Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[Munger_Disciple]

Berkshire press release about the consolidated 13-F:
 

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/may1523.pdf

[NnnnotSoSmart]

Berkshire nibbles more OXY:

 

Bought 2,165,792 shares for $125,746,875. Average price paid: $58.06/share.  Berkshire now owns 213,872,911 shares of common. Plus warrants and preferreds.

 

https://www.dataroma.com/m/rt.php

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000089924323013028/xslF345X03/doc4.xml

 

Buffett (at the recent AM): "And we will not be making any offer for control of Occidental. But we love the shares we have. And we may or may not own more in the future." 

 

We now know the appetite is still there for the common priced under $60/share.

[Intelligent_Investor]

I believe they bought JEF just for the VTS spinoff actually. Looks like they reduced their stake in JEF

[valueinvesting101]

Another purchase of 3.46M shares for around $200M. 
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/315090/000089924323013283/xslF345X04/doc4.xml

Now ownership at 24.4%.
 

[backtothebeach]

Doing.my part…

 

First time trying. So eating a lot of this makes you live as long as Charlie Munger, did I get that right?

 

[crs223]

after watching the DJCO meeting, i bought the smaller box of peanut brittle and polished it off over 24 hours.  Then a headache developed that lasted four days.  I’ve never had anything like that happened to me. Pretty scary. Not doing that again.

[backtothebeach]

35 minutes ago, crs223 said:

after watching the DJCO meeting, i bought the smaller box of peanut brittle and polished it off over 24 hours.  Then a headache developed that lasted four days.  I’ve never had anything like that happened to me. Pretty scary. Not doing that again.

Lol, yeah the stuff is pretty toxic and hard to stop nibbling on. I mean look at the ingredient list. Better to eat in small doses:

Peanuts, Sugar, Butter, Corn Syrup, Salt, Baking Soda, Vanillin.

 

 

[Spekulatius]

On 5/20/2023 at 1:39 PM, backtothebeach said:

Doing.my part…

 

First time trying. So eating a lot of this makes you live as long as Charlie Munger, did I get that right?

 

I bet you can use them to catch mice (they love the peanuts taste ) and maybe kill them at the same time.

[Parsad]

On 5/20/2023 at 10:39 AM, backtothebeach said:

Doing.my part…

 

First time trying. So eating a lot of this makes you live as long as Charlie Munger, did I get that right?

 

 

The peanut brittle is good, but the chocolate is better.  Cheers!

[Spekulatius]

9 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

The peanut brittle is good, but the chocolate is better.  Cheers!

Coming from Europe, I would strongly disagree. Ghiradelli chocolate is much better, if you want to stick with made in the USA.

[MMM20]

2 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Coming from Europe, I would strongly disagree. Ghiradelli chocolate is much better, if you want to stick with made in the USA.

 

To Buffett's point...tastes in chocolate shouldn't be so regional...but they are, persistently.

 

I like Hershey's!

[Whensthepaintdry?]

I’m not that picky when it comes to chocolate. Speaking of see’s though I will be flying back into charlotte and I really hope they restocked their See’s stand. It was wiped out on the way out.

[Munger_Disciple]

5 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Coming from Europe, I would strongly disagree. Ghiradelli chocolate is much better, if you want to stick with made in the USA.

 

 I am with you on this generally. Love dark chocolate (especially the Belgian stuff), can't stand the milk variety. I am a naturalized US citizen, originally from India. But See's has added dark chocolates a few years back and some of them are very good. Try the dark with walnuts, marzipan and dark nougat at See's. 

[Spekulatius]

1 hour ago, Munger_Disciple said:

 

 I am with you on this generally. Love dark chocolate (especially the Belgian stuff), can't stand the milk variety. I am a naturalized US citizen, originally from India. But See's has added dark chocolates a few years back and some of them are very good. Try the dark with walnuts, marzipan and dark nougat at See's. 

My goto chocolate is the Ghiradelli with 85% Cocoa. I would give the Sea's chocolate a try, but they are basically unobtainable on the East coast. When I lived in CA, I was not exactly thrilled with the Sea's pralines but that was a while ago and I have not tried them since.

 

Costco has pretty good stuff on sale from time to time. It's very hard to go wrong with Belgian chocolate or pralines.

 

This is a chocolate stock I have been checking out a couple of times, but never bough (Barry Callebaut). There is of course Lindt and Sprungli, but it is very very richly valued and the common shares cost a Be5rtkshire like 100K CHF.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Spekulatius

[rkbabang]

1 hour ago, Spekulatius said:

My goto chocolate is the Ghiradelli with 85% Cocoa. I would give the Sea's chocolate a try, but they are basically unobtainable on the East coast. When I lived in CA, I was not exactly thrilled with the Sea's pralines but that was a while ago and I have not tried them since.

 

 

 

 

I like Ghiradelli, but my new favorite is Trader Joe's 85% Uganda Chocolate.  It's amazing, even better than Ghiradelli IMHO.

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/066292

[Munger_Disciple]

2 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

My goto chocolate is the Ghiradelli with 85% Cocoa. I would give the Sea's chocolate a try, but they are basically unobtainable on the East coast. When I lived in CA, I was not exactly thrilled with the Sea's pralines but that was a while ago and I have not tried them since.

 

Costco has pretty good stuff on sale from time to time. It's very hard to go wrong with Belgian chocolate or pralines.

 

This is a chocolate stock I have been checking out a couple of times, but never bough (Barry Callebaut). There is of course Lindt and Sprungli, but it is very very richly valued and the common shares cost a Be5rtkshire like 100K CHF.

