cubsfan Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Nice explanation - thanks for pointing out the differences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longterminvestor Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Here are the share buybacks for the year (Converted A to B using 1 A Share@1500B equivalent): Q1: 8,406,830 Q2: 2,187,640 Q3: 3,488,363 Q4: 10,140,577 Ackman's Pershing Square acquired the following shares in quarters listed: Q1: N/A Q2: 3,512,997 Q3: 502,597 Q4: N/A Interesting to see Buffet was competing with Bill Ackman during Q2 & Q3 (less so for Q3) for shares. Data above supports conclusion shares are tougher to buy back with competition. It shows in data above. Anyone else know of other funds acquiring large blocks of BRK during the year 2019? On the other side of the coin, what funds were net sellers of BRK in 2019? Large blocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CassiusKing1 Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 Ol' Uncle Warren better be buying BRK shares hand over fist this week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 Ol' Uncle Warren better be buying BRK shares hand over fist this week! 5.5MM shares traded hands today as prices went from 219->216, about 1.1B worth of stock, or 20% of the entire amount WB spent in 2019 repurchasing. But apparently there isn't enough volume for WB to make significant market repurchases? ??? ??? ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swedish_Compounder Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 I expect that they buy back a lot of stock right now. Otherwise I will be disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 I agree. Already trading volume is 3M shares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 Me too, Swedish_Compounder & LC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wabuffo Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Here's a weird (and potentially ominous) coincidence. In the latest letter, Buffett listed his broker (Mark Millard) and his direct-dial number and solicited offers for shareholders to sell their stock directly to Berkshire Hathaway. To my knowledge, the only other time Buffett has done that before (broker, phone number, offer to repurchase) was in the 2000 Chairman's letter. That marked the top of a bull market in March 2000, and the subsequent bear market probably went on for two years and didn't hit a bottom til October, 2002. The market finally took off in 2003. This year's letter came out this weekend. And the market has swooned. Does history repeat? Regardless - it is a very weird and spooky coincidence. wabuffo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Liquidity is one part of the equation. Price is another. Shares closed today at $207.67 and BV = $174 (at Dec 31). So shares are trading today a little under 1.2 x BV. (Yes, the stock portfolio is down so Dec 31 BV is overstated). Bottom line, if shares continue to fall they will be comfortably under 1.2 x BV which should also get Buffett excited about executing some buybacks in volume (a little like an undersexed guy in a brothel :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Mark Millard is a Berkshire Hathaway Vice President [please see inside back cover page of the 2019 Annual Report], and the provided telephone number appears to be Berkshire's main [desk] number [i.e. also used by Mr. Hamburg as contact node related to Press Releases]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepydragon Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Someone shall look at the prints after mkt close to see if there’s any off exchange trades. I image anyone, including market makers, who want to sell would want to call Omaha first to avoid mkt impact. So quite possible there will be a lot of off exchange trades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Everyone expecting BRK to be buying back tons of stock this week: prepare to be disappointed. Buffett does not like to buy back. And he definitely does not like to buy back when market/stocks drop and he might get bargains in stocks he wanted to buy. My prediction: minimal buybacks; maybe some investments in other stocks/maybe not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bizaro86 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Everyone expecting BRK to be buying back tons of stock this week: prepare to be disappointed. Buffett does not like to buy back. And he definitely does not like to buy back when market/stocks drop and he might get bargains in stocks he wanted to buy. My prediction: minimal buybacks; maybe some investments in other stocks/maybe not. Unfortunately I think you're right. It doesn't seem like there is much if any support for BRK, and this seems like a good time to be buying 20% of daily volume to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valueinvesting101 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Buybacks were around 550 million in August 2019 with average price of $197.68 and $300,166.13 for B and A share. So may be it will be repeated as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 When the B shares were created in 1996, the number of shareholders owning BRK doubled to 80,000. (Source: Janet Lowe in the book Damn Right). Recently Buffett has mentioned a million shareholders . How does one find out the current shareholder count? Is it published anywhere? It’s an arcane number but one that should