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 - 4/22/17

Berkshire Cuts Wells Fargo Stake to Get Below Fed's Limit

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is cutting its stake in Wells Fargo & Co. to less than 10 percent after the Federal Reserve told the billionaire’s company that remaining above that threshold would limit its ability to do business with the bank.

Berkshire sold 7.13 million shares of Wells Fargo this week and plans to divest an additional 1.87 million in the near future, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Buffett’s company oversaw about 500 million shares as of Dec. 31, valued at more than $27 billion at the time, according to Berkshire’s annual report. [...]

Buffett likely voted shares to back Wells Fargo board

Wells Fargo & Co's largest investor, Warren Buffett, has likely already voted his shares to support the bank's recommendations at its contentious annual shareholder meeting next week, a representative told Reuters on Wednesday, which include reinstating most of the board's directors. [...]

Now the board, whose members include new CEO Tim Sloan, is facing opposition in the shareholder vote next week after proxy advisers recommended rejecting many of them.

Buffett's assistant, Debbie Bosanek, told Reuters that Buffett supports management and the board, and that he has likely voted shares held by him and Berkshire to reflect that view. [...]

As Tesla bills stall, Lege weighs loophole for Buffett

The latest effort by Tesla Inc. to sell the electric cars that it makes directly to Texas consumers appears to have stalled in the Legislature, even as a bid by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to win an exception to the strict regulations preventing automobile manufacturers from also owning dealerships is racing forward.

Senate Bill 2279 — filed Tuesday by state Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills — would allow manufacturers to own dealerships “so long as the vehicles they sell or service are not the same type of motor vehicle that they manufacturer or distribute.” It has been scheduled for a Thursday Senate committee hearing.

Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, which has 85 dealerships in 10 states and is based in Irving, needs the exception to avoid violating existing Texas law because its parent company owns recreational-vehicle maker Forest River Inc., as well as a large stake in Chinese electric-car maker BYD Co. [...]

Apple and the Airlines in Buffett and Munger's Own Words

Munger on Apple and airlines during the 2017 Daily Journal Corp. meeting: [...]

"Now it may work out to be a good idea for the same reason that our railroad business turned out to be a good idea, but there’s some chance that it might not. He’s changed, and I think he’s changed when he buys his airlines, and he’s changed when he buys Apple. Think of the hooting we’ve done over the years about high tech – we just don’t understand it. It’s not in our circle of competency. The worst business in the world is airlines. What do we appear in the press with? Apple and a bunch of airlines. I don’t think we’ve gone crazy; I think the answer is we’re adapting reasonably to a business that has gotten very much more difficult. I don’t think we have a cinch in either of those positions. I think we have the odds a little bit in our favor. And if that’s the best advantage we can get, we’ll just have to live on the advantage we can get. I used to say you have to marry the best person that will have you. And I’m afraid that’s a rule of life and you have to get by in life with the best advantage you can get. And things have gotten so difficult in the investment world that we have to be satisfied with the type of advantage that we didn’t used to get. On the other hand, the thing that caused it to be so difficult was we got so enormously rich. That’s not a bad trade off." [...]

When Warren Met Jorge Paulo: Buffett and Lemann Recall Their First Deal

The billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Jorge Paulo Lemann have teamed up to engineer some of the biggest and boldest mergers and acquisitions in recent years, but they have rarely appeared in public together.

On Saturday night, however, the two appeared on a stage in Cambridge, Mass., to be interviewed by the dean of the Harvard Business School, Nitin Nohria. [...]

Mr. Lemann and Mr. Buffett got to know each other when both were on the board of Gillette. Around that time, Mr. Lemann was selling Banco de Investimentos Garantia, an investment bank of which he was a founder in Brazil. [...]

But it was not until 2013 that they first did a deal together. Then, Mr. Lemann’s 3G Capital and Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway teamed up to acquire H.J. Heinz for $23 billion. Two years later, 3G Capital, again together with Mr. Buffett, merged Heinz with Kraft Foods. [...]

kathy ireland® Worldwide Partners with Berkshire Hathaway's Larson-Juhl and The Buffalo Works to Launch Art and Wall Décor Line in 2017

kathy ireland® Worldwide (kiWW®) has inked an agreement to design a wide-ranging collection of branded art and wall décor for the home with Larson-Juhl and The Buffalo Works. The Buffalo Works will work with kiWW® to curate, develop and market the art program, partnering with Larson-Juhl as the exclusive supplier for the branded program. [...]

[Kathy Ireland, kiWW's Chair, CEO and Chief Designer:] "Larson-Juhl is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway business family. We began our kathy ireland® Home collection with a Berkshire Hathaway flooring company. Our first retail client was Irv Blumkin and Nebraska Furniture Mart, still clients and dear friends, all these years later. To join Larson-Juhl and The Buffalo Works means we are collaborating with some of the Berkshire Hathaway best! We will celebrate together at the Annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting where our new artwork will be on display," she adds. [...]

