Berkshire Hathaway's Stealth Top Ten Holding

Here's the most recent published list of Berkshire Hathaway's top investment holdings:

Company       % of Port
-------       ---------
Apple         14.63
Wells Fargo   14.54
Kraft Heinz   13.24
Bank of Amer  10.48
Coca Cola      9.60
Amer Express   7.87
Phillips 66    4.27
US Bancorp     2.44

Over the past few years, Berkshire has been making a number of smaller investments in John Malone's media empire companies. (These positions are usually attributed to Ted Weschler by the financial media, though nobody knows for sure.) Each one is small, but they add up when you put them together. While Buffett's style is to roll every subsidiary up into a huge conglomerate, Malone's style is to break his empire apart into many smaller, publicly-traded entities.

Company             % of Port
-------             ---------
Charter Comm        1.49
Liberty SiriusXM C  0.64
Sirius XM Holdings  0.39
Liberty Global A    0.38
Liberty SiriusXM A  0.31
Liberty Global C    0.13
Liberty Lilac A     0.03
Liberty Lilac C     0.01
                    ----
Total               3.38

Technically, Sirius XM (SIRI) might not be on the list of Malone companies, but Liberty SiriusXM controls 69% of SiriusXM, so I'm counting it.

If there was one John Malone company the way there is one Warren Buffett company, it would make up 3.38% of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, making it the eighth largest holding.

Berkshire News Briefs - 2/23/18

Berkshire Hathaway released its quarterly 13F statement, detailing its stock holdings as of Dec. 31, 2017.

Here's a summary from Dataroma.

Buffett's Bumpy Ride With IBM Draws to a Close With Stock Sales

Warren Buffett is just about done with International Business Machines Corp.

His conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., reported that it cut its stake in Big Blue by 94 percent during the fourth quarter, essentially drawing to a close a rare blemish on his investing record. [...]

IBM was always a curiosity for Buffett followers. He’d spent years telling them that technology companies were outside his area of expertise then plowed more than $10 billion into the company in 2011. [...]

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway loves loathed Israeli drug stock Teva

After news hit Wednesday that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had made a $358 million investment in Israel-based drug company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, a skepticism lingered even as shares of the heavily shorted stock soared.

What does Berkshire Hathaway see in an out-of-favor drug stock that has languished — Teva shares have declined by roughly half in the past year — that the rest of Wall Street doesn't?

Maybe nothing special. And the size of the bet — at $358 million — is within the discretionary stock selling mandates of Buffett's hedge fund lieutenants, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs. But the bet is consistent with Buffett's long history of value investing, albeit with a twist. [...]

Phillips 66 agrees to repurchase shares from Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary

Phillips 66 said it will buy back shares worth $3.28 billion from a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, in a transaction that could ease regulatory pressure for Berkshire, the conglomerate run by Warren Buffett.

Phillips 66 will repurchase 35 million shares for $93.725 per share. The buyback will bring Berkshire's stake in Phillips 66 to slightly below 10 percent. [...]

Buffett's BNSF railroad eyes blockchain for shipping freight

BNSF Railway Co, a unit of the billionaire’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N), on Monday said it has become the first major U.S. railroad to join the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.

The alliance is a group of more than 200 companies examining how best to use the digital ledger technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the transport industry.

It hopes to establish blockchain standards in such areas as vehicle maintenance, quality control and fraud prevention.

Among its members are shippers FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc, tire maker Bridgestone Corp, German software company SAP SE, and some banks and brokers [...]

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Is Cutting More Jobs Across Newspaper Group

BH Media Group is reducing staff by 148 employees and not filling 101 vacant positions, representing a total of about 6 percent of its workforce, the company said Tuesday in a statement. The organization is seeking to trim expenses because of declining advertising revenue.

Among the cutbacks, Buffett’s hometown newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, is eliminating 43 positions including vacant ones, the paper reported on its website Tuesday. Eleven newsroom employees were among those let go. [...]

Buffett's Business Wire suffers cyberattack

Business Wire, the corporate news release distributor owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, on Tuesday said it has been suffering for nearly a week from a cyberattack designed to disable it.

The company said it has been experiencing a "directed and persistent" denial of service attack since Jan. 31, though customer information has not been compromised.

"Our website slowed down," said Neil Hershberg, a senior vice president at Business Wire, in a phone interview. "At no point were clients unable to get our releases to us. Our distribution network was totally unaffected by this attack." [...]

Warren Buffett is retiring from Kraft Heinz board

Warren Buffett is retiring from the board of directors of Kraft Heinz, a subsidiary of his company Berkshire Hathaway.

"Mr. Buffett decided to retire from the board as he decreases his travel commitments," Kraft Heinz said in a press release on Friday.

The 87-year-old billionaire will retire after his term ends at the Kraft Heinz annual meeting of stockholders, the company said. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/20/17

What Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has been buying and selling lately

Adding to one of its largest positions, Berkshire bought another 3.9 million shares of Apple, bringing the company's total stake to 134.1 million shares, which represents a 2.6% stake in the tech giant. Buffett and company have been accumulating Apple shares over the past two years or so and are sitting on a nice gain, especially with the stock recently reaching a new record high.

Synchrony Financial was one of Berkshire's most recent stock investments, with the position initiated during the second quarter. In the third quarter, Berkshire purchased another 3.3 million shares of the credit card issuer.

Berkshire also bought another 832,000 shares of Monsanto, which increases that stake by about 10%. [...]

Stock sales included IBM, Wells Fargo, Charter Communications, and WABCO. For a complete look at the changes in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing of stock holdings, visit Dataroma for updated holdings and activity.

Taking a longer view:

Here's How Warren Buffett's Stock Portfolio Has Changed Over the Past 2 Years

Berkshire's stock portfolio consists of more than 45 positions but is heavily weighted toward its largest holdings. So here's a look at how Berkshire's "top 10" stocks have changed since the third quarter of 2015. [...]

NV Energy seeks OK for 3 new power purchase agreements

NV Energy is requesting that three new long-term power purchase agreements totaling 100 megawatts — enough energy to serve about 60,000 average customer homes — be approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. [...]

The largest of the three new projects is the 50-megawatt Turquoise Nevada solar project, to be built in the Reno Technology Park in Washoe County. The project will benefit from a 25-year power purchase agreement with NV Energy and is expected to be operational by the end of 2020.

The other two new proposed 25-year power purchase agreements are the result of a request for proposals issued June 14 by NV Energy. The 25-megawatt Techren Solar 3 project will benefit NV Energy customers in Southern Nevada and the 25-megawatt Techren Solar 4 project will benefit customers in Northern Nevada. If approved, the new solar energy projects will be operational on or before Sept. 1, 2020. [...]

The 25 year purchase agreement for the Reno project is a deal with Apple.

Berkshire Hathaway's 14-Year Winning Streak Is Coming to an End

A 14-year winning streak at Berkshire Hathaway will likely come to an end this year, as its insurance companies are set to post their first full-year underwriting loss since 2002. It's an unfortunate end to an incredible run, but insurance remains one of Berkshire's best businesses, regardless of recent losses. [...]

Here's How Berkshire Hathaway Crushed It in 2017

We're not at the end of 2017 quite yet, but it's safe to say that Berkshire Hathaway has had a solid year. Warren Buffett's investment vehicle made a number of splashy, value-enhancing moves, and strengthened its already formidable portfolio, this year.

Of course, not every play Buffett and company made was a win, but for the most part Berkshire did very well. Here's a look at the more impressive highlights of its 2017. [...]

