gfp

I’m a buyer of BRK.B call options for Jan 2020 expiry today.

For the curious, BNSF's 10Q is filed this morning. Another $1.2 Billion in cash distributions to Berkshire, same as Q1. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/934612/000093461219000014/llc6301910q.htm And the Berkshire Hathaway Energy 10Q as well - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/71180/000108131619000014/bhe63019form10-q.htm

John, the first quarter 2019 repurchases cost $1.69 Billion. The second quarter repurchases cost $443 million (rounded up). 2.133 Billion minus 1.69 Billion gets you to the 443 The discrepancy in the Q1 cash flow statement likely results from the fact they were purchasing right up through quarter end (March 29th), and cash had not left the building for the settlement of some of the last shares purchased yet. That's why the number in cash flow statement says 1.585 B in Q1, when in fact 1.69 billion worth of shares had been purchased. Settlement is 3 days in the US

One small note I noticed so far this morning refers to Pilot Flying J (page 11 of the 10Q) as having "nearly $30 Billion in annual revenues." What was interesting to me is that this time last year, the 10Q described it this way, "approximately $20 Billion in annual revenue."

What is your source for the quote? Not the 10Q

Looks like ~ $442 million worth of repurchases in the quarter And looks like Friday's close was almost exactly at 1.3x quarter end Book Value - BVPS is 156.08 Cash at $122 Billion, $200 billion stock portfolio (ex KHC), $20 Billion bond portfolio, float rising at $1 Billion / quarter to $125 B

https://www.omaha.com/news/metro/downtown/bill-murray-and-warren-buffett-spotted-at-ted-and-wally/article_c53c04b0-5ed4-5df8-83af-859a8eba3581.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/warren-buffett-and-bill-murray-hung-out-and-told-jokes.html

That makes sense - it was probably the original airline investment for Berkshire by Ted Weschler - he was the Doug Parker fan who got Berkshire into airlines first. And I believe a good bit of what Ted and Todd manage is in subsidiary pension plans.

Hey Dynamic - do you have the American Airlines position size correct in the spreadsheet? Thanks and good work as always

Berkshire Hathaway Energy's CalEnergy Resources subsidiary is doing a deal with a distressed company in Britain - https://www.ft.com/content/190b6088-afb7-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2 https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/204416/independent-oil-and-gas-agrees-landmark-north-sea-farmout/ https://www.offshore-mag.com/field-development/article/14036954/iog-joining-forces-with-calenergy-for-north-sea-hub-gas-project Maybe 200 million dollars or a bit more when all said and done. Here is IOG's press release on the deal - maybe the most clear: https://www.independentoilandgas.com/news_detail.php?Title=%20Farm-out%20of%20Southern%20North%20Sea%20Assets

Yeah, the timing of the filing was based on BAC's quarterly results. The press release with supplemental financial details was filed on July 17th. Usually Berkshire would wait until a couple days after the 10Q to file something like their Form 3, which was required once they learned of the most recent share count. In this case, I don't think BAC has even filed their 10Q yet unless I am missing it somewhere. But the 8K had enough in it that someone probably made the call to file the Form 3. Its still an SEC filing with a share count listed after all... https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000007085819000037/0000070858-19-000037-index.htm ** now that I look at the Form 3, it actually says, "date of even requiring statement: 7/17/2019" - which would be the BAC filing linked above. I wonder where the 10Q is?

I think Warren knew the pace of BAC's repurchases. He probably is expecting to be able to keep the position given the evolving guidance on what constitutes "control" as far as the Fed is concerned. I wouldn't be surprised if Berkshire is allowed to stop selling Wells shares as well. He may not buy more, but I would expect the government to allow Berkshire to drift up passively. BRK owns more than 18% of American Express, which itself is a bank holding company.

