gfp

off topic, but Kiewitt Plaza is for sale for around $20 million. Berkshire has a very long term lease, but I wonder if they end up purchasing the building. On a side note, Omaha real estate appears not too pricey

Privately negotiated trades for large blocks eventually get reported to the NYSE and included in the reported volume: "The NYSE has a general reporting rule specifying that transactions must be reported promptly. In particular, NYSE Rule 131 specifies that trades must be reported within an hour after the close of business on the day the trade was made."

Hadn't noticed that Warren also did the Smith & Wollensky's segment with Liz Claman at FoxBusiness - http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/5828934109001/?#sp=show-clips and http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/5828949631001/?#sp=show-clips Topics covered include Tesla/Elon Musk "funding secured", ending the meetings with universities, his health, how he's feeling, etc

I don't think I see a 1 million share trade on BRK B but I do see just under 284k shares traded at the close. There is a large order match at the close that you can participate in by entering MOC - "Market on Close" orders. Index funds and other institutional traders are big users of the closing bell order cross, which is why they publish order imbalances for the closing cross in the last hour and a couple minutes or so before the close. (I should add, it's never going to be all Berkshire unless its a block trade that you see printed out of nowhere - it is safe to assume Berkshire is only purchasing 10%-20% of the daily volume and I would bet it is closer to 10%. They would probably be purchasing both classes of shares)

I hear ya Mike. I used to never get sick. Now I have a high school student who wants to hug all the time. I think I feel my glands swelling up just talking about it! Our classes started Monday Aug 20, by Monday Aug 27 I was fighting a cold. They brought back germs from all over the world!

Good interviews on both CNBC and Bloomberg, although Bloomberg seemed to have lost their feed in the middle. Current value of 255 million Apple shares, of which Berkshire apparently has even more than 255: over $58 Billion. Seems the Gen Re New England shares are the Ted or Todd position, since he mentioned about 6 million shares was one of the other fellows in the office. Didn't seem like he was about to bid for Campbells through KHC. Apparently we were wrong about the need for a 13G filing on Apple, as he is clearly over 5% and has added more. Perhaps the other disclosures are enough, since the number of shares is out there on different filings with the SEC. He's certainly not selling any... He seemed his same old self, not declining or more tired. I thought that was encouraging after hearing of him ending the student visits and other responsibilities. I'm just glad all those students with whatever Flu and Cold symptoms they have aren't flocking in to get the old man sick.

Thanks for the links. It does seem that the interviews took place in May at the Annual Meeting, or at least that is what she mentioned in her intro.

If Apple keeps at its recent behavior there will be a decent impact on book and that income statement pass through. Hit 222 today.

They don't have to tell the public they are buying. It will be disclosed as either treasury shares or reduced share count once cancelled - in the regular quarterly and annual filings. They won't 'build a position' of a certain size - they will periodically cancel the treasury shares they accumulate, reducing shares outstanding

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/expert-view/more-than-money-berkshires-todd-combs-coming-on-paytm-board-is-the-best-outcome-vijay-shekhar-sharma/articleshow/65578696.cms Interview in the Economic Times, mentions that Todd Combs will join Paytm board. Warren not involved at all, but did know enough about it to tell Masa at Sun Valley. Tiny investment of course, but over time it does help to raise the profile internationally.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-eyes-india-mobile-payments-firm-1535372330 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-27/warren-buffett-is-said-to-agree-on-backing-india-s-paytm https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/27/technology/paytm-warren-buffett/index.html Berkshire taking a stake in an Indian mobile payments company - Todd Combs deal

Etsy is not even close to an exclusively female customer base. I have purchased around 10 items from Etsy in the past year. Address numbers, antique signs, several antique rugs from overseas, leather "poufs" from morocco, black walnut picture frames, paintings, prints etc... There is also a fair bit of semi custom furniture sold on Etsy to both sexes. (I should add that Men also buy products at Victoria's Secret, primarily as gifts - although it has been years since I have bought anything at that particular retailer)

Not all men, of course. Just the men on value investing message boards like this one

I asked my wife at lunch today why, in her opinion, there weren't very many women on this message board. She said that most women she knows are too busy to spend hours every day shooting the shit and trolling around online discussion forums.