Electronics distributor is hiring to staff massive Fort Worth warehouse

TTI, a global distributor of electronic components, is moving into a new 641,000-square-foot distribution center in north Fort Worth with plans to expand its workforce.

The new building [...] will consolidate and replace TTI’s current warehouse operations. When construction began in 2016, the estimated price tag was $40 million.

TTI, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, already “is actively hiring for the new location” along with transferring employees from other facilities [...] The company employs 1,020 workers locally, up from about 870 in 2014.

The company, founded in 1971, is a major distributor of electronic components for industrial, military, aerospace and consumer electronics manufacturers worldwide. [...] TTI and its subsidiaries, Mouser Electronics, Sager Electronics and Symmetry Electronics, employ more than 4,700 workers at more than 100 locations in North America, Europe and Asia.

Warren Buffett announces changes at Berkshire Hathaway's Ben Bridge Jeweler

Ben Bridge Jeweler, the distinguished family-run fine jeweler with over 90 retail stores in 11 states and one province, announced today that Co-CEO and General Counsel Jonathan (Jon) Bridge is retiring, and current President and Co-CEO, Edward (Ed) Bridge will become Chairman and CEO. As of November 1, 2017, Lisa Bridge C.G., the company's Vice President of Education and the creator of the Lisa Bridge Collection, has been appointed as the company's President and Chief Operating Officer.

8 Warren Buffett Deals That Won Big

Warren Buffett is widely considered to be the best investor of all time, and for good reason. Since he took control of Berkshire Hathaway, the company has generated annualized returns of nearly double those of the S&P 500, mainly on Buffett's sound ability to make great investment deals.

With that in mind, here are eight examples of investments, acquisitions, and other deals that Warren Buffett has made over the years that have worked out especially well. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/30/17

Happy 87th Birthday, Warren Buffett! (August 30, 1930)

The 2nd Quarter 13-F statement is out, showing what stocks Berkshire Hathaway bought and sold last quarter. Dataroma has the best format for visualizing the changes.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway builds stake in Synchrony Financial, trims GE position

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett built a new position in consumer finance company Synchrony Financial and boosted his holdings of Bank of New York Mellon by more than 50% in the second quarter of 2017, according to a regulatory filing Monday from Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett's financial moves are closely watched by Wall Street. In the April-thru-June quarter, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway also dumped the rest of its stake in General Electric (GE), selling the rest of its roughly 10.6 million share position. [...]

Buffett Nears a Milestone He Doesn't Want: $100 Billion in Cash

It’s a milestone Warren Buffett probably wishes he weren’t approaching.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate he’s run for more than five decades, reported Friday that it held just shy of $100 billion in cash at the end of the second quarter.

While that figure highlights the staggering money-making ability of the businesses he’s collected over the years, it’s also a burden. Because Berkshire doesn’t pay a dividend and rarely buys back its own stock, Buffett is on the hook to find ways to invest those funds.

Bankrupt utility company abandons $9 billion Warren Buffett deal

Bankrupt Texas utility Energy Future Holdings will abandon a deal to sell power transmission company Oncor to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway for $9 billion and will accept a $9.45 billion bid for Oncor by Sempra Energy instead, people familiar with the matter said.

The development represents a rare blow for Buffett, who avoids bidding wars for companies and had swooped in two months ago to buy Oncor after two previous attempts by Energy Future to sell it were blocked by Texas regulators. [...]

Buffett wouldn’t negotiate for Oncor. He lost the deal — and a $270 million termination fee

Warren Buffett got oohs and aahs when people thought he’d bagged a $270 million breakup fee after his Berkshire Hathaway Energy was outbid for Oncor by Sempra Energy, which won the company with a $9.45 billion offer. [...]

But, it seems, Berkshire didn’t get far enough along in its bid for Oncor to qualify for the fee.

Even if Berkshire could have claimed the full $270 million, some of that would have been offset by the costs — think lawyers, accountants, analysts, bankers — incurred by pursuing Oncor in the first place. [...]

Buffet's Oncor Failure Is No Failure at All

Reading headlines such as, "Buffett's Latest Dealmaking Flop," and "Buffett Encounters Rare Miss," might make some Berkshire investors wonder if the Oracle of Omaha has lost his touch. Adding insult to injury, the deal fell through too quickly for Berkshire to qualify for its $270 million breakup fee, so Buffett and Berkshire will walk away with nothing. [...]

While Berkshire shareholders (and, I'm sure, Buffett himself) may be disappointed, they should take comfort in Berkshire sticking to its principle of not getting involved in a bidding war. Bending on that principle this time could cause potential acquirees to negotiate harder in the future -- and those could be even larger deals. One wonders if 2015's $32 billion acquisition of Precision Castparts -- a deal 3.5 times bigger than Oncor -- would have happened on attractive terms had Buffett not stuck to his "one offer" policy.

As longtime Berkshire shareholder Steve Walman said in a recent Bloomberg article, "the minute he starts negotiating, he becomes everyone's favorite stalking horse and ends up as 'bid 'em up Buffett.'" Since Berkshire is built on acquisitions, cultivating a reputation for bending on price is not something Buffett wants to do. As he himself once said, "The smartest side to take in a bidding war is the losing side." [...]

Warren Buffett Likes Solar, but Not the Price Tag

Warren Buffett has called global warming a “major problem” and put his company’s money where his mouth is, spending billions to develop solar and wind power. Yet he’s no hero to some renewable energy proponents. Their beef: They say the utility arm of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., his conglomerate, has been trying to undermine an almost 40-year-old law intended in part to promote the growth of cleaner energy. Berkshire, they say, is effectively stifling solar projects to protect utilities it owns, such as PacifiCorp, based in Portland, Ore. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Energy says it’s not so simple. The company, which owns several utilities using conventional and renewable power sources, is the second-largest owner of clean-energy assets in the U.S. But along with other utilities, it argues that the law is outdated, often raises costs for its customers, and forces utilities to buy more electricity than needed.

The law is called the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, or Purpa. Congress enacted it after the 1970s OPEC oil embargo to draw new players into the utility-dominated business of generating power. It required some utilities to buy power from certain power providers if doing so was less expensive than building new plants themselves. The idea was to boost the then-emerging natural gas industry—and perhaps spur renewables including solar.

The act worked—too well, from the standpoint of the utilities. As solar panel prices plunged in recent years, developers deluged utilities with projects to sell them power. Utilities complain the law is producing a surplus of power. Moreover, utilities say the contracts with developers, whose terms are generally set by state utilities regulators, often lock them in for years at high prices that don’t necessarily reflect the current market. [...]

Home Capital had two PE suitors but chose Buffett's bid to secure 'greatest acceptance' from markets

Alternative mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. fielded acquisition offers from two different private equity firms in June — one of which raised its bid even after the Toronto company decided to take Warren Buffett’s white-knight deal, according to a proxy circular released on Friday.

The two firms were not named in the document released ahead of a special meeting of shareholders next month, but sources familiar with the process say Home Capital’s two suitors were Onex Corp. and Brookfield Business Partners. [...]

After some consideration, Home Capital’s board rejected the sweetened offer, it said.

“The Board determined that the revised acquisition proposal was inferior to the (Berkshire) Transaction and that the Transaction was in the best interests of the Corporation and continued to provide Shareholders with the best combination of transaction certainty and the potential for enhanced Shareholder value, while meeting the need for strong sponsorship and lower cost standby debt financing,” it said. [...]

Larsen & Toubro sells unit to IMC International for Rs174 crore

(Larsen & Toubro is based in Mumbai, India. Rs174 crore is equivalent to around $27.2 million USD.)

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) on Wednesday said it has agreed to sell its entire stake in its unlisted unit L&T Cutting Tools Ltd to IMC International Metalworking Companies BV, owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., for Rs174 crore.

