LearningMachine Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Remember when Buffett buying $800 million worth of stock in the open market used to get reported on by the press? Sign of the times gfp, sorry, trying to parse your sarcasm. Which one of these did you mean? (a) $800 million purchase is such a big news that Mainstream press should be making a bigger deal about it. In current times, only some of the press is reporting it and not making a huge deal they would have been making in the past. (b) $800 million is such a tiny amount given Buffett's portfolio. Sign of times that press has to even report it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 I was just commenting that I haven't seen any mention of it on the CNBCs or Bloombergs (that doesn't mean they didn't mention it but I didn't see it) and in the not too distant past they used to cover every disclosed or rumored move Buffett made. Sign of the times was just referencing that nobody cares what stock Warren Buffett likes these days - after all, he's washed up as a stock picker. But yes - it is also true that $800 million of incremental purchases of an already large equity position is not big news for Berkshire. It could also be the case that they didn't stop buying after the 1st three days. We'll know soon enough if he has continued since he has to report promptly on this one. Remember when Buffett buying $800 million worth of stock in the open market used to get reported on by the press? Sign of the times gfp, sorry, trying to parse your sarcasm. Which one of these did you mean? (a) $800 million purchase is such a big news that Mainstream press should be making a bigger deal about it. In current times, only some of the press is reporting it and not making a huge deal they would have been making in the past. (b) $800 million is such a tiny amount given Buffett's portfolio. Sign of times that press has to even report it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 navmehta, gfp has been around here at CoBF now for more than ten years. gfp has never been involved [at least to my knowledge] in any [heated?] conversation here on CoBF. To me, gfp always posts facts [based on ""on the ground" basic work" [which over the years has been a lot of valuable sharing!], sometimes spiced with a bit of a personal [forward looking] opinion & judgement - but never any kind of sarcasm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 But yes - it is also true that $800 million of incremental purchases of an already large equity position is not big news for Berkshire. It could also be the case that they didn't stop buying after the 1st three days. We'll know soon enough if he has continued since he has to report promptly on this one. Given the price action today I would guess he is continuing to purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redskin Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 He bought about 15% of the average daily volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 If Berkshire doesn't start selling OXY common shares, they will be at 10% with this recent (stock) dividend payment on the preferred. This prospectus sounds like they are selling, but really it is just a registration statement for the new shares OXY is issuing Berkshire. If Berkshire doesn't stay below 10% (which they are basically at right now absent some quick sales), they will have to disclose share sales within a few days of each trade - which they tend to avoid when possible. Maybe they will let it build up. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/797468/000114036120016019/nt10013471x1_424b7.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPerez Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 They are counting the 80 million warrants as shares for ownership purposes. If you take that away it looks like they owned 0 shares other than the 11 million they got as a dividend earlier. So nowhere near the 10%. They might owned oxy shares in other entities that are not listed in the prospectus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 Interesting - thanks for the clarification. If that is correct, Berkshire has sold something like 19 million OXY shares that they previously owned, plus at least one batch of 11 million that they had previously been paid as pref. dividends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpioncapital Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 So something like get paid in shares, sell them to recreate the dividend and maybe on the tail-end of the option expiry if the price has risen, get the dividend back and keep the remainder as an equity holding. If things look just as bad in 8 or 9 years, just sell it all out via the shares and consider it a dividend-equivalent? If they got paid entirely in stock instead of dividends what break-even price would recreate their current dividend of 8%? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 The OXY shares are issued at 90% of the VWAP for some number of days preceding the dividend declaration. So they are issued at different prices each quarter. Berkshire appears to be selling them - perhaps even before they are delivered as they have sometimes done in the past. I would not be surprised, if OXY has it right in this registration filing, to learn that Berkshire was pre-selling the dividend shares and ending up with a zero share position upon delivery. (not counting the warrants of course, which are at a very high strike) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepydragon Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 The OXY shares are issued at 90% of the VWAP for some number of days preceding the dividend declaration. So they are issued at different prices each quarter. Berkshire appears to be selling them - perhaps even before they are delivered as they have sometimes done in the past. I would not be surprised, if OXY has it right in this registration filing, to learn that Berkshire was pre-selling the dividend shares and ending up with a zero share position upon delivery. (not counting the warrants of course, which are at a very high strike) May not be a bad idea for Buffett to keep the shares at this price though. Berkshire shareholders can own a big part of the Permian Basin which could be the future Saudi. I just finished reading “ Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World”, which was recommended from the Annual meeting. Interesting Buffett read this book and still invested in OXY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickenumbers Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 I generally don't like puff recycled information news... but this was well written and a fair amount of current and new information for me. Buffett and Gates have a 1 hour conversation once a week. Who knew?? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-what-bill-gates-and-warren-buffett-talk-about-during-covid-19-121314292.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villainx Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 I generally don't like puff recycled information news... but this was well written and a fair amount of current and new information for me. Buffett and Gates have a 1 hour conversation once a week. Who knew?? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-what-bill-gates-and-warren-buffett-talk-about-during-covid-19-121314292.html Now that you shared that, I just imagine a timer for both of them to say, time's up, see ya next week. Not that I don't think either are great conversation partners, but I don't talk to anyone other than my spouse and kids for any meaningful amount of time. =P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villainx Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Also, with the criticism for Buffett not doing anything during the March lulls. I got to thinking ... neither of the Ws made meaningful buys either? Or has this already been addressed? Buffett himself might wait for clearer signals. But it would be easier for the Ws to make purchases? Do you think they share same wait and see approach? Is it institutionalized, in which case, is there enough contrarian/independent thinking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistopheles Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Also, with the criticism for Buffett not doing anything during the March lulls. I got to thinking ... neither of the Ws made meaningful buys either? Or has this already been addressed? Buffett himself might wait for clearer signals. But it would be easier for the Ws to make purchases? Do you think they share same wait and see approach? Is it institutionalized, in which case, is there enough contrarian/independent thinking? Doesn't answer your question, but I am really curious to see what the latest share count is per 10-Q. So far we have seen that Buffett bought back $5 billion of stock Q2, the most ever (I think), and now we are seeing huge purchases of BAC. Perhaps Buffett's outlook has changed, and he bought back at an even faster pace in July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wescobrk Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 It would be nice to know what changed his mind as he is buying at higher prices here than in March, April and May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregmal Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Probably the fact that there is significantly more clarity now and in some stocks, such as banks, only a marginal price improvement. The $17 low wasn't really an actionable price as it was more or less intra-day(s). Basically a low $20s number on BAC could be called the lows. So he's been a buyer at basically the same prices give or take 5-10%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepupil Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 well he is about $50B pre-tax of AAPL wealthier. needs to buy everything else to rebalance. A whole lot has changed for the better since March. Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company. So then I got a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more. And I said, that's good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Also, with the criticism for Buffett not doing anything during the March lulls. I got to thinking ... neither of the Ws made meaningful buys either? Or has this already been addressed? Buffett himself might wait for clearer signals. But it would be easier for the Ws to make purchases? Do you think they share same wait and see approach? Is it institutionalized, in which case, is there enough contrarian/independent thinking? I assume by "W's" you are referring to the junior investment managers Ted and Todd? We don't know what they did after 3/31 so far except for limited cases where disclosure was required. One of them bought more Liberty Sirius for example - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/315090/000120919120032183/xslF345X03/doc4.xml https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/315090/000120919120033068/xslF345X03/doc4.xml https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/315090/000120919120034157/xslF345X03/doc4.xml and then exercised their rights in the rights offering - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/315090/000120919120035265/xslF345X03/doc4.xml We'll know more later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CassiusKing1 Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company. So then I got a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more. And I said, that's good! This is gold Jerry! Thanks for the chuckle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 RIP Doris Buffett - Warren's older sister has died at 92 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/business/doris-buffett-the-familys-retail-philanthropist-dies-at-92.html https://omaha.com/news/local/doris-buffett-philanthropist-and-sister-to-warren-buffett-dies/article_0c8e10a9-b750-5636-96d3-2119e0d0c8c4.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 In a way - in some dimensions - she was the diametrical opposite of her younger brother, but still a basically good person. "Retail philanthropist" here comes to mind. Imagine going through many letters every day from people in need, to reach an individual decision. RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Maybe I should have posted it in the BOMN thread? https://www.sunshinelady.org/sunshine-ladys-charitable-work-for-warren-buffett-clouded-over/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepupil Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 obviously won't happen, but I think it would be legendary for Berkshire to just unload all it's AAPL stake and be like "yea we're still bearish, 260 yards of cash seems right, haterz gonna hate" at 15% of volume assuming no block trades, it would only take 40-50 trading days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Maybe I should have posted it in the BOMN thread? https://www.sunshinelady.org/sunshine-ladys-charitable-work-for-warren-buffett-clouded-over/ Interesting article. It seems that genetically Warren is not in a good shoes. Dementia, cancer and cardiac problems. OTOH Doris lived to 92 and Warren seems to be mostly fine still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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