3Q 2021 Earnings

[Xerxes]

For what is worth from Bloomberg. An interesting yardstick.

 

"Berkshire spent nearly $20 billion more repurchasing its own stock since the middle of 2018 than it deployed accumulating its Apple stake through the end of last year. In total, Buffett poured about $51 billion into buybacks since a change to its policy more than three years ago, and appears to have continued snapping up at least $1.7 billion of stock since the end of September. "

 

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Buy Backs Exceed Cash Spent on Apple - Bloomberg

[ValueMaven]

BRK is turning into a serial cannibal of its own shares.  Teledyne 2.0 ?

[Xerxes]

Is it possible that in some way he is buying his own personal shares, indirectly.

i.e. Bill Gates is offloading an annual % of A-shares, and the buybacks are sucking that extra float

 

[gfp]

9 minutes ago, Xerxes said:

Is it possible that in some way he is buying his own personal shares, indirectly.

i.e. Bill Gates is offloading an annual % of A-shares, and the buybacks are sucking that extra float

 

 

I don't think Gates has had to file details of the foundation sales recently but I could be wrong.  Back in 2018 this was the type of daily volume they were selling - something like 1.75 million B shares per month during this 2 month period.  Gates Foundation doesn't sell A-shares, of course, as Warren only donates B-shares to the foundations.

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000902012/000110465918059501/a18-36147_1ex99d1.htm#EXHIBIT99_1_031539

[RunPacoRun]

1 hour ago, ValueMaven said:

BRK is turning into a serial cannibal of its own shares.  Teledyne 2.0 ?

That's my conclusion too. Warren stated regularly in the annual letters how much he admired Singleton as a capital allocator, particularly with regards to repurchasing 90% of Teledyne shares at a bargain. Charlie stated in an annual meeting that he and Warren were "avuncular" when compared to Singleton. Hence, I suspect Warren wanted to give a fair warning to all shareholders regarding the strategy behind the share repurchases without explicitly saying they're engaging in a Teledyne 2.0. Based on what I read about Singleton, he just did what was in the best interests of the shareholders who didn't sell, although he didn't communicate what he was doing and why, which meant "too bad" for Teledyne shareholders who sold too early.

[Xerxes]

32 minutes ago, RunPacoRun said:

That's my conclusion too. Warren stated regularly in the annual letters how much he admired Singleton as a capital allocator, particularly with regards to repurchasing 90% of Teledyne shares at a bargain. Charlie stated in an annual meeting that he and Warren were "avuncular" when compared to Singleton. Hence, I suspect Warren wanted to give a fair warning to all shareholders regarding the strategy behind the share repurchases without explicitly saying they're engaging in a Teledyne 2.0. Based on what I read about Singleton, he just did what was in the best interests of the shareholders who didn't sell, although he didn't communicate what he was doing and why, which meant "too bad" for Teledyne shareholders who sold too early.

 

I still think Buffett should have used Elon Musk playbook and done a Twitter poll asking if he should do buybacks. What better way to disclose 

[Xerxes]

33 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

I don't think Gates has had to file details of the foundation sales recently but I could be wrong.  Back in 2018 this was the type of daily volume they were selling - something like 1.75 million B shares per month during this 2 month period.  Gates Foundation doesn't sell A-shares, of course, as Warren only donates B-shares to the foundations.

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000902012/000110465918059501/a18-36147_1ex99d1.htm#EXHIBIT99_1_031539

 

thanks, was fully unaware that only B shares were being donated

[ValueMaven]

At its peak - I wonder what % of Teleydne's operating income was spent on buybacks ??  Did Teleydne ever pay a dividend?  

Also, it looks like CAPEX for Berkshire for the first 9M's is $6-7B, so clearly they are reinvesting back into the business as well.  

 

[ugadawg_98]

On 11/11/2021 at 9:45 AM, ValueMaven said:

BRK is turning into a serial cannibal of its own shares.  Teledyne 2.0 ?

INSHALLAH!!!