L&T Cutting Tools, incorporated in 1952, manufactures fabricated metal products. [...]

Salton Sea geothermal plant canceled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy

It's been 14 years since California officials first approved the Black Rock power plant, which would have tapped a powerful geothermal reservoir along the shore of the Salton Sea and generated enough climate-friendly electricity to power about 200,000 homes. [...]

CalEnergy, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy, asked the California Energy Commission earlier this summer to terminate the license for Black Rock. The company had requested and received extensions of the construction start deadline in 2007, 2011 and 2014, but this time decided to move on rather than pay a $27,678 annual compliance fee that would have been due at the end of June. [...]

"Berkshire Hathaway is big. They've got a lot of wind, they've got solar, they've got other areas. (Geothermal is) a complicated thing to do," Kaspereit said.

Warren Buffett’s Best Advice...and Why He Doesn’t Own Gold

On what he looks for in businesses: "I want a very valuable castle, with a duke in charge of it who is very honest and hardworking and able. Then I want a moat around that castle."

On what he looks for in managers: "We look for three things: intelligence, energy, and integrity. If they don’t have the latter, then you should hope they don’t have the first two either. If someone doesn’t have integrity, then you want him to be dumb and lazy."

On why he doesn’t invest in gold: "You could take all the gold that’s ever been mined, and it would fill a cube 68 feet in each direction. For what that’s worth at current gold prices, you could buy all—not some—of the farmland in the U.S. Plus, you could buy 16 Exxon Mobils, plus have $1 trillion of walking-around money. Or you could have a big cube of metal. Which would you take? Which is going to produce more value?" [...]

Billionaire Warren Buffett serenades Gold Jacket Dinner

Warren Buffett and Paul Anka did it their way.

The billionaire investor and the crooner serenaded this year’s class of Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinees with Anka’s song, “My Way,” at the Gold Jacket Dinner Friday night.

Anka sang a few lines of the song he wrote for Frank Sinatra before pausing to bring his friend, Buffett, to the Memorial Civic Center stage. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/17/17

Berkshire’s Earnings Hit Speed Bump on Insurance Businesses

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. hit a speed bump in the first quarter as insurance units posted an underwriting loss, overshadowing gains at the company’s railroad and energy business. [...]

First-quarter operating profit slipped 4.8 percent to $3.56 billion, the company said Friday in a statement. [...]

Berkshire’s war chest totaled $96.5 billion at the end of the first quarter, a record. [...]

Book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities that’s closely tracked by investors, rose 3.5 percent in the first quarter to $178,073 per share. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway press release on 1Q17 Earnings

Berkshire Cuts 21st Century Fox Stake, Adjusts Airline Bets

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. spent the first quarter fine-tuning its investments in airlines and technology companies, and retreating from 21st Century Fox Inc.

In a filing Monday detailing its stock portfolio at the end of the quarter, Berkshire no longer listed Fox. Holdings in American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. increased, while a stake in Delta Air Lines Inc. was reduced. Buffett previously disclosed that he boosted a bet on Apple Inc. in the first quarter as he pulled back from International Business Machines Corp. [...]

The new 13F filing is here. Berkshire Hathaway's updated stock holdings in an easy to read format from Dataroma is here.

5 Key Takeaways From Today's Berkshire Hathaway Meeting

So, what would prompt Berkshire to start putting its cash to work? Essentially, Buffett said that Berkshire wants to acquire businesses that will have a competitive advantage over the next five to 10 years, whose management teams are strong, and that are offered at a fair price. [...]

Buffett also said that if there's a persistent shortage of attractive investment opportunities, Berkshire may eventually choose to increase its buyback criteria of 120% of book value or less, but he is still optimistic about finding ways to deploy Berkshire's capital. [...]

Here's the best wit and wisdom from Warren Buffett at this year's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting

Buffett and long-time business partner Charlie Munger spoke for hours at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday in Omaha.

The pair frequently elicited laughter from the crowd of 40,000 by answering questions from shareholders and journalists with their usual folksy sense of humor and wisdom. [...]

A Comparison of Berkshire Hathaway Class A and Class B Shares

[...] From these tables, institutions and mutual fund holders own only 27% of the A shares, but 64% of the B shares. That can be explained by insiders and 5% owners holding 41% of the A shares and less than 1% of the B shares. According to Berkshire’s Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders May 6, 2017, Warren Buffett beneficially owned 38.3% of the A shares as of March 8, 2017. The insiders primarily accumulated their shares in the 1960’s and 1970’s when Berkshire traded at less than $100 per share.

It should be noted, however, that these tables imply that individuals (other than insiders) hold about 31% of the A shares and 35% of the B shares. [...]

Clayton Homes unveils new tiny home series

Clayton, a Berkshire Hathaway company and a builder of manufactured, modular and site-built homes, introduced its new tiny homes collection Saturday at the Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. [...]

The homes are just 464 square feet and offer 270 degrees of window views. They have vaulted ceilings to give the homes a larger feel, and the master bedroom fits a queen-size bed and a full-height closet. [...]

Even in Texas, sometimes the billionaires lose

A bill that would carve out a loophole for Buffett’s chain of auto-dealerships in Texas — put on the fast track last month right after the billionaire’s meetings with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — ran into a wall of opposition from prominent Tea Party activists. They burned up the phone lines at the Capitol and publicly criticized what they saw as special treatment for the wealthy and connected.

Not long after those activists spoke out against the carve-out legislation in an open letter to the billionaire, Patrick pulled the “Buffett Bill” off the Texas Senate agenda, effectively killing it for now [...]

John Oliver eviscerates one of Warren Buffett's favorite companies

One of Warren Buffett's favorite stocks has just been attacked by HBO comedian John Oliver.

DaVita operates dialysis centers, and Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns a nearly 20% stake in the company. It was the subject of a scathing 24-minute long segment on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight."

Oliver accuses DaVita of pushing patients to continue receiving long and expensive dialysis treatments instead of having kidney transplants, which could eliminate the need for dialysis.

Berkshire News Briefs - 2/22/17

Berkshire Hathaway released its 4Q 2016 13-F filing last week, revealing the contents of its investment portfolio as of December 31, 2016.

Here's the updated portfolio on Dataroma:

Holdings | Changes

More Commentary:

Massive Changes for Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett Stocks in 2017

Warren Buffett just dropped Walmart and signaled the death of retail as we know it

Warren Buffett's Huge Stake in Apple: What He May See In AAPL

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reveals stake in Monsanto

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On Monday he ate through one Apple. But he was still hungry!

For longtime Buffett watchers, these new investments are not so much of a shock as they might appear to more casual observers. Because what Buffett loves more than anything in the world is paying a fair price for a business with huge barriers to entry. In the parlance of stockpickers, we call these moats (as in the defensive ring of water that surrounded the medieval castles of yore). A good moat means sustainable profit margins and a defensible business model that allows for an investment holding period of (hopefully) forever. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway jumps into wearables with a smart jewelry line

This spring, the jewelry manufacturer and distributor is launching a smart jewelry line called Ela. Starting with wristwear, Ela is the Richline Group's first foray into wearables, which should eventually extend into multiple product categories like rings and earrings.

Using Bluetooth Low Energy, Ela connects to both iOS and Android devices. It has a step-tracking feature that syncs with Apple Health and Google Health Kit. However, the company was interested in producing something better than just a "prettier step tracker," Cliff Ulrich, product innovation manager for the Richline Group, explained to ZDNet. The wearable also connects to the Ela app, through which you can create and share photos and other "memories" like special songs or a voice recording. The memories can be pre-loaded when giving it as a gift to someone else. A user can also create alerts -- the gem on the device will softly glow and vibrate when someone on your alert list is trying to contact you. Users can set the device to glow a certain color for specific contacts or groups. [...]

