Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[scorpioncapital]

I think he is trying to run a balanced ship. Seems Apple is his go-to tech part of his portfolio so he's not gonna add a Google on a dip, unless it was a huge dip maybe. So he nibbles on that. He added to energy to round out the commodity hedge against infation/stagflation. Just seems to me Berkshire is a very balanced ship that mimics in some ways the SP500 but with slightly more energy exposure now.

 

[tooskinneejs]

There was a big shout out to Warren on the series finale of Better Call Saul last night.

[gfp]

As usual, every major media outlet misses half the Chevron share adds and 100% of the additional HPQ purchases that Berkshire just reported because they happened inside General Re.  Even though the HPQ purchases were publicly disclosed in April and they all wrote articles about it.

[yesman182]

44 minutes ago, gfp said:

As usual, every major media outlet misses half the Chevron share adds and 100% of the additional HPQ purchases that Berkshire just reported because they happened inside General Re.  Even though the HPQ purchases were publicly disclosed in April and they all wrote articles about it.

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?

[gfp]

1 minute ago, yesman182 said:

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?

 

The second 13F is called New England Asset Management and you only count the securities with the "01, 02" designation in Column 7.  But yes, it is part of General Re and it is disclosed in the main Berkshire 13F as containing additional securities owned.  The rest of the NEAM 13F (those that don't have "01, 02" next to them) are not Berkshire corporate holdings.

 

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1004244

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1004244/000108514622003133/xslForm13F_X01/infotable.xml

 

That's how you get to the correct ownership of stocks like Apple, Chevron, BAC, HPQ, etc etc

[John Hjorth]

@yesman182,

 

The very short version of @gfps reply to you above is "yes".

 

Even Dataroma does not get correctly. All media coverage has been missing this point for so many years that it is simply verging to being lame by now. Same on SA [, at least partly].

 

You can find some meticulous work on this in some topics in this forum about Berkshire here on CoBF provided by our fellow board member @Dynamic a few years ago with spreadsheets, comments, details etc.

 

It's very educational.

[backtothebeach]

NAME OF ISSUER	US$ 1000	Shares	MANAGER
APPLE INC	2,792,398	20,424,207	01 02
BANK NEW YORK MELLON CORP	82,978	1,989,411	01 02
BK OF AMERICA CORP	708,251	22,751,400	01 02
CHEVRON CORP NEW	302,880	2,092,000	01 02
CITIGROUP INC	4,093	89,000	01 02
DIAGEO PLC	39,656	227,750	01 02
HP INC	540,109	16,476,783	01 02
MARKEL CORP	5,238	4,050	01 02
US BANCORP DEL	811,261	17,628,443	01 02

Edited August 16, 2022 by backtothebeach

[yesman182]

57 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

The second 13F is called New England Asset Management and you only count the securities with the "01, 02" designation in Column 7.  But yes, it is part of General Re and it is disclosed in the main Berkshire 13F as containing additional securities owned.  The rest of the NEAM 13F (those that don't have "01, 02" next to them) are not Berkshire corporate holdings.

 

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1004244

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1004244/000108514622003133/xslForm13F_X01/infotable.xml

 

That's how you get to the correct ownership of stocks like Apple, Chevron, BAC, HPQ, etc etc

Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed reply. 

[MarioP]

19 hours ago, ValueMaven said:

He basically bottom ticked the Apple buy ... not bad timing !

That remembrer me when he was buying KO. If he ask his brokers to buy everything under 140 he has enough liquidity to set the floor at that price. So it is not timing it is « this is my price for backing up the truck ».

 

 

[ValueMaven]

Also bought more Markel!!

[james22]

1 hour ago, ValueMaven said:

Also bought more Markel!!

 

Buy it all.

[crs223]

On 8/15/2022 at 10:09 PM, Xerxes said:

Does the fact that he is adding to Apple, an already large position, is an indication that he is implicitly thinking that the 10-year T-bonds have peaked. 

 

Who am i to read WEB’s mind… but hasn’t he said on several occasions that he doesn’t know which directions rates are headed?  A few months ago he said “I would have bought more AAPL if it dropped more”.  He was talking about AAPL share price dropping and not his guess about future interest rates.

[nwoodman]

4 hours ago, james22 said:

 

Buy it all.

....just not this decade.

[jbwent63]

16 hours ago, nwoodman said:

....just not this decade.

+1

[yesman182]

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

[Munger_Disciple]

58 minutes ago, erdospi said:

https://menafn.com/1104739712/Under-The-New-Tax-Law-Berkshire-Hathaway-Might-Owe-Billions-In-Stock-Gains

same article 

 

 I am willing to take the other side of this bet: there is no way Berkshire or other companies are going to pay tax on unrealized gains. The "book" income (of unrealized gains) already includes deferred taxes payable. So, govt will get its cut when the gains are realized. 

[gfp]

2 hours ago, Munger_Disciple said:

 

 I am willing to take the other side of this bet: there is no way Berkshire or other companies are going to pay tax on unrealized gains. The "book" income (of unrealized gains) already includes deferred taxes payable. So, govt will get its cut when the gains are realized. 

 

I agree.  First thing I thought when I saw that Barron's article everyone was freaking out about was, "not gonna happen."  Same with green energy production tax credits that result in a massively negative tax rate for BHE (not in jeopardy from this law).  

[nwoodman]

I personally think it is bad tax policy, if the article is correct.  If you took it to the extreme you would need an annual appraisal on all assets, just in case they varied in price.  We will see how it plays out.  

 

Definitely not the cheapest Berkshire has been recently but I will happily swap out a more fairly priced OXY for a slightly undervalued BRK for the long term.

[Munger_Disciple]

5 hours ago, gfp said:

 

I agree.  First thing I thought when I saw that Barron's article everyone was freaking out about was, "not gonna happen."  Same with green energy production tax credits that result in a massively negative tax rate for BHE (not in jeopardy from this law).  

 

Agree 100% regarding BHE. Moreover all insurers estimate their liabilities years and sometimes (in case of long tail business) decades before the contracts expire and "book" under-writing profits/losses per GAAP. Will the govt tax these too as soon as they are booked for GAAP purposes? Don't think so. 

[CassiusKing1]

If a company pays taxes on unrealized gains and those gains are later lost, does the IRS reimburse the company for those taxes paid on now lost realized gains?

[gfp]

Pilot made an investment in Kodiak Robotics (driverless truck start-up) and got a seat on the board -

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pilot-company-and-kodiak-robotics-partner-to-bring-self-driving-truck-services-to-pilot-and-flying-j-travel-centers-301611056.html

 

https://www.ttnews.com/articles/pilot-kodiak-partner-autonomous-truck-services

Edited August 25, 2022 by gfp

[scorpioncapital]

I am not sure if the attack on capital such as taxing unrealized gains or a wealth tax is inflationary or deflationary. Either way, it makes those investors living off capital far less well off - an endangered species.

[nwoodman]

56 minutes ago, scorpioncapital said:

I am not sure if the attack on capital such as taxing unrealized gains or a wealth tax is inflationary or deflationary. Either way, it makes those investors living off capital far less well off - an endangered species.

 

Yup, how do you increase the participation rate? This, but wait there’s more…

Edited August 26, 2022 by nwoodman

[Xerxes]

Apologies if already posted. About BYD

[ValueMaven]

@Xerxes Thank you.  Yes - most here are aware that this might have happened.  BYD has been a massive homerun for Berkshire.  Charlie loves BYD, but you can tell Warren is less so, and historically has defered to Charlie on the position.  I'd love for them to realize the $8B gain and blow it back into capex projects at BHE.