Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[longterminvestor]

On 2/28/2024 at 4:07 PM, Xerxes said:

Did Berkshire gave away too much by issuing away 6% of Berkshire. That is $54 billion on a market cap of $900 billion todays price. 

Not at all.  Shares outstanding today are less than when those shares were issued and we got the rail road.  and its worth north of $150B now.  

[hasilp89]

8 hours ago, gfp said:

 

Cheers - I will post them but they are not out yet.  The Annual filings take a bit longer to be published.  I've seen quarterly filings actually come out before a company's 10Q before (which must be a no-no) - but never for a BRK sub.

 

edit:  if you are hoping to learn the "secret" financial security you will probably be out of luck (same as Q3) because it is hidden inside the Harney Investment Trust, Warren's go-to disclosure obscurer (is that a word?)

The guy who pays for obscure insurance filings and shares them. Also moonlights as the illiterate guy who can’t do math.

 

(bad joke, my way of saying I appreciate you @gfp)

[gfp]

12 hours ago, hasilp89 said:

The guy who pays for obscure insurance filings and shares them. Also moonlights as the illiterate guy who can’t do math.

 

(bad joke, my way of saying I appreciate you @gfp)

 

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/insurancebased-investment-scheme-labelled-ponzi-closed-down-479411.aspx

 

Aww man, now I gotta shut down my "secrets of the NAIC" call buying fund!  this guy ruined it for everyone.  f*cking harvard...

Edited March 1, 2024 by gfp

[Hektor]

12 hours ago, hasilp89 said:

Also moonlights as the illiterate guy who can’t do math.

[gfp]

Attached is the National Indemnity year end NAIC filing that includes investments.  There are quite a few files - I am still going through them.  I will post a few more later today

 

(FWIW, they were selling AAPL for $192.75 / share on December 27th so it could have been primarily tax related - if for some reason it "made sense" to take a gain on AAPL for the 2023 tax year).  edit: they were also selling AAPL the day before in Columbia Insurance at $193.79 / share.  So decent prices

20087.2023.P.AN.PI.O.M.4665561.pdf

Edited March 1, 2024 by gfp

[Xerxes]

Good episode. Talks about a variety of Berkshire related topic. 
 

it is interesting that Josh Brown although has heard of Markel, doesn’t know much about. 
 

The FFH and Markel crowd are really flying under the radar. 
 

[sleepydragon]

56 minutes ago, gfp said:

Attached is the National Indemnity year end NAIC filing that includes investments.  There are quite a few files - I am still going through them.  I will post a few more later today

 

(FWIW, they were selling AAPL for $192.75 / share on December 27th so it could have been primarily tax related - if for some reason it "made sense" to take a gain on AAPL for the 2023 tax year).  edit: they were also selling AAPL the day before in Columbia Insurance at $193.79 / share.  So decent prices

20087.2023.P.AN.PI.O.M.4665561.pdf 642.51 kB · 6 downloads

Thanks Gfp. So it seems to me Buffett didn’t sell any Para from NAI’s portfolio ? He must have sold it from other accounts?

[gfp]

11 minutes ago, sleepydragon said:

Thanks Gfp. So it seems to me Buffett didn’t sell any Para from NAI’s portfolio ? He must have sold it from other accounts?

 

That seems to be the case, which opens up the question of whether Paramount is a Buffett holding at all.  I will check their last PARA filing to see if there is any information on where it is held within BRK.

[gfp]

These are the stocks sold within General Re during the year (General Re is where most of the 'not-on-the-13F' european equities live)

 

edit: that's really blurry.  They sold Chevron, HP, USB, Allianz, Munich Re, BASF and Nestle.  The European stuff was sold earlier in the year

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2024 by gfp

[sleepydragon]

8 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

That seems to be the case, which opens up the question of whether Paramount is a Buffett holding at all.  I will check their last PARA filing to see if there is any information on where it is held within BRK.

Thanks. Curious why do you think it opens up the question if it’s a Buffett holding? 

 

also, the NAI filing show the shares were bought in 3/9/2022, when the stock was at $34. Shouldn’t Buffett sells these first because they are quite high cost. Buffett’s first purchase was in Q1 2022. And $34 was hear the high range during that quarter. Unless it’s actually being held by both WEB and T.T.?

 

 

[gfp]

7 minutes ago, sleepydragon said:

Thanks. Curious why do you think it opens up the question if it’s a Buffett holding? 

 

also, the NAI filing show the shares were bought in 3/9/2022, when the stock was at $34. Shouldn’t Buffett sells these first because they are quite high cost. Buffett’s first purchase was in Q1 2022. And $34 was hear the high range during that quarter. Unless it’s actually being held by both WEB and T.T.?

 

 

 

Ah yes I see what you mean.  I didn't notice that there were shares owned inside National Indemnity.  You confused me with that NAI reference because I think of NAI as National Amusements not National Indemnity.  I don't think it indicates Buffett investment or otherwise - I thought at the point of your earlier post that there was no PARA inside National Indemnity and if that indicated it's in a pension fund or something then that would point to a non-Buffett manager (T&T).  If I notice PARA being sold in another filing I will post it.  There are quite a few different reporting insurance subsidiaries within Berkshire.  It wasn't sold in Columbia or Gen Re that I have seen so far.