(Note this news article from last summer: Buffett’s Richline Acquires Wearables Maker Viawear (6/7/16))

Warren Buffett explains why he's investing in a risky tech sector: wearables

"Jewelry is a centuries-old business that isn't going anywhere, so it's a safe bet," [Buffett] told CNBC in an emailed statement. "With the addition of technology, we're simply updating something everyone knows and loves to better fit our modern age."

Richline Group product and innovation manager Cliff Ulrich explained, "We've designed Ela to be jewelry first. As a jewelry company, we understand jewelry retailers and consumers, what they want to carry and buy. They want to create an emotional connection, whether your giving Ela as a gift or buying it for yourself because you just got a bonus. Ela allows you to save memories in your jewelry, like a modern day locket." [...]

Warren Buffett’s late play for electricity distributor Endeavour Energy

The NSW government is heading towards another bumper ­result for its electricity privatisation scheme with Warren ­Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway believed to have entered the auction for distribution business ­Endeavour Energy.

The Australian’s DataRoom column yesterday revealed Berkshire Hathaway is said to be part of a fourth consortium looking to buy the last and smallest of the electricity grid businesses being sold by the Berejiklian government for up to $US3 billion in a process that has attracted strong international attention. [...]

Warren Buffett – How Charlie Convinced Me To Break My Cigar-Butt Investing Habit

My cigar-butt strategy worked very well while I was managing small sums. Indeed, the many dozens of free puffs I obtained in the 1950s made that decade by far the best of my life for both relative and absolute investment performance. [...]

But a major weakness in this approach gradually became apparent: Cigar-butt investing was scalable only to a point. With large sums, it would never work well.

In addition, though marginal businesses purchased at cheap prices may be attractive as short-term investments, they are the wrong foundation on which to build a large and enduring enterprise. [...]

It took Charlie Munger to break my cigar-butt habits and set the course for building a business that could combine huge size with satisfactory profits. [...]

Warren Buffett selling home in Laguna Beach's Emerald Bay for $11 Million

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet has put his six-bedroom house in Laguna Beach’s Emerald Bay on the market for $11 million. [...]

Buffett, 86, has owned the ocean-view home since 1971, when he paid $150,000 for it. He’s used the house for family vacations for the past 46 years, Dolby said. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 12/2/16

Berkshire Hathaway filed their quarterly 13F last month, detailing their investment portfolio make-up as of September 30. You can see all the buys and sells highlighted in this chart of BRK's current holdings.

The big news was that Buffett has bought stock in all four major airlines. American, Delta, and United-Continental are listed in the SEC filing; Buffett also told CNBC that he has bought a stake in Southwest in October (after the Sept. 30 SEC cut-off for the 13F).

Berkshire Hathaway also sold 100% of its stake in Suncor Energy (SU) and Media General (MEG). Other big moves (+/- more than 10%) are reductions in Liberty Media (LMCA -48%, LMCK -36%), Kinder Morgan (KMI -25%), and Walmart (WMT -68%), and an addition to Liberty SiriusXM (LBXMK +11%).

Buffett's Berkshire takes stakes in four major airlines

Berkshire Hathaway's just released SEC filings show that the company has taken a stake in three of the four major airline companies — American Airlines, United Continental Holdings and Delta Air Lines.

But CNBC can report exclusively that Berkshire also has taken a stake in the fourth major carrier, Southwest Airlines.

The move into airlines is a shocking reversal for Warren Buffett, who has shunned the industry for decades following a volatile investment he made in US Airways back in 1989.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Is Cashing Out of Walmart

Warren Buffett has almost completely checked out of Walmart. After trimming some of his stake in the retailer earlier this year, Buffett slashed his remaining Walmart stock by nearly 70% as the discount store announced its controversial deal to buy e-commerce startup Jet.com. Buffett’s stake in Walmart is now worth less than $1 billion, down from nearly $3 billion in the middle of this year, according to new securities filings. [...]

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Bets Big on Airlines at the Strangest Time

For two decades, Warren Buffett has been decrying airlines as terrible investments. Indeed, Buffett famously observed that a far-sighted capitalist should have shot down Orville Wright's plane at Kitty Hawk to save future investors the billions of dollars they would go on to lose in the airline business.

Yet in a stunning reversal, Berkshire Hathaway bought shares of the three largest U.S. airlines last quarter: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Continental. (Buffett revealed on Monday that Berkshire Hathaway went on to purchase shares of Southwest Airlines in October.)

This is strange timing for Berkshire Hathaway to reverse its stance on airline stocks, especially American, Delta, and United. Profit margins appear to have peaked at all three companies. [...]

Nevada votes to end NV Energy monopoly

Receiving almost three quarters of the votes, Nevada voters have passed a ballot measure that aims to break up NV Energy’s monopoly and liberalise the electricity market to more competition.

Known as the Energy Choice Initiative or Question 3 on a ballot approved on Tuesday, the news is a victory for solar as this is a significant move to deregulation of the state’s public utility. [...]

The measure was initiated in part by large companies, including casinos, wishing to break free from the state utility and find their own providers. [...]

That Big Berkshire Hathaway Railroad Deal

It's been seven years since Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. announced its biggest deal to date -- the $35 billion-plus purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. The Oracle of Omaha had the foresight to place his "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States" just as the nation emerged from a recession, and has reaped the benefits. [...]

BNSF's net income has more than doubled since 2009, which has in turn driven Berkshire Hathaway's earnings higher. Berkshire has already earned more than $22 billion in dividends from BNSF. In other words, it has already recouped basically all the cash used to finance the deal, which is a rare feat in itself. [...]

Buffett throws weight behind new Wells chief

Warren Buffett has thrown his weight behind scandal-hit Wells Fargo, saying it is “a great bank that made a terrible mistake” whose new chief executive Tim Sloan is “exactly right” for the top job.

Breaking his months-long silence on the debacle, the head of Berkshire Hathaway, the bank’s biggest shareholder, confirmed he has not sold any shares after the scandal erupted over sales practices. [...]

Duracell closing Cleveland, Tenn., packing plant by 2018

Battery maker Duracell plans to take some juice out of its Cleveland, Tenn., workforce, closing its packing plant by 2018 and cutting about 140 jobs. The move by Duracell, maker of the well-known "coppertop" battery, will not impact its manufacturing operation in Cleveland, where nearly 150 people are employed making C and D batteries, the company said. [...]

The announcement is the second major consolidation by Duracell since it was purchased by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway early this year. This summer, Duracell revealed it plans to close a battery-making plant in South Carolina that employs 430 people. The shutdown of the Lancaster, S.C., factory that makes AA batteries will begin in March and should be complete by the middle of 2019, Duracell said. [...]

Warren Buffett’s Meeting with University of Maryland MBA/MS Students – November 18, 2016

Berkshire has only 25 people at headquarters, but 360,000 employees. The managers of Berkshire’s 70 businesses choose their own people. The qualities they look for are intelligence, energy, and integrity. But the most important quality in a manager is having a passion for the business. It is not IQ but passion for their businesses that make Berkshire’s 70 managers stand out. When WB was 23 years old, he was rejected by Ben Graham for a job. Years later he received a letter saying the “next time you come to NY stop by my office”. WB went the next day. He never asked about pay. You should take a job that you would take if you didn’t need a job. [...]