start to go down. Omaha pays attention to it! Perhaps also the proportion that holds long term, as in 5 or more years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamic Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 I think he likened Berkshire to a church with a million seats during the CNBC interview, referring roughly to the number of A share equivalents he doesn't own - very roughly. Simply shuffling the occupants of those seats adds nothing and probably subtracts from the quality of business partner he has. With the number of shareholders in street name now that certificates are virtually obsolete, it's probably an unknown number now, and the official company records are probably full of brokerage firms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 Warren is probably aware of how many Annual Reports the company prints each year. There would be much higher numbers of "look through" shareholders through funds but I would imagine Berkshire and the transfer agent have a good handle on the number of direct individual holders, including the large number held in street name. The BNSF deal and associated 50-1 share split probably added a huge number of individual holders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 Is the number of shareholders unknowable? If so, what a far cry from the Buffett partnership days! Nameless and faceless shareholders. I’d love to hear Buffett and Munger’s view on this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alwaysinvert Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 The hotline number for selling back shares takes a proper tender offer off the table for at least the next couple of years imo. But maybe you can frame this as a form of "sneaky" tender offer which could potentially give extra large volumes from institutional owners if we ever see significant outflows from the market again. well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TREVNI Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Do you think Warren would issue a press release if Berkshire bought back a large amount of stock intra-quarter? Say 2.5%? As a way to signal to shareholders that they're selling at the wrong time. Or does he wait until the 10Q in May? I REALLY REALLY hope they're not holding back at these levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Do you think Warren would issue a press release if Berkshire bought back a large amount of stock intra-quarter? Say 2.5%? As a way to signal to shareholders that they're selling at the wrong time. Or does he wait until the 10Q in May? I REALLY REALLY hope they're not holding back at these levels. What, when and for how much they buy are really the only core trade secrets of Berkshire. I highly doubt if they go public with this. Beyond reporting mandated by regulations. Doesn’t make any sense for them. If the idiots want to sell Buffett is not going to try to stop them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TREVNI Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Do you think Warren would issue a press release if Berkshire bought back a large amount of stock intra-quarter? Say 2.5%? As a way to signal to shareholders that they're selling at the wrong time. Or does he wait until the 10Q in May? I REALLY REALLY hope they're not holding back at these levels. What, when and for how much they buy are really the only core trade secrets of Berkshire. I highly doubt if they go public with this. Beyond reporting mandated by regulations. Doesn’t make any sense for them. If the idiots want to sell Buffett is not going to try to stop them. I agree with you in general. Buffett has a strong aversion to taking advantage of his shareholders. I just wonder if he'd try to send a message not to be too irrational and sell at these levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Do you think Warren would issue a press release if Berkshire bought back a large amount of stock intra-quarter? Say 2.5%? As a way to signal to shareholders that they're selling at the wrong time. Or does he wait until the 10Q in May? I REALLY REALLY hope they're not holding back at these levels. What, when and for how much they buy are really the only core trade secrets of Berkshire. I highly doubt if they go public with this. Beyond reporting mandated by regulations. Doesn’t make any sense for them. If the idiots want to sell Buffett is not going to try to stop them. I agree with you in general. Buffett has a strong aversion to taking advantage of his shareholders. I just wonder if he'd try to send a message not to be too irrational and sell at these levels. They want Berkshire shareholders to remain rich, no? It surely came from idiot behavior why is today any different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodstove Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 My guess is that most of the selling of BRK is index fund and similar auto-managed portfolios, and WEB has been educating shareholders to hold on as business is more or less the same now as two weeks ago. The unknown for us is whether BRK or others (eg, just in the DJIA) are more advantageous. Who woulda thought there would be another opportunity! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennycx Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Very unlikely Buffett is buying back stock. Too many bargains around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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