[sleepydragon]

18 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

Ah yes I see what you mean.  I didn't notice that there were shares owned inside National Indemnity.  You confused me with that NAI reference because I think of NAI as National Amusements not National Indemnity.  I don't think it indicates Buffett investment or otherwise - I thought at the point of your earlier post that there was no PARA inside National Indemnity and if that indicated it's in a pension fund or something then that would point to a non-Buffett manager (T&T).  If I notice PARA being sold in another filing I will post it.  There are quite a few different reporting insurance subsidiaries within Berkshire.  It wasn't sold in Columbia or Gen Re that I have seen so far.

oh, sorry. I meant to type NAIC not NAI.  I am the one who confused and got it wrong

[Hektor]

https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/warren-buffett-tracy-britt-kanbrick-fb304a50

 

Quote

A Warren Buffett Protégée Is on the Hunt for Small Companies. She Now Has Millions More to Spend. Tracy Britt Cool raises $220 million for Kanbrick, an investment firm that seeks to be an alternative to private equity

 

[gfp]

This donation has been well covered in the media but I thought this morning's WSJ article about it was better than most at telling the story of Warren, Sandy and Ruth -

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/billion-donation-einstein-medicine-warren-buffett-ruth-gottesman-01b9ae91?mod=hp_lead_pos8&mod=wknd_pos1

[Munger_Disciple]

I thought the Gottesman's stake in Berkshire is worth a lot more than $1 billion. Perhaps already distributed to heirs?

[RadMan24]

https://www.ft.com/content/9619f503-6fd5-4256-8a5a-09eeebd08692

 

"Buffett sounds wildfire alarm as utilities industry enters new era"

[John Hjorth]

13 minutes ago, Munger_Disciple said:

I thought the Gottesman's stake in Berkshire is worth a lot more than $1 billion. Perhaps already distributed to heirs?

 

@Munger_Disciple,

 

From the 2022 Berkshire Management Information Circular [DEF 14A] , dated March 11^th 2022, where Mr. Gottesman passed away September 28^th 2022 :

 

 

 

and

 

 

From my understanding of the allocation of Berkshire shares in news and the press in general attached to Mr. Gottesman, a quite large part has been owned by the investment firm First Manhattan.

[valueinvesting101]

Great article! @gfp thanks a lot for sharing. You have been very valuable member on this board. Thanks for posts and I hope you continue to prosper and share your wisdom with us. 
 

I hope medical school doesn’t increase fees and other expenses going forward too much such that this gift can benefit large numbers of doctors and hopefully inspire them for further philanthropy. 

[gfp]

26 minutes ago, Munger_Disciple said:

I thought the Gottesman's stake in Berkshire is worth a lot more than $1 billion. Perhaps already distributed to heirs?

 

If Sandy had never given any shares away or distributed trust shares to heirs, the Gottesmans would have over $6 Billion of Berkshire stock - over 10,000 A-shares.  Over time they have been giving shares away but I'm not sure what the split is between heirs, foundations and what Ruth has left over.  

[Munger_Disciple]

Thanks @John Hjorth & @gfp. The number in gfp's post seems to be correct as I remember it. The rest are owned by First Manhattan's clients I believe. 

[jbwent63]

On 3/1/2024 at 9:22 AM, gfp said:

Attached is the National Indemnity year end NAIC filing that includes investments.  There are quite a few files - I am still going through them.  I will post a few more later today

 

(FWIW, they were selling AAPL for $192.75 / share on December 27th so it could have been primarily tax related - if for some reason it "made sense" to take a gain on AAPL for the 2023 tax year).  edit: they were also selling AAPL the day before in Columbia Insurance at $193.79 / share.  So decent prices

20087.2023.P.AN.PI.O.M.4665561.pdf 642.51 kB · 21 downloads

Thank you. It looks like more of the Japanese trading houses have been purchased since the last filing with the Japanese Stock authorities. 

[gfp]

5 minutes ago, jbwent63 said:

Thank you. It looks like more of the Japanese trading houses have been purchased since the last filing with the Japanese Stock authorities. 

 

Like turning a battleship...  I have other filings for them but there isn't a lot of undisclosed equity trading that will make headlines.  Most of the selling we knew about from the first three quarters and SEC disclosures.  Whatever "secret" buying is going on is being hidden in both Harney Investment Trust (National Indemnity) and Dewey Investment Trust (Columbia Insurance).

[backtothebeach]

The Japanese trading house investment is truly a masterpiece.

Purchasing high, durable dividend yields, with hedged currency, using almost free money. After a 30 year sideways market, right before take off. Stunning.

[Xerxes]

12 minutes ago, backtothebeach said:

The Japanese trading house investment is truly a masterpiece.

Purchasing high, durable dividend yields, with hedged currency, using almost free money. After a 30 year sideways market, right before take off. Stunning.

stunning, but Munger characterize them as “giving Warren something to do, so he doesn’t tinker too much at larger scale” (something along those lines)

[gfp]

Just now, Xerxes said:

stunning, but Munger characterize them as “giving Warren something to do, so he doesn’t tinker too much at larger scale” (something along those lines)

 

Well Charlie also had this quote on Warren's investments in Japan, "It was like having God just opening a chest and just pouring money into it."

 

I'm not even sure I can calculate the return on investment because the equity sliver was so small, the carry was so positive and the debt used to float the purchases and hedge the currency was so profitable.  If we pencil in that we used insurance float for the tiny "equity" sliver then I guess this is as close to warren giving a master class on free money as we will get.

 

h/t kingswell newsletter for the chart