Jokes in Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letters

We all know Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) is the greatest investor ever. He built his wealth buying stocks that sold below their intrinsic value. He is also an avid writer. He is very good at communicating his thoughts through conversational and humorous language and frequently tells jokes. These are some of the jokes he has told in his shareholder letters. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/22/16

Berkshire Hathaway's quarterly 13F statement was filed with the SEC last week, detailing the company's investment holdings. Visit Dataroma for a quick summary table of changes from last quarter.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Increases Bet on Apple (WSJ / MoneyBeat)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sharply increased its bet on Apple Inc. during the second quarter, bringing its stake in the iPhone maker to roughly $1.5 billion. [...]

Berkshire reduced its holdings in discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores by 27% and cut its stake in farm machinery maker Deere & Co. by 5.7%. The firm cut its stake in Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest crude oil producer by 26%.

Berkshire continued to build its stake in refiner Phillips 66, increasing its stake by 4.3% but left its stake in pipeline giant Kinder Morgan unchanged. [...]

Brooks Running is leading the charge against a controversial Olympics rule

Who’s behind the [@rule40 Twitter] account? The Berkshire Hathaway-owned sneaker company Brooks Running, based in Seattle, which sponsors 12 athletes competing at this year’s Olympics. Brooks CEO Jim Weber says Rule 40 must change.

In addition to the @rule40 Twitter handle, Brooks owns the rule40.com domain name, and is using both to wage a PR war against the USOC.

Under Rule 40 guidelines, non-official sponsors cannot refer to the Olympics in any marketing, advertising, or social media during a blackout period that begins nine days before the opening ceremony and ends three days after the closing ceremony. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway: The Lamest $1.2 Billion Haul (Fool)

Berkshire Hathaway earned about $1.2 billion in pre-tax income from the investment portfolios of its many insurance companies in the second quarter -- this represents a combination of interest and dividend income on investment assets of nearly $185 billion.

In dollars and cents, a billion dollars is something marvelous. Relative to Berkshire Hathway's massive investment portfolio, however, it's mere pocket change, and symbolic of a problem that plagues financial companies across the spectrum: Interest rates are simply too low to really move the needle. [...]

Warren Buffett Just Unloaded $195 Million Worth of These 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' (Fortune)

Warren Buffett, the famed CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, paid $195 million in June in order to terminate Berkshire’s final contract in which Buffett insurance and investing conglomerate sold protection against losses on bonds, according to a regulatory filing by the company Friday. That contract was initiated in 2008, and tied to municipal debt, with maturities ranging from 2019 to 2054.

The terminated contract gave Berkshire pre-tax earnings of $103 million in the second quarter and $89 million in the first six months of 2016. [...]

The Playbook Interview: Warren Buffett (Politico)

“There’s two things that make it [the economy] better: innovation and productivity, which are interlocked in certain ways. When you think of it, all of the products that you and I are using to make our lives better weren’t even around 30 years ago. It’s pretty extraordinary. And if you go back 100 years, every time I get in the dental chair, I think to myself, if this was 100 years ago, they’d be pouring whiskey down me and holding my arms. Now, I sit there and daydream about other stuff. So anything that improves experiences – what people want to do with the 24 hours in the day that they have. And secondly, what really counts is gains in productivity. If you go back 100 years … the farms around where I live here were producing 30 bushels of corn per acre. Now they’re producing 160 bushels of corn per acre. Well, that’s dramatic, and of course they take less people to do it as well, so, just up and down the line, you look at how many man-hours it takes to produce an auto now compared to 50 years ago. So, productivity – that’s the way the human race improves.” [...]

Berkshire Hathaway group firm Mouser to invest ₹90 crore in India over three years (Hindu Business Line)

Mouser Electronics, a subsidiary of TTI Inc and part of Warren Buffett’s Bershire Hathaway, is expected to invest ₹90 crore to ramp up its India presence.

Speaking to BusinessLine during the company’s opening of a new customer service and back office support centre on MG Road here, Mark Burr-Lonnon, Mouser’s Senior Vice-President of APAC and EMEA, said: “The India sales trend looks good as customer traction is up 45 per cent. A major part of that demand comes from Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune. Online sales from Indian customers which was 57 per cent in 2015 has grown to 62 per cent in January-July 2016. Therefore, we have decided to ramp up our India team, to increase the levels of local support we offer to customers here.” [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Teams Up With TripInsuranceZone (Digital Journal)

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) is now teaming up with TripInsuranceZone to bring BHTP’s suite of travel insurance products to the online travel insurance comparison website TripInsuranceZone.com. [...]

Using TripInsuranceZone’s unique comparison engine, travelers can research, quote, compare and purchase travel insurance from most major travel insurance providers in the United States. [...]

How Risky Is Berkshire Hathaway Inc.? (Fool)

No stock is without risk, and Berkshire certainly isn't an exception. Here are just a couple of the reasons Berkshire's share price could go down. The stock market could drop significantly. [...] Interest rates could stay low. [...]

Either of these things could cause Berkshire's stock to plunge in the short term, and there are plenty of other economic and company-specific issues that could hurt Berkshire. It has happened before: Berkshire lost nearly half of its share price in 1974 and more recently took a 32% haircut in 2008. So, if you buy Berkshire, do it for the long term. Thanks to the incredible diversity of Berkshire's revenue stream, any weakness should be temporary. [...]

Richard Holland, who helped launch Buffett-Munger partnership, dies at 95 (Washington Post)

Richard Holland, the Nebraska advertising executive who helped link up one of the great partnerships in business history — between Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett and his deputy, Charles Munger — died Aug. 9 at his home in Omaha. He was 95. [...]

As one of Buffett’s earliest investors, Mr. Holland reaped gains that made him and his wife, Mary, among Omaha’s wealthiest people and most generous philanthropists. Although their net worth wasn’t public, their private charitable foundation reported assets of $158.8 million in 2014. [...]

Wanted: Help handing out Warren Buffett’s fortune (Boston Globe)

Each year, Buffett, the billionaire investor, receives thousands of letters from people asking whether he would pay their mortgages, medical bills, credit card debt, and more. Through a unique sibling partnership, Buffett forwards the letters to his older sister, Doris, who decides which ones to fund. Over the past decade, at least 22,000 letters have crossed their collective desks, and they have given away more than $12 million.

And now, in what might be Boston’s most unusual volunteer opportunity, Doris Buffett — who moved to the city last fall — is looking for people in Greater Boston to help her read a backlog of those letters, as well as new batches that continually arrive. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/27/16

Berkshire Hathaway's quartery 13-F came out last week, detailing last quarter's stock transactions. Dataroma has an easy-to-understand format for keeping up with BRK's holdings.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway takes new stake in Apple, ups stake in IBM (CNBC)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has taken a new stake in Apple and upped its holdings in IBM, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday.

Berkshire portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who each invest about $9 billion, made the investments.

Berkshire's new stake in Apple totaled 9.8 million shares, while the company boosted its shares of IBM by 198,853 to 81.2 million shares. [...]

Berkshire also boosted its holdings in Visa by 3.6 percent to 10.2 million Class A shares, increased its stake in Phillips 66 by 22.9 percent to 75.6 million shares, and upped its stake in Bank of New York Mellon by 3.6 percent to 20.8 million shares.

Berkshire reduced its holdings in a number of big names, as well. It lowered its holdings in Wal-Mart Stores by 949,430 to 55.2 million shares, and dissolved its stake in AT&T, according to the 13F filing.

Berkshire slashed its Procter & Gamble stake by 99.4 percent to 315,400 shares, and also reduced its stake in MasterCard by 5.6 percent to 4.9 million Class A shares.

Why Berkshire Hathaway Bought Into Apple (Fool Video)

Warren Buffett is famously anti-tech, but his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has recently become a shareholder of Apple.

