yesman182

This line from page 8 jumped out at me. “In addition, Berkshire’s insurance operation, though conducted through many individually-managed subsidiaries, has a value comparable to BNSF or BHE.” I would have considered the insurance operation to be much more valuable than BNSF and BHE. In the past he has said he wouldn’t trade the insurance operation for the value of the float. Now they have 160B in float and he thinks the operation is worth around $100B? I’ll be interested to hear what others think about that.

RIP indeed. I feel like warren has had a lot of friends pass away recently. I guess that is hard to avoid when you live into your 90s.

Looks like he is still popping the OXY https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/797468/000089924322032210/xslF345X03/doc4.xml

I was wondering if WEB would sell his ATVI shares and buy back more BRK shares. At most he stands to make ~25% before taxes with ATVI. But since the ATVI deal isn't certain to close, why "risk it" when you have the buyback as an option. When they were buying ATVI in Q1 is seems like the BRK shares were near the all time high. It seems to me that the BRK shares are around 20% below intrinsic value and it seems like they are a better buy than ATVI.

@Gregmal What is your take on LPX. Are you long home builders and think OSB is a way to play that? Or do you like the siding business? I own LPX for the siding business. LPX has been supply constrained for years. I think the siding business will take market share from Hardie Plank and Vinyl.

I do too, but I also hope he is finding other securities he likes more.

I think somewhere in the top 10 would be the idea of spending energy switching boats when you find yourself in a leaking ship. They would not be the company they are today if they did not walk away from the textile business.

Didn't they just cut their dividend in half? Didn't California also not allow price increases for another year or so? I am happy to pass on MCY until it is well below book. I will be interested to see what happens when the old man is no longer at the helm.

I wasn't aware they are going to be the Owner/Developer of the land. Buffet has mentioned at the annual meetings how server farms have flocked to Iowa for the low cost power. Maybe BHE wants to offer low cost electricity to long term tenants and collect leasing/rental income?

I think Geico is doing exactly what they said they would do. They said they feel they can have a leading underwriting profits just by asking questions at the time of application. They also said they would pay close attention to telematics and integrate them into their business if they prove to be better over time. I don't think its a big deal if they are a few years late to the party. Its the same story with precision railroading.

Yeah, did they not have the option to enter their shares into the trading block years ago? I understand that years ago they didn’t want to sell. Are the rules set up forcing someone to telegraph?

Sorry if this is behind a paywall. I wasn't aware that the investment gains might be taxed before the investments are sold. Seems complicated and silly. https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-taxes-stock-gains-51661208553?mod=hp_LEAD_2

Could he have done this to ensure he has FERC's blessing when/if he exercises the warrants?

Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed reply.

Are you saying that if I want to know the total ownership Berkshire has in a stock I need to combine the holding in the Berkshire 13F and General Re 13F?

I have a feeling one reason they didn't buy more is because they didn't want to get over the 10% ownership mark. I suspect the ownership in ALLY will be like USB were they stay above 9%, but routinely sell off some shares to stay under 10%.

It seems unreasonable to not swap into Berkshire shares. Why pay hundreds of millions in taxes? Wouldn't we rather have Greg invested in Berkshire than sitting on a mountain of cash. On one hand I am glad Greg isn't heavily invested in one part of the conglomerate, but why not swap into Berkshire's shares to his net worth grows as the company grows. I understand Berkshire doesn't like to issue shares, but this seems like the perfect time to do it. I wonder if Greg did this in hopes that the last few remaining owners of Mid America will follow suit?

From the 10Q. In June 2022, BHE acquired the BHE common stock held by Greg Abel, Berkshire’s Vice Chairman - non-insurance operations, for $870 million. The purchase was pursuant to the terms of a shareholders agreement between Berkshire, BHE and BHE’s non-controlling shareholders. Berkshire recorded a charge of $362 million to capital in excess of par value for the excess of the consideration paid over the carrying value of the acquired noncontrolling interest.

Curious if you agree with Greg's assessment that "We think Berkshire Hathaway Energy overall is endowed with a narrow economic moat." I don't know much about regulated utilities, but I find it hard to believe someone is going to come into Iowa and compete with Mid America on price, relationship with the community/regulators or by being more environmentally friendly. Seems like the story is similar out west. I have a hard time following Greg's logic that BNSF is wide moat and the utility is narrow moat. Id be curious to hear how others feel.

WSJ is confirming what you said about the fractional trading. https://www.wsj.com/articles/robinhood-was-behind-phantom-surge-in-berkshire-hathaway-trade-volume-study-finds-11658309401?st=fi9k1yuirb7adhg&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

What is the elevator pitch on sempra?

Thanks for posting! I liked slide 21. I think those are very reasonable assumptions. Obviously a lot can change with the equity portfolio, but it doesn't seem unreasonable.

I think the overall trading volume is down in OXY, so he is still getting the same % of daily trading, but simply has less shares to buy. I didn't look closely but I suspect this is what is happening.

Yeah I think he is pretty good too.

I hadn’t thought about it like that, good point. But it seems to me that most people who are using investment managers aren't reading about the funds holdings, they are just trusting the manager.