Congratulations to you Gregmal - a good trade on Alphabet and bottom-ticked Howard Hughes

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-25/buffett-lunch-mystery-deepens-as-his-date-apologizes-to-society?srnd=premium Further details suggest the kidney stones were a fib. Chinese regulators had an issue with the excessive promotion apparently. https://www.wsj.com/articles/excessive-self-promotion-justin-sun-apologizes-after-postponing-charity-lunch-with-warren-buffett-11564043243?mod=hp_featst_pos1

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-22/buffett-s-charity-lunch-with-crypto-investor-sun-is-postponed

longinvestor is probably referring to the Fed's clarification of what will trigger Bank Holding Company oversight going forward. Here is some material on the potential future clarifications / implications for Berkshire's forced selling and position sizing of banking investments -> https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/bcreg20190423a.htm (links towards bottom, including a chart) a commentary - https://www.morganlewis.com/blogs/finreg/2019/04/gnostic-secrets-now-revealed-a-first-take-on-the-feds-bank-holding-company-act-control-proposal

BNSF getting some pretty great borrowing rates - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/934612/000119312519194621/d770717d424b2.htm

Here's a pdf of a recent article on Iscar in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. I saved it as a pdf because it requires registration to read. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-how-warren-buffett-bought-the-best-industrial-firm-in-israel-1.7497532?=&ts=_1563133910334 iscar.pdf

https://www.wsj.com/articles/oxymoron-alert-some-high-yield-bonds-go-negative-11563096601?mod=hp_lead_pos4 It will be interesting to see if Berkshire revisits the European debt markets and can pull off some negative yielding bonds at issuance. You could tell it was a point of pride for him when he issued the SQUARZ securities years ago (they did not work out to be a good deal for Berkshire). So he certainly does have a curiosity towards issuing negative yielding paper. Not as good as insurance float but probably better than the volatility of the index put float.

My hunch is that his specialty was "tax avoidance" for the very wealthy. Look into the transfers into various charities connected to Epstein - why would Les Wexner just send over $21 million to Epstein's charity for Jeff to take all the credit giving it away? Why would Les sign over the NYC property for practically no money (this one could have been in lieu of Financial Trust's fees for the year or something similar). Another charity of Epstein was launched with $10 million that appears to have come from Leon Black. All of the USVI entities, the strange charitable flows - looks like he was peddling tax strategies to me. Likely with plenty of 'dirt' and blackmail thrown in for "stickiness!" Also - it does appear that he traded through Bear Stearns earlier in his career (Ace Greenberg said he has gone from working at the firm to becoming an important client - he was fired from Bear for loaning money to a friend to buy stock - likely an insider trade - dating a secretary, and expense account irregularities). He traded through Deutsche Bank most of his career. Looks like he lost a lot of money on the Bear Stearns collapse and another $50m through the collapse of a Bear hedge fund. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/business/jeffrey-epstein-net-worth.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

Independent dealers and hardware stores. Ace stores are independently owned. But this deal is to produce the Clark & Kensington brand name paints for Ace, so it’s not all BM branded products

Oh yeah, we're just fine down here. Thanks for the concern gentlemen - back to brk talk!

Not material in any way, but it is 'general news' about Berkshire Hathaway - https://www.wsj.com/articles/berkshire-hathaways-benjamin-moore-to-become-main-paint-supplier-for-ace-hardware-11562788833 Another note - GEICO will be paying out more than a few claims on vehicles in New Orleans after yesterday's citywide flood. The small storm headed this way hasn't even arrived yet. Projections from the Army Corps are that the Mississippi river could briefly overtop 19.6 foot high levees for the first time as the already-high river runs into storm surge pushing the opposite direction. Yesterday's flood was just a rain event but the flooding came up quick once the pumps were overwhelmed.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-07-05/ex-berkshire-manager-lou-simpson-converts-firm-to-family-office

what a disaster the US soybean farming business is right now. Thankful we were able to get a corn crop in the ground at the last minute on our midwest family farm (Indiana). The wet fields almost forced planting soy since it can be planted later and still produce a crop. For the life of me I can't understand per acre farm prices in relation to what the land throws off in average income. An apartment building would never be valued that way. Nobody wants to be the one to sell the family farm that has been in the family over a century though...