In this segment from the MarketFoolery podcast, Chris Hill, Jason Moser, and Taylor Muckerman explain why the billionaire investor's company bought in. Learn why Apple isn't the same investment now that it was 10 years ago and why this move is much more in line with Berkshire's investment philosophies than it first seems. To wrap-up, the team runs down a couple other moves Berkshire Hathaway announced in its most recent 13-F filing.

Warren Buffett, Quicken Loans founder in Yahoo bid (Reuters)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett is backing a consortium vying for Yahoo Inc's internet assets that includes Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. [...]

The consortium is in the second round of bidding in the auction for Yahoo's assets, the people said. Buffett is helping finance the offer, one of the people added. [...]

Susan Decker, who worked at Yahoo in several senior roles between 2000 and 2009, including president and chief financial officer, is now a director on Berkshire's board.

Warren Buffett: I may help bankroll billionaire Dan Gilbert's bid to buy Yahoo (CNBC)

Berkshire Hathaway has offered to be a potential finance partner for fellow billionaire Dan Gilbert's bid to buy Yahoo, Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett confirmed to CNBC.

"I'm an enormous admirer of Dan and what he has accomplished in Quicken Loans‎. Yahoo is not the type of thing I'd ever be an equity partner in. I don't know the business and wouldn't know how to evaluate it, but if Dan needed financing, with proper terms and protections, we would be a possible financing help," Buffett told CNBC. [...]

Berkshire’s Jain Taps ‘Secret Weapon’ Raiguel to Run Gen Re (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. promoted longtime reinsurance executive Kara Raiguel to run the company’s Gen Re unit, which has struggled to expand amid increased competition.

Raiguel will take over from Franklin "Tad" Montross, according to an internal memo confirmed by Gen Re. She has been at Berkshire for 15 years and was a key deputy to Ajit Jain, who runs the company’s namesake reinsurance operation and recently took on responsibility for Gen Re as well.

Read Ajit Jain’s Memo About the New CEO at Berkshire’s Gen Re (WSJ Moneybeat)

For Berkshire investors, the two-page memo may be interesting for more than the information it provides about Ms. Raiguel. It also offers a glimpse of Mr. Jain’s writing style, and it sounds a fair bit like the folksy, jargon-free tone that Mr. Buffett favors. Mr. Jain has long been thought by outside observers of Berkshire to be one of the leading candidates to replace Mr. Buffett. [...]

Richline Group Acquires Nordt (BusinessWire)

Richline Group, Inc. has the pleasure to announce the acquisition, effective June 1, 2016, of John C. Nordt, Inc. [...] a leading manufacturer and supplier of precious metal products to the jewelry industry. Founded in 1872 in New York City, Nordt has operated in Roanoke Virginia since 1984.

Here's How Berkshire Hathaway Gets a $63 Billion Interest-Free Loan From the U.S. Government (Fool)

[...] Berkshire Hathaway has some structural advantages that are less well understood. One of them is the size of its deferred tax liabilities – a whopping $63.2 billion, based on the most recent data [...]

A deferred tax liability arises from temporary differences between a company's financial accounts and its tax accounts. [...] Because it is assumed that companies will eventually realize the investment gains achieved through the sale of their winning stocks thereby incurring capital gains tax, that future liability is reflected on the balance sheet as a deferred tax liability.

Berkshire's NetJets settles U.S. immigration bias claim (Reuters)

NetJets, the luxury plane unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, agreed to settle U.S. charges that it discriminated against immigrant workers by requiring them to provide extra documents to prove their employment eligibility.

The settlement calls for NetJets to be monitored by the U.S. Department of Justice for two years, improve training of its human resources staff, and pay a $41,480 civil penalty, the department said in a Friday statement. NetJets denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, and cooperated in the probe.

A NetJets spokesman said the government found "inadvertent errors" in the company's processes for verifying workers' residency. "There was no intent to discriminate," he added.

Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group Invests In Technology (Travel Market Report)

Most people don’t think of Berkshire Hathaway as a hip modern brand. Warren Buffett is a conservative, patient investor who still owns a flip phone and brags he has sent one e-mail his whole life. What many might not know is that his Berkshire holding company owns a travel-insurance business that is making a mark for itself by offering high-tech, consumer-centric products and services. [...]

BHTP continues to invest in mobile technology and will be releasing a new version of its mobile app in the coming weeks. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/24/15

The quarterly 13F came out last week, detailing the changes in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio last quarter. Dataroma has a convenient chart to visually show what changed.

Berkshire Hathaway Reduces Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart Stakes (ABC)

Buffett told CNBC on Monday that the main reason he reduced Berkshire's stakes in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was to generate cash for his $32 billion acquisition of Precision Castparts Corp. that's expected to close next year. [...]

Warren Buffett is having an unusually bad year (CNBC)

Warren Buffett has seen shares of his Berkshire Hathaway fall more than 11 percent this year. Even worse, Berkshire shares have underperformed the S&P 500 by more than 10 percent.

What makes this highly unusual is that Berkshire famously tends to underperform when the S&P skyrockets and outperform when the stocks as a whole do less well, which makes sense given Buffett's long-term time frame. [...]

Buffett Doubles Down on Big Blue (Fool)

To me, and presumably Buffett, as well, there's a readily identifiable disconnect with IBM's very gradually declining core business and the huge discount the market has placed on the company's future outlook. For context, IBM stock currently trades at a remarkably low 9.5x its LTM earnings, and yields 3.9%. Wall Street analysts expect IBM's revenue to continue to fall into next year, but believe that Big Blue will actually return to EPS growth in 2016. That reversal alone could be enough to inject some much-needed optimism into IBM shares, even as its broader business realignment requires more time to fully materialize.

Is Warren Buffett Still a Bargain Hunter? (CNN Money)

Consider Axalta Coating Systems, which makes automobile finishes and other coatings. [...] Axalta sells for a whopping 130 times its past 12 months of earnings and sports a price/earnings ratio of 22 based on future estimated profits. [...]

On paper, this would hardly seem like a stock that a vaunted bargain hunter would gravitate to. Yet Axalta isn’t the only example.

Berkshire Hathaway [Travel Insurance] expanding again (Insurance Business)

Insurance giant Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) teamed up with VacationGuard, a specialist provider of vacation rental insurance, this week to create customized travel insurance products for timeshares, travel clubs, resorts and vacationers.

Targeted at both property owners and vacation renters, the products protect against trip cancellation, delays, injuries and accidental damage to rental units.

Fire at Leetsdale chemical plant leads to 70 homes being evacuated (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Residents were evacuated from more than 70 Leetsdale homes Tuesday after a fire at a chemical manufacturing plant filled the sky with black smoke and noxious fumes.

Four workers at the Lubrizol Corp. Oilfield Chemistry site in the Leetsdale Industrial Park were adding chemicals used in gas well fracturing to a production tank about 10 a.m. when the fire exploded to life, a company spokesman said. The workers — and about 36 other employees — escaped the buildings, though five of the workers were injured.

Buffett’s Grandson Seeks Own Investment Route: Social Change (NY Times)

At 32, Howard Warren Buffett, the grandson of the Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren E. Buffett, has already enjoyed a diverse career. He teaches at Columbia University, runs a farm in Nebraska, previously oversaw his family’s foundation and worked on economic redevelopment efforts in Afghanistan for the Defense Department. [...]

Now, that is changing. Mr. Buffett has co-founded a permanently capitalized operating company with big ambitions [...] The plan is for the new company, called i(x) Investments, to invest in early-stage and undervalued companies that are working on issues such as clean energy, sustainable agriculture and water scarcity. [...]

