# BRK - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE)



## Value Collector (21 April 2015)

Berkshire Hathaway is a US Based conglomerate controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffet. Warren Buffet currently is the largest shareholder owning a little over 25% of the company, and the stake represents 99% of his net worth.

Berkshire Hathaway controls 59 subsidiary companies holding a diverse list of businesses diversified by business type, geography and industries, many of Berkshire's subsidiary companies are themselves a diversified mix of businesses.

Berkshire also owns large stakes in more than 40 companies listed on the US share market, and some international investments.

On top of the business holdings above, Berkshire is currently sitting on a cash pile of roughly $40 Billion.


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## galumay (21 April 2015)

*Re: BRK - Berkshire Hathaway*

Probably worth mentioning that there are two classes of BRK traded,



> Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has two classes of common stock designated Class A and Class B. A share of Class B common stock has the rights of 1/1,500th of a share of Class A common stock except that a Class B share has 1/10,000th of the voting rights of a Class A share (rather than 1/1,500th of the vote). Each share of a Class A common stock is convertible at any time, at the holder’s option, into 1,500 shares of Class B common stock. This conversion privilege does not extend in the opposite direction. That is, holders of Class B shares are not able to convert them into Class A shares. Both Class A & B shareholders are entitled to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting which is held the first Saturday in May.




Full details here, http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/compab.pdf

BRKA are $214,100 per share today and the BRKB shares are $142.09


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## Value Collector (21 April 2015)

*Re: BRK - Berkshire Hathaway*

Berkshire Hathaway's strategy,

Berkshire Hathaway is focused on building share holder value through a three pronged approach. 

1, Berkshire, using sound value investing principles continues to expand it's holdings of 100% owned subsidiary companies, these companies inturn also then have access to Berkshire capital to continue to grow if suitable capital deployments can be made with in their businesses.

2, When Berkshire has cash in excess of what it needs to buy wholly owned subsidiaries, they will be looking to buy shares in companies on the stock market that meet their long term value investing criteria.

3, Berkshire also will deploy capital to make financing deals with JV partners when suitable deals can be found, past deals have taken on may shapes, be in general they have been very profitable. A recent example is the burger king/ tim hortens deal with 3G CAPITAL.

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Assisting the strategy above, Is Berkshires insurance subsidiaries, Berkshire Hathaway has in the last 50 years always held a pool of well managed insurance businesses, this has given then a mighty leg up. Insurance Businesses generate a "float", meaning a pile of cash that they have taken as insurance premiums can be invested and generate earnings while they hold it, because Berkshire has a history of making sound investments this "float" has help generate substantial returns, which can flow through to Berkshires holdings.

Provided that Berkshire doesn't make large insurance losses on average over the years, and they continue to write insurance premiums, the insurance businesses should continue to be good profit centres.


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## Value Collector (21 April 2015)

*Re: BRK - Berkshire Hathaway*

Dividend policy.

Berkshire currently does not pay a dividend and has not paid a dividend since 1965. 

Warren believes that as long as Berkshire Hathaway continues to build book value at a rate better than the s&P 500 index, then it is better to retain 100% of earnings so that they can be reinvested back into the business at a higher rate of return.

However, Warren has also admitted that this won't be able to be done indefinitely, and has said that most likely within the next 10-20years, Berkshire will begin paying out excess cash as dividends, however his preference is to use excess cash for buybacks, as long as Berkshire is trading less than 130% of book value.


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## luutzu (21 April 2015)

*Re: BRK - Berkshire Hathaway*



Value Collector said:


> Dividend policy.
> 
> Berkshire currently does not pay a dividend and has not paid a dividend since 1965.
> 
> ...




... and you just bought some right?


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## Value Collector (21 April 2015)

*Re: BRK - Berkshire Hathaway*



luutzu said:


> ... and you just bought some right?




I bought some a little while ago, and some more last night.

Basically I am funnelling the dividends that my US portfolio generates into Berkshire Hathaway.


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## robusta (21 April 2015)

*Re: BRK - Berkshire Hathaway*

I'm not set up to trade international shares, looked at GFL at around $0.55 a couple of years ago but never pulled the trigger.
 - GFL is a LIC that is mostly invested in BRK


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## The Triangle (1 May 2021)

Should make for an interesting AGM tomorrow.   CM will reportedly be involved and was missing last year due to Covid.   Hopefully it doesn't get cluttered with the woke media agenda of board equity, crypto, and green energy.  

Given this AGM will be during one of the strangest times for the company they should have some good non-political commentary on the current US Gov's spending.  I'm also interested to see if they accept that there is a world _outside _of the US worth investing in.  BKR is too focused on the US and really should see what the world has to offer.  WB and Trump are probably the only 2 people left in America that still think its a great place.


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## dyna (1 May 2021)

I think it was 2006 when W.B. sunk $1 Billion into Microsoft when nobody,but nobody, thought there was any growth left in it! Even the great man himself,thought he was buying,what he new best,..a value stock.He's still holding and after last week's stunning result,Berkshire won't be a seller any time soon.


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## dyna (1 May 2021)

Oops,Apple not Microsoft.He's made quite a few $Billion on the the initial deal over  5 years ago.


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## The Triangle (1 May 2021)

dyna said:


> Oops,Apple not Microsoft.He's made quite a few $Billion on the the initial deal over  5 years ago.



For all the tech he's missed out on - Don't think I'll give the man much credit for that tech purchase.  Unfortunately there are limited opportunities to move the needle for him now - especially on the dividend front so he nearly _has _to invest in tech or go offshore.

Would like to see if he addresses BNPL.  BRK is a big holder of banks, insurance, and credit cards.


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## InsvestoBoy (6 February 2022)

Another that has popped up in my research recently (as you can tell I've been looking at listed conglomerates).

What is Berkshire Hathaway? Is it a carefully curated selection of the choicest fundamentally analysed equities? High ROIC, low WACC, good management, compounding machines blah blah blah.

Sure. Probably.

But also, if you hadn't bothered with any of that and instead just taken all the US listed financial stocks and weighted them by market cap (which does include Berkshire FWIW), you would've gotten basically the same result going back ~10 years.

In fact, post GFC, XLF has well outperformed BRK. 

It's only if you widen the lens to begin in the early 2000s that BRK outperforms.


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