Though he has since changed his mind, Buffett famously avoided tech stocks for more than the first 30 years of his investing career. In an interview from the mid-1980s, Buffett said that the technological revolution had “gone right past him,” and he hadn’t found any tech companies he understood.
“It’s OK with me. I don’t have to make money in every game,” he said.
In recent years, Berkshire has made room for some of the sector’s companies, making it the portfolio’s third biggest weighting. Buffett holds IBM, and one of his deputy investors he hired to manage portions of the portfolio bought VeriSign. Both Buffett and one of Berkshire’s mangers also own a stake in Apple.
As 2017 draws to a close, Berkshire has a net profit on tech, though IBM has floundered. [...]
A Year In Berkshire Hathaway's Financial Stocks
Warren Buffett achieved a significant feat in 2017 – each of his financial stocks looks to be ending the year in the green.
Wells Fargo & Co. gained 12.3%, Bank of America Corp. rose 35% and American Express Co. increased 35.6%. The behemoth institutions were outdone by several of their smaller peers in his portfolio, however. The best, Moody’s Corp., rose 60.9%, with MasterCard following, up 47%, and Visa Inc. up 44.6%.
Some of the weaker performers were Synchrony Financial, increasing 6.8%, US Bancorp, increasing 7.9%, and Goldman Sachs Corp., increasing 8.3%. [...]
Investment Advice From Berkshire's Todd Combs and Ted Weschler
Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) is slowly winding down his management of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment operations. Even though he is still undoubtedly the leading of the group, his two investing lieutenants Todd Combs and Ted Weschler have gained more independence in recent years. [...]
So far, interviews given by these two managers have been limited but they have spoken in the past on their investment process. I thought it would be interesting to gather some of this insight from two of Buffett’s most trusted employees. [...]
State taking legal action to prevent railcar “dumping ground” in the Adirondacks
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York is taking legal action to halt a rail operator’s plan to store thousands of train cars indefinitely in the Adirondack Park.
The move represents what the governor calls “the first step in a series of aggressive actions” to stop Iowa Pacific Company’s from storing old oil tanker cars in the state’s protected wilderness. [...]
The state is also calling on Berkshire Hathaway — owners of the Union Tank Car Company, which owns the cars being stored — to immediately stop the storage plan.
Gov. Cuomo will announce these legal actions and the long-term plan to remove the railcars from the Adirondacks during his upcoming State of the State Address on January 3. [...]
Roseville-based toy company's stress on learning with fun pays off at Christmas time
Since 1990, MindWare has been creating brainy toys for kids of all ages, as its tag line says.
It has also become a reliable innovator for retailers with products like Qwirkle, Keva Structures building planks and Science Academy kits for making slime, lip balm and volcanoes, as well as hundreds of other toys and games. [...]
MindWare experienced double-digit growth this holiday season, consistent with most years past, the company said. That’s significantly higher than the 5 percent growth the toy industry as a whole is experiencing, according to the NPD Group. [...]
The company’s acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway’s Oriental Trading Company in 2013 jump-started its marketing, web development and customer service. [...]
Buffett's investment helped drive M&T's growth
[...] In the case of M&T Bank Corp., it was 1990, and the Buffalo-based bank had the opportunity of a lifetime: the two dominant financial institutions in Buffalo, Empire of America and Goldome, had been seized by federal regulators during the savings & loan crisis. Now the regulators were looking for someone to buy the failed banks.
M&T and KeyCorp, then based in Albany, decided to divide the spoils between them. But M&T "needed some capital in order to be able to be positioned to do the deal," bank spokesman C. Michael Zabel said.
So Buffalo News Publisher Stanford Lipsey introduced his friend M&T CEO Robert G. Wilmers, to his longtime patron: Warren Buffett. [...]
Today, Berkshire is M&T's sixth-largest shareholder, with 3.56 percent of the bank's stock as of Sept. 30. That's 5.382 million shares, worth nearly $920 million.
Shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway hit $300,000 — each — for the first time
One "A" share of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway will set you back about $300,000 as of Monday.
The conglomerate's most expensive share class touched that milestone for the first time in the morning before dipping back. It closed trading on Monday at $299,360, up 1.04 percent. It has outperformed the S&P 500 this year — rising more than 22 percent versus the index's 20 percent gain.
One share would get you roughly two of Tesla's most expensive car models available now.
If that lofty price makes you break out in hives, the company's B shares closed trading at $199.34, also up around 22 percent for the year. [...]
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