Established more than a century ago, Larson-Juhl is the global leader in custom picture frame design, manufacturing and distribution. The company also provides high quality conservation products to museums, galleries, and libraries and serves the framing market with a full range of solutions, from art printing and volume framing to wall decor. A Berkshire Hathaway company headquartered in Norcross, GA, Larson-Juhl operates 54 facilities in 17 countries around the world. [...]

Why Warren Buffett Loves Dividends, but Doesn't Pay Any

Despite Buffett's love of dividends, Berkshire Hathaway has never paid one to its shareholders, nor does Buffett plan to start implementing a dividend anytime soon. This may seem like a big contradiction -- as Buffett himself said in his 2012 letter to Berkshire shareholders, "It puzzles them [some of Berkshire's shareholders] that we relish the dividends we receive from most of the stocks Berkshire owns, but pay out nothing ourselves." However, Buffett's reasoning makes perfect sense. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 2/6/17

Buffett Bought $12 Billion of Stock From Election Through Friday

“We’ve, net, bought $12 billion of common stocks since the election,” he said in an interview with Charlie Rose that aired on Friday. Buffett didn’t identify the securities that he picked.

Purchases of that magnitude represent a major pickup in activity for Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire. During the first nine months of last year, the company bought $5.2 billion and sold or redeemed roughly $20 billion worth of stocks, according to a regulatory filing. In 2015, Berkshire bought about $10 billion of equity securities. [...]

NV Energy and Apple partnering to build solar energy resources in Nevada

NV Energy and Apple have jointly announced an agreement to build 200 megawatts of additional solar energy in Nevada to support the tech company’s Reno-based data center with renewable energy. Completion is expected by 2019.

First, NV Energy must apply with the state’s Public Utilities Commission to enter into a power purchase agreement for the solar power plant. The acquisition will bring the utility’s total to more than 529 megawatts of new solar resources “in construction in Nevada or under review for approval,” according to a statement from NV Energy. That’s a significant gain on the company’s 491 megawatts of universal solar resources currently serving customers.

Apple plans to dedicate up to 5 megawatts of the new power to a subscription solar program NV Energy has in the works for residential and commercial customers. [...]

Why Berkshire Is Betting on Airlines

So why the change of heart? It stemmed, in part, from a presentation that American Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker gave at an investor conference in March, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing Berkshire’s strategy. [...]

The analysis prompted Ted Weschler, one of Buffett’s investing deputies, to take a closer look at airlines, the people said. Before joining Berkshire, Weschler’s hedge fund had backed Parker in his successful 2005 bid to combine America West with US Airways. Through that process, the two men built a rapport. [...]

New life, and a nod to the past, as National Indemnity building set to become apartments

Todd and Mary Heistand are drawn to old buildings. They’re fans of Omaha history. They remain riveted by the climb of the city’s most storied business persona, billionaire Warren Buffett.

So it didn’t take much convincing for the Heistands, who own NuStyle Development, to buy the midtown National Indemnity Co. building upon which grew much of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway empire.

Numerous structures around 3024 Harney St. were razed recently to make way for a separate and future mixed-use project. NuStyle’s intercession means the 65-year-old property, which until recently was home base for the 77-year-old insurance company, will survive as a converted 48-unit apartment complex to be called the NICO. [...]

Warren Buffett shares oracle's wisdom in HBO documentary

Warren Buffett has long been a source of fascination, and not just for Berkshire Hathaway investors who flock to hear what the "Oracle of Omaha" has to say about money. HBO thus provides a sort-of public service to posterity with "Becoming Warren Buffett," and those who watch the feature-length documentary will feel the richer for it. [...]

Director Peter Kunhardt has essentially sat back and let Buffett tell his own tale, with selected voices from his life and business career thrown in throughout as a garnish. Beyond direct-to-camera interviews, part of the material comes from Buffett addressing a group of high school kids, dispensing homespun wisdom life and money that's self-effacing but infused with considerable authority. [...]

"Becoming Warren Buffett," the Man, Not the Investor

The documentary, which was made with the cooperation of Buffett and his family, deals with Buffett the businessman and investor, but it’s Buffett the man and his complicated, and often difficult, relationships with the people he loved most that are the film’s real subject. [...]

There’s another paradox the film hints at, too: the qualities that made it challenging for Buffett to deal with people are the very qualities that made him such a brilliant investor. [...]

BUFFETT: What I tell people who are anti-immigration

Legendary investor Warren Buffett gave a simple argument for why he’s pro-immigration.

“Well, immigration, this country is built on it. I always say to people that are anti-immigration, ‘let’s put it in retroactively.’ And everybody leaves,” the 86-year-old billionaire said on a panel with his friend Bill Gates on Friday at Columbia University in New York. [...]

He later added: “This country has been blessed by immigrants. And you can take them from any country you want and they’ve come here and they’ve found something that’s unleashed the potential that the place where they left did not, and we’re the product of it.” [...]