 

 

I also looked at Lindt & like you concluded it was very richly valued. BTW See's has an online store (https://www.sees.com/dark-chocolate) so you might be able to order from them. I recommend the following: Dark Almond, Dark Walnut, Dark Nougat, Dark Pecan, Dark California Brittle & Almond Royale. 

[adesigar]

Sees is ok. It’s good not great. Buffett is just marketing it.

 

Cadbury’s used to be decent till Kraft messed it up. Lindt manufactured in the US also doesn’t taste as good as the imported stuff.  Most Hersheys and Mars chocolates just taste terrible especially Hersheys.
 

Belgian/Swiss are our favorite. Now I need to stock up on some Lindt Gold bars.

[rolling]

1 hour ago, adesigar said:

Sees is ok. It’s good not great. Buffett is just marketing it.

 

Cadbury’s used to be decent till Kraft messed it up. Lindt manufactured in the US also doesn’t taste as good as the imported stuff.  Most Hersheys and Mars chocolates just taste terrible especially Hersheys.
 

Belgian/Swiss are our favorite. Now I need to stock up on some Lindt Gold bars.

Ah… so I am not the only one thinking Lindt chocolates are not all the same… I love Lindt chocolate in Portugal, there is no close rival.
BUT I do NOT appreciate the same Lindt chocolate bought in Switzerland (yes, it probably should be the opposite)

[Parsad]

16 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Coming from Europe, I would strongly disagree. Ghiradelli chocolate is much better, if you want to stick with made in the USA.

 

The fruit cream fillings in See's are terrific...for example the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cream, Raspberry Truffle, Blueberry Truffle or Key Lime Truffle.  As good as anything Ghiradelli, Godiva or Teuscher make.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

9 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

My goto chocolate is the Ghiradelli with 85% Cocoa. I would give the Sea's chocolate a try, but they are basically unobtainable on the East coast. When I lived in CA, I was not exactly thrilled with the Sea's pralines but that was a while ago and I have not tried them since.

 

Costco has pretty good stuff on sale from time to time. It's very hard to go wrong with Belgian chocolate or pralines.

 

This is a chocolate stock I have been checking out a couple of times, but never bough (Barry Callebaut). There is of course Lindt and Sprungli, but it is very very richly valued and the common shares cost a Be5rtkshire like 100K CHF.

 

They deliver across North America.  You can order online at See's.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

6 hours ago, adesigar said:

Sees is ok. It’s good not great. Buffett is just marketing it.

 

Cadbury’s used to be decent till Kraft messed it up. Lindt manufactured in the US also doesn’t taste as good as the imported stuff.  Most Hersheys and Mars chocolates just taste terrible especially Hersheys.
 

Belgian/Swiss are our favorite. Now I need to stock up on some Lindt Gold bars.

 

I'm not sure you guys are eating the right chocolates at See's.  The chocolate that See's uses is from Guittard, which makes excellent chocolate comparable and on par with Callebaut.  

 

https://www.guittard.com/

 

Cadbury, Lindt, Hershey's, many common Belgian/Swiss brands don't even compare to couverture chocolate like Guittard or Callebaut.  Most are known for their milk chocolates which aren't even in the same realm as quality dark chocolate.  It's like Tim Horton or Dunkin's coffee and true Italian espresso.  Cheers!

 

 

[Spekulatius]

totally OT, but love it. I am not into cream fillings and such - I like dark chocolate. I am trying @rkbabang recommendations of the TJ 85% Uganda chocolate, since it's value priced as well.

[Munger_Disciple]

5 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

totally OT, but love it. I am not into cream fillings and such - I like dark chocolate.

 

+1. I don't care for cream fillings at all. Other than the peanut brittle & the dark chocolates I mentioned before, I don't like most of See's chocolates or candies. They are way too sweet for my taste. 

[adesigar]

21 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

I'm not sure you guys are eating the right chocolates at See's.  The chocolate that See's uses is from Guittard, which makes excellent chocolate comparable and on par with Callebaut.  

 

https://www.guittard.com/

 

Cadbury, Lindt, Hershey's, many common Belgian/Swiss brands don't even compare to couverture chocolate like Guittard or Callebaut.  Most are known for their milk chocolates which aren't even in the same realm as quality dark chocolate.  It's like Tim Horton or Dunkin's coffee and true Italian espresso.  Cheers!

 

 

 

Its something about the ingredients or manufacturing process. US chocolates are more grainy (maybe that's how they are preferred in the US I don't know, its just not to my liking) and often have cheaper ingredients. Even Sees uses Corn Syrup instead of sugar, vanillin instead of vanilla, etc. in some of their chocolates. For the prices they charge you would hope for better ingredients. They claim "We only use the highest quality ingredients - see for yourself!"   https://www.sees.com/ingredients/

 

The best chocolates I have eaten was in Paris.  It was a store called Patrick Roger.

[Parsad]

8 hours ago, adesigar said:

 

Its something about the ingredients or manufacturing process. US chocolates are more grainy (maybe that's how they are preferred in the US I don't know, its just not to my liking) and often have cheaper ingredients. Even Sees uses Corn Syrup instead of sugar, vanillin instead of vanilla, etc. in some of their chocolates. For the prices they charge you would hope for better ingredients. They claim "We only use the highest quality ingredients - see for yourself!"   https://www.sees.com/ingredients/

 

 

The corn syrup is used in the center fillings...not milk or dark chocolate itself.  Guittard chocolate is no different than Callebaut in how it is made and the ingredients used.  Cheers!