Berkshire gets flak from ClimateTruth, others for solar panel policy (Omaha World-Herald)

A climate activist group said Tuesday that Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s utility division favors policies that would hinder the spread of rooftop solar energy panels.

Outside Omaha’s Kiewit Plaza, where Berkshire has its offices, representatives of ClimateTruth.org and other groups gave a security guard what they said was an electronic copy of an online petition with about 100,000 signatures. The petition, addressed to Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffett, said, “End your profit-driven challenges to net metering programs in Nevada and all over the country.”

Prominent film company focuses documentary lens on Buffett (Omaha World-Herald)

Kunhardt Films of Pleasantville, New York, is gathering information, photos and videos about the chairman and chief executive of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

When the project airs, possibly within two years, Buffett would join a long list of prominent Americans profiled by the film company headed by Emmy winner Peter Kunhardt.

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/21/15

This was 13F week, where Berkshire Hathaway submits its portfolio changes to the SEC each quarter. As always, you can find updated holdings and activity details at Dataroma.

Berkshire Hathaway hints at new purchase, ups Charter stake (Reuters)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said it boosted its stake in cable TV operator Charter Communications Corp, and signaled it may have another large investment planned after agreeing to buy Precision Castparts Corp in its largest-ever purchase. [...]

Berkshire kept some details about its holdings confidential. The SEC sometimes lets the Omaha, Nebraska-based company delay disclosures of new stakes so Buffett can build them quietly, rather than have investors piggyback on him before he finishes. [...]

Berkshire reported lower stakes in conglomerate Chicago Bridge & Iron Co, media company Viacom Inc and Wabco Holdings Inc, which sells braking and suspension systems for commercial vehicles.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Sells Off Shares in Phillips 66, National Oilwell Varco (WSJ Moneybeat)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold off its shares in Phillips 66 and National Oilwell Varco Inc. in the second quarter, as it continued to cut its positions in energy companies amid a global supply glut that has sent crude prices into a tail spin.

Berkshire had already sold most of its stake in National Oilwell Varco in the first quarter, when it slightly raised its Phillips 66 holdings. [...]

Berkshire’s only new stake in the quarter was a 20 million share investment in auto-paint maker Axalta Coating Systems Ltd., which Berkshire bought from Carlyle Group LP for $28 a share.

Buffett’s Precision Castparts Deal Will Boost Berkshire Hathaway’s Value (Barron's)

Precision Castparts, a once fast-growing supplier to the airline industry, looks to be a good—not great—deal for Berkshire. Its profits have been pressured due to the company’s exposure to the energy industry. The shares were down 20% year to date before the Berkshire announcement, although the company has been a huge winner under CEO Mark Donegan. [...]

Berkshire is paying $235 a share, or about 19 times Precision’s earnings for the fiscal year ending March 2016. That implies an earnings “yield” of 5.5%, well above the near-zero yield Berkshire has been earning on its cash, which totaled $60 billion on June 30. Berkshire’s return could be closer to 7% initially because it will issue about $10 billion of low-cost debt to finance the deal.

After hacking scheme, it's time to rethink how companies use wire services (PR Week)

Business Wire sent an e-mail to its clients with a letter from CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz. It began, "We understand your concerns surrounding this week’s federal indictment of a global hacking…We would like to take this opportunity to provide you with the story behind the headlines."

The letter explained that government investigators asked Business Wire about fewer than 85 releases, and pointed out that no examples listed in the indictments and the SEC complaint were Business Wire releases.

"Despite our extreme vigilance, today's reality is that no one today is immune from hacking," it continued. "We want to reassure you that Business Wire’s systems are safe and secure. We continue to work closely with a leading cybersecurity firm to ensure that they remain so."

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway gets special ASX treatment in IAG deal (Sydney Morning Herald)

The Australian Securities Exchange has granted billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway poll position in any future capital raisings by Insurance Australia Group, which has raised the hackles of some investors, and proxy adviser group Ownership Matters.

IAG, which has one of the biggest shareholder bases of companies listed on the local exchange, was granted a waiver that would permit Berkshire anti-dilution rights for its shares in the insurer.

The initial deal between IAG and Berkshire, which saw the insurance giant sign away 20 per cent of its business to the US group, was announced in June but not many investors were aware of the waiver. [...]

Sure, but what does that mean in layman's terms?

The hidden catch to Berkshire Hathaway’s Insurance Australia Group Ltd investment (Fool Australia)

If IAG were to issue say, one new share for every thirty held, this would normally dilute NICO who currently holds one share in every twenty (5%) on issue. However, as it has this anti-dilution protection, NICO will be entitled to buy one share for every twenty it holds.

If NICO happened to hold 10%, it would be entitled to 10% of the new shares to be issued.

Buffett-Backed Kraft Heinz Cuts 2,500 Jobs as Hees Targets Costs (Bloomberg)

Kraft Heinz Co., the food company that counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as its largest shareholder, is eliminating about 2,500 jobs in the U.S. and Canada under the new management. [...]

Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz merged in July in a deal orchestrated by Buffett and 3G Capital, which jointly controlled the ketchup company. 3G’s Bernardo Hees, who is now running the combined foodmaker, cut more than 7,000 jobs in 20 months after taking over at Heinz. Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger has endorsed the job cuts, saying such measures are essential to a productive capitalist system.

The alternative to reducing staff is “what happened in Russia,” Munger said at Buffett’s annual meeting in May. “The whole damn economy didn’t work.”

How Much Is Warren Buffett’s $5 Billion Investment in Bank of America Worth Today? (Fool)

At the low point of Bank of America's post-financial crisis struggles, Warren Buffett became its biggest advocate by investing $5 billion of Berkshire Hathaway's money into the nation's second biggest bank by assets. [...]

When you include the $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire Hathaway's investment in Bank of America is worth a total of $12.2 billion. That equates to a 144% gain in four years -- 168% if you also account for the roughly $1.2 billion in cumulative dividend payments on its preferred stock.

How rich Warren Buffett was at your age (Business Insider)

By age 43, Buffett's personal net worth was at a high of $34 million. He used some of this capital the year prior to purchase See's Candies for $25 million, reports The Motley Fool, and it became an investment that's still profitable in 2015. But, the mid-1970s proved to be a rough period for Berkshire. By 1974, its decreasing share price lowered Buffett's net worth to $19 million when he reached 44, reports Dividend.

Never one to let his savvy investment skills fall by the wayside, Buffett was able to recover financially. By the end of the decade, he had increased his net worth to $67 million at age 47. By the close of the 1970s, the median U.S. household income was $16,530.

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/25/15

Warren Buffett Is Sending Mixed Messages on Green Energy (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett highlights how his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. utilities make massive investments in renewable energy. Meanwhile, in Nevada, the company is fighting a plan that would encourage more residents to use green power.

Berkshire’s NV Energy, the state’s dominant utility, opposes the proposal to increase a cap on the amount of energy that can be generated with solar panels by residents who sell power back to the grid in a practice known as net metering.

Power investor Warren Buffett backs Israeli power saver tech (Times of Israel)

Bandwidth isn’t the only thing the burgeoning cell network is consuming more of. Already electricity costs account for a large chunk – as much as a third – of operating costs, and that amount will likely get larger as networks get bigger and more devices come on line. [...]

To solve that problem, eVolution Networks has developed a big-data solution that examines the relationship between phones, usage rates, locations, energy costs, and other factors, to activate and deactivate base stations as needed.

And although it sounds like a technical, even prosaic solution, top investor Warren Buffett likes the idea – enough to invest in the company. eVolution announced this week that Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary IES Holding and GE Ventures have invested $22.5 million.