Yeah I wondered if a consumer durable was correct, but the kid already had a car (a shittier one) and still mostly rides his bike everywhere (New Orleans is very small and flat) so it certainly felt discretionary. My wife certainly thought it was discretionary, as in - 'you spoil that kid'... Lest folks think I'm not into value, it was a 2009 Honda Fit for $3700, so I think I paid a sensible price.

I bought a Honda Fit for my son yesterday. Today I bought 4 tires. Is that discretionary? In a few weeks I will buy a new iPhone. I also bought some shoes from a company called Xero.

The only real surprise for me was that he continued to sell down PSX following last quarter's big sale back to the company. PSX shares continued to rise, in part because of the share retirement Buffett contributed to. He had said in the press release for the big sale back to the company that he intended to remain a large shareholder. Maybe he just wanted to give them some room to do more big repurchases before he hits 10% again. The airline and bank moves were telegraphed a couple days ago. I guess the Goldman addition is a bit of a surprise since he hasn't added to the position from net-settling the warrants until now as far as I can remember.

https://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=BRK

Fox position is really pretty big when you add the two classes of stock together (I know it's not his entire portfolio that is disclosed, so it's really just a large percentage of his disclosed equities). I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he didn't actually sell out of Time Warner, since AT&T stock appeared in his fund the same quarter.

Didn't ask me, but its a selling thread Why CAH and not the better managed MCK or ABC? Valuation is a bit less for CAH, but I think the better management at MCK or ABC more than compensates for the valuation difference.

Ah yes I see your point. If I had to guess I would say they are selling a small number of shares to keep it under the reporting requirements. I don't believe they have any confidential treatment for the 13G and they didn't seek confidential treatment on the 13F. We'll see if Marc gets back to me but I doubt he will be able to answer if they are indeed selling shares.

Thats a lot to read on a phone, but I think you guys got the gist of it. The most recent published share count of Apple (found at the very top of every 10Q) is the number they have to use, not quarter-end or average share counts. Apple published this: "4,829,926,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, issued and outstanding as of July 20, 2018" less than 10 business days ago, which I believe is the Berkshire deadline for publishing a "13G" with the SEC. If Berkshire doesn't file within 10 business days of Apple's updated share count, they either made a mistake and will update later with a 'sorry, we should have done this earlier' or they have elected to sell down their stake to stay just under what they project to be the 5% share count - for the sake of privacy one would assume. It's not very important in valuing Berkshire obviously. Hell, Berkshire could even enter into one of those deals like Advance/Newhouse did with Charter where they sell blocks back to the company to maintain their exact same % ownership level over time. Would probably save both parties a little bit on trading costs. But I don't expect that I will ask Marc Hamburg, but I seriously doubt he will answer me about this question since it involved an individual security Warren might be buying or selling.

Remember that American Express wasn't a bank until the financial crisis, so it wasn't an issue for Berkshire to be considered a bank holding company through their Amex holdings. WFC always had to be kept below 10% but Berkshire sought permission to let it drift higher through repurchases only. The Fed didn't grant it. PSX wasn't the same issue and Buffett chose to take it much higher than 10% before changing his mind about the regulatory burden. I suspect it had more to do with Energy regulators than SEC reporting requirement for 10% owners, as Buffett really likes PSX management and has taken quite a few other positions over 10%. I certainly wish he hadn't sold the most recent big block of PSX back to the company in the low 90's.

Seems like you are pretending that operating businesses aren't included in book value at all. Just because some of them are held at figures much lower than their current value doesn't mean you should pretend that book value doesn't include huge sums for operating businesses that produce those earnings. Sure, though if you just look at the liquid assets like cash, stocks, and bonds, they alone are $130/share. I get it, but it seemed an odd approach to just subtract book value. Additionally, operating income includes investment income on those assets, which is double counting even if you use the 130/share number. I do understand the two column method of valuing Berkshire though

You've got to love an investment/insurance company with $712 Billion in assets that has their Fixed Maturity (bonds) portfolio at $18.5 Billion. Hmmm. Does Warren like long term bonds right now?