Q2 is out

[Libs]

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/qtrly/2ndqtr14.pdf

 

Record quarterly operating earnings: $4.331 B

[JBird]

Time is the friend of the wonderful business. Thanks for posting.

[Charlie]

P/B of 1,3284. Just 10,7% above buyback level.

 

The gift that keeps giving.  :)

[Palantir]

Very good, I was mooting selling this, but it's only 1.3x book now.

[Guest longinvestor]

When will it be that the floor is raised to 1.3X? When the estate of the next BRK billionaire comes up for settlement?

[karthikpm]

I think it's time for a dividend .

[Guest longinvestor]

I think it's time for a dividend .

 

Not anytime soon, it was just voted down by over 98% of the shareholders.

[peter1234]

I think it's time for a dividend .

 

Not anytime soon, it was just voted down by over 98% of the shareholders.

+1

 

It will not happen under Buffett. He will rather allocate to regulated industries.

:)

[DanielGMask]

Maybe next year, maybe never! This year Buffett turns 50 years at the helm of Berkshire and at his 25th anniversary he analyzed his past mistakes and promised to do the same at his 50th year of tenure, we'll see what happens!

[Guest longinvestor]

I think it's time for a dividend .

 

Not anytime soon, it was just voted down by over 98% of the shareholders.

+1

 

It will not happen under Buffett. He will rather allocate to regulated industries.

:)

 

Hope it does not happen even after Buffett. I will sell shares when I need the money. Don't want the company to feel compelled about my cash needs. Just want them to focus on growing the IV. Buying back shares and the other 491.5 S&P companies will take some cash, ha.

 

Something else, the Berkshire Hathaway moniker is starting to pop up all around me, with the rebranding of all those real estate brokerages. Still early, but Aircare, the travel insurance is set to do the same. Has anyone tried it? $25 coverage for tarmac delays, lost baggage etc.? Living in Chicago, I'm tempted to try it on my next trip. O'Hare has the reputation!

[Mephistopheles]

Something else, the Berkshire Hathaway moniker is starting to pop up all around me, with the rebranding of all those real estate brokerages. Still early, but Aircare, the travel insurance is set to do the same. Has anyone tried it? $25 coverage for tarmac delays, lost baggage etc.? Living in Chicago, I'm tempted to try it on my next trip. O'Hare has the reputation!

 

Not sure if I'd ever want to buy insurance from Warren Buffett, because most likely I'm getting ripped off. :P

[Guest longinvestor]

Something else, the Berkshire Hathaway moniker is starting to pop up all around me, with the rebranding of all those real estate brokerages. Still early, but Aircare, the travel insurance is set to do the same. Has anyone tried it? $25 coverage for tarmac delays, lost baggage etc.? Living in Chicago, I'm tempted to try it on my next trip. O'Hare has the reputation!

 

Not sure if I'd ever want to buy insurance from Warren Buffett, because most likely I'm getting ripped off. :P

 

I've Geico insurance and they have promptly paid claims twice. I used to have Allstate home insurance and switched to home insurance through Geico (Liberty) and premium is significantly lower. Sure, Insurance companies make money off of me, just don't want to overpay. I have no fiduciary compulsion to stick with Geico either just because I'm a shareholder. Will keep shopping.

[jay21]

I wanted to get a sense of BRK's op cos FCF generation so far this year.  I started with OCF backed out CapEx and Interest/Dividends to get a $4.6 annualized number.  Using D&A instead of CapEx to get a proxy of maintenance cap ex I got a ~$9.6b annualized number.  There may be other adjustments to make that I am not thinking of that should be made. Please let me know.

 

If you trust Buffett's method of giving full value to his investments, the sum of cash+investments is ~$219b and subtract that from market cap of ~$326b, I got an implied FCF multiple of 11 on the higher ~$9.6b FCF estimate.

 

I think that multiple is pretty good and somewhat cheap. I don't think this method give any value to their financial arm.  However, it appears the important assumption is giving full value to investments because it looks like that makes up a very large percent of the market cap if it holds.