Guest longinvestor Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Bloomberg: As Warren Buffett's Empire Expands, Many Jobs Disappear https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-warren-buffett-job-creator/ Boy, I am relieved to read this report. With the growing stable of owned businesses, I was worried that some of the subs had country club type work environment. Lifetime employment guarantee for all type of shit. Living in Chicago I had heard of the cushiness at Kraft with layers of management each with mini fridges stocked with free food. That was before 3G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Seems the barrage of Berkshire related news items has begun. WSJ did a piece today on HomeServices - https://www.wsj.com/articles/coming-to-a-yard-sign-near-you-warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-1525339800 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/03/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-bought-stunning-75-million-apple-shares-in-first-quarter.html you know, just your average 42.5 billion dollar investment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 ... you know, just your average 42.5 billion dollar investment ... Christ, that's a lot! North of 10 percent of Berkshire equity. I hope this goes well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamic Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 I hope it goes well too, John, as that puts my look-through exposure to this 2-bagger in GBP (or 1.9-bagger in USD) up to at least 33.5% at the close, about 6¼% points coming via our 69.1% BRK.B position. I think it got a little higher at the end of 2016 when our direct AAPL exposure was around 31-32% at market prices, but it's closer to fully-valued now. I imagine Berkshire bought substantially in the early February dip into the $150s (when a lot of us were busily buying BRK.B in the low $190s on volume around 8 million per day - which for me was cheaper than it is now, thanks to currency swings). Traded volume was well over 50 million shares a day for all of the 4 or 5 sessions with the lowest prices (and a bit higher than surrounding weeks), so buying about 75 million shares could quite possibly have included a good proportion purchased at some of the lowest prices that quarter, assuming they keep to a modest proportion to avoid causing the price to rise. I'm pleased to see that large caps with decent volume still provide plenty of opportunities for Berkshire to take meaningful stakes at reasonable valuations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/warren-buffett-us-economic-growth-is-stronger-than-the-2-percent-or-so-average-since-the-financial-crisis.html Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Thanks for the link to the full interview! Sounds like cash levels will be down slightly due to the equity buying, primarily the 75 million additional Apple shares, more than offsetting the PSX sale. He mentioned that IMC and TTI are up big with the world economy accelerating. Sounded like he hasn't bought any GE at this point. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/warren-buffett-us-economic-growth-is-stronger-than-the-2-percent-or-so-average-since-the-financial-crisis.html Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Post by globalfinancepartners in the AAPL topic three days ago: I wonder if we will find out on Saturday how large BRK's position in Apple has become. I would be surprised if buying did not continue in 2018. It could be enormous by now. This is just soo cool - a hit exactly in the bulls eye! [ 8 - D ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Q1 2018 is out: press release: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/may0518.pdf 10Q: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/qtrly/1stqtr18.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Great opportunities to buy ahead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Why do you say that? Because you think the market will sell it off based on the Q? I doubt we are that lucky this time, especially after an entire weekend to think it over / have it explained by the boss. But it would be nice if it did happen. I'm not holding my breath... Great opportunities to buy ahead On another note - I found this interesting: "Our consolidated effective income tax rates for the first quarter of 2018 and 2017 were 29.7% and 27.2% respectively" Could have been related to the big AIG policy last year, or some other anomaly. Just wasn't expecting an increase in effective tax rate in the first quarter or the corporate tax cut.. edit: Also, nice to see GEICO appears to be back to underwriting profits. Price increases (less than competitors but still increases) appear to have cycled through the renewals. Revenues at GEICO were up over 15% vs Q1 2017. (while still profitable on an underwriting basis, the bulk of GEICO's Q1 underwriting results appear to be from favorable development of short-tail prior years' loss estimates) another note on tax rates: last year BNSF earned $1.345 billion pretax and $838 million after taxes in Q1. An effective rate of 37.7%. This year, BNSF earned $1.5 billion pretax and $1.145 billion after taxes, an effective rate of ~24%. I was interested to see how the growth at GenRe was developing, since it has really taken off since Ajit was put in charge. Premiums earned were up 49% at GenRe compared with Q1 2017! On a lot fewer employees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Buffett is live on yahoo facebook. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/05/berkshire-hathaway-reports-48-point-7-percent-first-quarter-operating-gain-as-shareholders-prepare-to-meet.html Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 http://www.morningstar.com/articles/864069/berkshire-results-meet-expectations.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 I put this link the another thread as well, but it is definitely a new development to have many years' footage of entire annual meetings posted on the internet. I had heard this was going to happen, but assumed yahoo was going to get the footage. Looks like Becky was the winner on this one - CNBC Berkshire archive - video footage of entire annual meetings from before the yahoo livestream started, plus CNBC interviews, etc: https://buffett.cnbc.com/annual-meetings/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 Bloomberg: As Warren Buffett's Empire Expands, Many Jobs Disappear https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-warren-buffett-job-creator/ Boy, I am relieved to read this report. With the growing stable of owned businesses, I was worried that some of the subs had country club type work environment. Lifetime employment guarantee for all type of shit. Living in Chicago I had heard of the cushiness at Kraft with layers of management each with mini fridges stocked with free food. That was before 3G. They probably should get the fridges back into the offices. If the 3G guys tried their own food every once in a while, they might be more inclined to make it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Hmmm.... To read this article you would think Berkshire didn't pay much to the tax man?! https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/14/kindly-87-year-old-man-who-took-all-schoolkids-lunch-money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardGibbons Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Hmmm.... To read this article you would think Berkshire didn't pay much to the tax man?! Yeah, I find the article bizarre. It seems like he's trying to vilify corporations, alleging that they're doing something wrong, when as far as I can tell, they're simply following the law. What's more, the ethical thing for the corporations to do is to operate in a tax-efficient manner, not paying more than required (and depending on how they paid more than required, I imagine it might actually break the law to pay more than required.) Really, if the author has a problem, he ought to be complaining about elected officials who create the laws and give in to corporate lobbyists, not the corporations who simply follow the law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigarbutt Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Hmmm.... To read this article you would think Berkshire didn't pay much to the tax man?! https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/14/kindly-87-year-old-man-who-took-all-schoolkids-lunch-money Article is biased and uses incomplete information. And poor choice of words. I would add that Mr. Buffett has not used off-shore tax havens reinsurance associates when this could have been considered to be a competitive disadvantage not to do so. From the Supreme Court, Judge Learned Hand (1934): "[a]nyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.” The Judge also said: "...taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant." Personal attacks, especially if ill-founded, do not add anything constructive to the debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Windpower Monthly [May 9th 2018]: AWEA 2018: MidAmerican 'hustling' ahead of PTC phase-out. EnergiWatch, by Ritzau Finans [May 15th 2018]: Vestas key customer sees potential opportunities with only 60 percent PTC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netnet Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Hmmm.... To read this article you would think Berkshire didn't pay much to the tax man?! https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/14/kindly-87-year-old-man-who-took-all-schoolkids-lunch-money I'm not a low tax libertarian type, and even I think that article was a bunch of whooey and if you go back and look at the references, it's even worse. Basically, the articles it is based on say that by buying companies, those (now) subsidiaries' dividend is not taxable ??? it also confuses the deferred taxes on long held investments as taxes 'owed'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Whitney Tilsons latest Berkshire analysis: https://www.tilsonfunds.com/TilsonBRK.pdf Cheers! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netnet Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Whitney Tilsons latest Berkshire analysis: https://www.tilsonfunds.com/TilsonBRK.pdf Cheers! :) Anyone wish to opine on Tilson's analysis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Anyone wish to opine on Tilson's analysis? For my part: Yes, it's a miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Anyone wish to opine on Tilson's analysis? For my part: Yes, it's a miss. +1 Seen in the backdrop of Semper Augustus’s seminal work, this is weak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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