(See also: eVolution's press release)

Geronimo Energy Sells Portfolio Of Wind And Solar Projects To BHE Renewables (North American Wind Power)

Geronimo Energy has sold a portfolio of wind and solar energy projects to BHE Renewables, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

The sale includes the Grande Prairie Wind Farm, located in Holt County, Neb.; the Walnut Ridge Wind Farm in Bureau County, Ill.; and a portfolio of Minnesota solar project developments. The Grand Prairie and Walnut Ridge acquisitions were previously announced by BHE Renewables.

Berkshire Hathaway Cuts Stakes in Charter Communications, Viacom (WSJ Moneybeat)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reduced its stake in several media-company holdings–including Charter Communications Inc., Viacom Inc. and Liberty Global PLC–in the first quarter. [...] Berkshire increased its stake in 21st Century Fox by 1.48 million shares. [...] Berkshire sold 3.28 million shares in National Oilwell Varco, in its latest move away from energy companies that have been hurt by the collapse in oil prices. [...] Additionally, in the most recent quarter, Berkshire reduced its stake in Bank of New York Mellon Corp., selling off 1.3 million shares.

As always, Dataroma has an excellent chart of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings, highlighting the most recent changes.

Berkshire CEOs pull back the curtain on Buffett and business (Fort Worth Business Press)

On Monday, May 18, an executive panel featuring the CEOs of four Fort Worth-based Berkshire Hathaway companies – Dennis Knautz of Acme Brick, Carl Ice of BNSF, Randy Watson of Justin Brands and Paul Andrews of TTI – sat with moderator Matt Rose, executive chairman of BNSF, and discussed working with Buffett. The event, titled Breakfast with the Berkshires, was presented by Leadership Fort Worth at the Fort Worth Club. [...]

Aside from BNSF, Acme, Justin and TTI, Berkshire Hathaway continues to have a big interest in North Texas. In October, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Dallas-based Van Tuyl Group, which has several Fort Worth area dealers and is the largest privately owned U.S. auto dealership group. Several other Berkshire Hathaway companies either have large operations here or are subsidiaries of other Berkshire companies. NetJets operates Dallas Jet Charter, and Mouser Electronics in Mansfield is a subsidiary of TTI. Speaking just prior to the panel discussion, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said Berkshire brands contribute thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the region.

Berkshire Hathaway's Sustainable Competitive Advantage (Fool)

Another edge that Berkshire enjoys is its diversification. Its operations and investments span many industries, such as insurance, railroads, energy, home building, jewelry, furniture, paint, private jets, candy, recreational vehicles, ice cream, chemicals, newspapers, underwear, tools, food-service equipment, and car dealerships, among others. When one sector is in a slump, others may not be, and can provide offsetting effects. That's especially true because some of his businesses are in defensive and not very cyclical industries: When the economy is stalled or slumping, people will still use energy and buy insurance and underwear.

Time to Take Profit in Berkshire Hathaway Stock? (Fool)

Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B), has been rewarding shareholders handsomely for many decades. (Indeed, the company just celebrated its 50th anniversary, with 40,000-plus shareholders gathering in Omaha for the company's annual meeting.) Over the past 30 years, its stock has grown by an annual average of 17.3%, and over the past decade, it has returned a market-trouncing 10.2%.

After all that growth, is it time to take profit in Berkshire Hathaway stock? Should you consider selling?

Warren Buffett can’t seem to get enough of Wells Fargo (San Francisco Business Times)

Warren Buffett appears to have embraced the adage that you can never get enough of a good thing.

At least that might explain why he recently plowed more money into some of his largest holdings, including some $350 million into Wells Fargo, which he has described as his favorite bank. He was picking up shares of the San Francisco-based bank even as the stock traded at all-time highs this year. Perhaps Buffett sees Wells fitting into his strategy of buying wonderful companies at a “fair price.”

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Launches Crime Protection with Innovative Impersonation Endorsement in Canada (Marketwatch)

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) today announced that it is introducing the Crime Protection Policy and the Executive Impersonation Coverage endorsement for large public and private companies in Canada.

"Designed by BHSI executives with more than three decades in the fidelity and crime insurance market, our Crime Protection Policy makes it easy for brokers and customers in Canada to secure broad coverage and address the rising risk of fraud losses," said Michael Densham, Vice President, Executive and Professional Lines, Canada, BHSI.

Berkshire Hathaway 2014 4th Quarter 13F

Berkshire Hathaway released its quarterly 13F statement this week, detailing its stock holdings as of December 31st.

Dataroma has a nice format summarizing the changes:

Activity History
Current Holdings

The quick summary from MarketWatch:

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway dumps Exxon Mobil's stake, adds Deere (MarketWatch)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in a regulatory filing that it sold off its entire stake in Exxon Mobil while adding a new 24.7 million share stake in Deere & Co. during the fourth quarter. Berkshire also increased its stake in IBM Corp. to 76,971,817 shares as of Dec. 31 from 70,478,012 shares on Sept. 30, according 13H filings. The filings also indicated Berkshire held no shares of Exxon on Dec. 31, after holding 41,129,643 shares on Sept. 30. Separately, Berkshire increased its stake in MasterCard Inc. to 5.4 million shares from 4.7 million shares, boosted its holdings of Visa Inc. to 2.5 million shares from 2.15 million shares and cut its holdings of National Oilwell Varco to 5.26 million shares from 6.4 million shares.

The Street has a more in depth look at Berkshire's stock buys this quarter:

Top 10 Warren Buffett Stock Buys for 2015: IBM, Visa, Deere and More (The Street)

Today we're taking a closer look at 10 stocks that Buffett bought in the most recently reported quarter, based on Berkshire Hathaway's most recent quarterly 13F filing with the SEC, which reflects holdings as of Dec. 31, 2014. They are ordered by position size.

Berkshire Hathaway 3rd Quarter Portfolio Update

Berkshire Hathaway released its quarterly portfolio holdings report (13F) last Friday. The big changes were a new stake SA-rec Express Scripts, a big increase in Charter Communications, and a complete sell-off of its stake in John Deere.

Here's a handy summary from Dataroma: Quarterly Activity -- Updated Holdings

Commentary:

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway adds Express Scripts, dumps Deere (Fortune)

In the third quarter, Buffett’s insurance conglomerate added shares of Express Scripts to its widely followed investment portfolio. Express Scripts processes the paperwork for insurance companies and pharmacies, and makes sure the pharmacies get paid. [...] But it was not a large bet for Berkshire, and it’s likely the investment was made by either Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, who have started to manage a larger portion of Berkshire’s portfolio. [...]

Berkshire made a few other changes to its portfolio in the third quarter. Berkshire sold all of its shares of Deere in the third quarter. It held nearly $360 million worth of the tractor maker’s shares at the end of June. Berkshire also added to its stake in car giant General Motors as well as credit card companies Mastercard and Visa, and tripled its stake in Liberty Media, which is part of John Malone’s cable empire.

Berkshire Takes Express Scripts Stake; Some Trades Secret (Bloomberg)

Holdings in General Motors Co. rose by 21 percent and an investment in Charter Communications Inc. more than doubled in size during the third quarter, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire also said yesterday in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A stake in DirecTV climbed. [...]

The report omitted some data that was reported confidentially to regulators. The SEC sometimes allows companies to withhold data from the public to limit copycat investing while a firm is building or cutting a position.

Buffett requested confidential treatment in 2011 filings, as he spent more than $10 billion amassing a stake in International Business Machines Corp. He did the same while building a holding in Exxon Mobil Corp. in 2013.