capital allocation at Berkshire in 2020 was fantastic.'

I've always said BHE should have handled the ONCOR transaction better then it did. Hopefully it was a learning lesson for Able and team. Would have been awesome assets inside of BHE...huge, regulated assets in need of massive capital build-out w/very stable rate basis.

not a correct way to value BERK ... but I get your point

well done all - most of us thought CVX was it

https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-is-berkshire-hathaways-mystery-stock-big-investment-by-warren-buffett-could-be-disclosed-tomorrow-51613392217?mod=hp_LEAD_3 people are saying PayPal, DIS, and Home Depot as guesses ... frankly, I dont think it any of those ...

who asked prem to resign? Can someone post the part with this The Rude Gentleman ??

'Net losses on short equity exposures of $528.6 million resulted from closing out the company's remaining short equity total return swaps.' This type of 'stuff' is insane. That is why FFH trades BELOW book ... you never know what they are going to do!! I'm starting to think the Prem CDS subprime trade was luck ... his hit ratio on these macro-trades for the past decade+ have been poor

When will his 2020 letter come out?? This guy has the best view on Berkshire out of anyone IMHO. Very detailed analysis. Something like 30% of his fund is in Berkshire currently. I really like how he triangles valuation: SOTP, DCF, NI etc. Starting a thread here (now) so we can talk about his section on Berkshire.

already owns it - why would he need to file such a request then??

forwards are not like futures -- esp highly customized ones like TRS's on FFH. It's all OTC and highly customizable...not easy to offset at all to lock in a gain.

weird total return swap trade on the company ?? Why not just buyback stock?? it is way more meaningful then $100M/$200M you might make on a TRS trade linked to Fairfax ... argh!

Yes - but that was an arb play. They were tendering for a lot of stock - and selling off many parts of the business. It was more of a special situation then anything else...

Markel is totally random and def not it... BA is possible. So is GE and even something in the energy/midstream space