Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[MattR]

3 minutes ago, ValueMaven said:

Here is a crazy but interesting idea.  Berkshire issues $20B shares to acquire Markel.  Get's huge float, profitable and unique underwriting business it can easily fold into the Primary Group.  Gayner joins the board.  Then buysback $20B worth of stock.  Roll Markel Ventures into MSR unit.  

Just an idea

That would be hilarious :D. Personally i think at current prices Markel is actually pretty cheap.

[Charlie]

Interesting to see that Francis Chou has nearly 41% in Berkshire Hathaway:

https://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=ca

[ValueMaven]

Is the mystery A share buyer out yet?  I havent seen anything published on this yet....possibly Monday??

[Xerxes]

5 hours ago, Charlie said:

Interesting to see that Francis Chou has nearly 41% in Berkshire Hathaway:

https://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=ca

How did Chou got his cost so low for Resolute at $1.26 per share.

 

BRK.A - Berkshire Hathaway CL A	40.83	150	Add 50.00%	$272000.00	$40,800,000
≡	BHC - Bausch Health	24.18	1,558,992	Add 1.30%	$15.50	$24,164,000
≡	WFC - Wells Fargo	6.02	209,542		$28.70	$6,014,000
≡	RFP - Resolute Forest Products	5.77	4,571,960		$1.26	$5,761,000
≡	MBI - MBIA Inc.	4.66	652,531	Add 5.33%	$7.14	$4,659,000
≡	JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co.	3.09	34,275		$90.04	$3,086,000
≡	GS - Goldman Sachs Group	3.09	20,000	Add 11.11%	$154.60	$3,092,000
≡	C - Citigroup Inc.	2.85	67,695		$42.12	$2,851,000
≡	DVA - DaVita HealthCare Partners	2.49	32,743	Add 204.78%	$76.05	$2,490,000
≡	BB - BlackBerry Ltd.	2.17	529,040	Add 23.31%	$4.10	$2,169,000
≡	SNY - Sanofi Aventis	0.87	20,000	Buy	$43.70	$874,000

 

[StubbleJumper]

4 minutes ago, Xerxes said:

How did Chou got his cost so low for Resolute at $1.26 per share.

 

 

The Resolute shares were likely acquired several years ago (pre-merger) and have been held ever since.

Now that you have posted the table of his major holdings, I wanted to observe that it's interesting that he added to his BB holdings.  It takes a fair level of conviction to add to BB after years of poor execution by the company.

 

SJ

[Xerxes]

1 hour ago, StubbleJumper said:

 

The Resolute shares were likely acquired several years ago (pre-merger) and have been held ever since.

Now that you have posted the table of his major holdings, I wanted to observe that it's interesting that he added to his BB holdings.  It takes a fair level of conviction to add to BB after years of poor execution by the company.

 

SJ

Indeed,

I just hope that he didn't buy it from me back in Q1, when I sold my BBs at $24.99 CAD

[ValueMaven]

Do we find out who the mystery A share buyer is tonight????

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

2021 Q1 13-F out -  https://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=BRK

Very little buying activity there.

[Xerxes]

what's that about LBTYA - Liberty Global Inc. reduced by 80%

[LearningMachine]

As expected, BRK added VZ shares, albeit not as much as I was expecting.  Increased VZ stake by 8.2%, i.e. 12.1 million shares.

I see VZ holding at 158,824,575 + 73,357 = 158,897,932 shares

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000095012321007024/xslForm13F_X01/0000950123-21-007024-4471.xml

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1004244/000108514621001803/xslForm13F_X01/infotable.xml'

 

This is up from 146,716,496 + 71,907 = 146,788,403 shares.

That is 12,109,529 shares added. 

That is $701,626,110.26 added at today's closing price of $57.94.

Edited May 17, 2021 by LearningMachine

[LearningMachine]

Also, as expected, getting out of drug companies.

Also, getting out of Chevron. 

[LearningMachine]

Continuing to add to Kroger - still a relatively small position.

Edited May 17, 2021 by LearningMachine

[gfp]

WSJ article on new Mitek venture:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/warren-buffett-to-offer-a-new-spin-on-modular-construction-11621339201?mod=mhp

[Xerxes]

At the very high level, does anyone know if overall Berkshire Hathaway had a good return on Wells Fargo since it got involved a decade ago. Does anyone has an overall gauge ?

I know they have not been exactly selling it into the rally lately.

[wabuffo]

does anyone know if overall Berkshire Hathaway had a good return on Wells Fargo since it got involved a decade ago...

I don't know the answer to this - but Buffett first made WFC a major holding in 1990-91 when the double whammy of a national recession and a severe downturn in the SoCal defense industry post-Cold War raised fears about potentially large WFC's loan book losses.  Wells was mainly a California bank back then.

Keep in mind that this is also before Norwest bought/merged with WFC in the late 90s and took the Wells Fargo name for the combined bank.  Norwest's leaders were Kovacevich/Stumpf and they pushed out the old WFC management and brought in their aggressive/arrogant style to the WFC.  I think it was like a 10-20 bagger for Buffett til the Norwest merger.  After that it wasn't a great CAGR right up to the GFC but before the crash (though both Buffett and Munger were buying more right up to 2007, IIRC).  And of course, while it did fine from a low-cost base after the GFC, it has an asset-cap now due to its bad behavior.

These are turning points one sometimes has to pay attention to as the brand can endure for awhile while new management ruins the franchise.   Boeing/McDonnell Douglas is another good example of this.  Even though Boeing "took over" McDonnell Douglas in the late 90s, it was the McDonnell Douglas execs who really took over and some say replaced the engineering culture of Boeing with more of a financial/engineering culture of McDonnell-Douglas.   It can take a decade but the rot starts to emerge.

wabuffo

Edited May 20, 2021 by wabuffo

[Xerxes]

Thanks, based on the above, I guess it depends when you take T0. This is probably such an old holding (and many ways to calculate the return) that no one in Berkshire itself has the overall math starting from the very initial position with all dividends.

 

Agreed on Boeing, in fact I would add that most of Boeing's leadership were Jack Welch's proteges, including the one today (excluding Muilenburg, who was equally as bad as he gave away the house through massive buybacks).

The peak of that GE influence though was the McNerney era and the now-famous battle cry of "no more moonshots for Boeing". The seeds of 737MAX derivative were planted right around that time.   

Edited May 20, 2021 by Xerxes

[boilermaker75]

McDonnell Douglas president Michael Sears, who became CFO of Boeing after the merger, ended up a convicted felon. He was involved in  "hiring" a government employee who was in the process of giving Boeing a $20 billion lease agreement.

Edited May 20, 2021 by boilermaker75

[gfp]

I get a trade magazine called "Builder."  Today's issue ranks the largest Homebuilders by 2020 closings.  Was happy to see Berkshire's Clayton Properties Group (site-built only, does not include Clayton's manufactured homes) rising to number 9 on the list with 9,475 closings in 2020.  More than well known names like Toll Brothers, MDC, Hovnanian, Beazer, etc.

[cubsfan]

The Wells management definitely pulled the wool over Warren's eyes. Having been to so many annual meetings where Buffett just lauded WFC management and their ability to cross sell. No one could sell products like WFC - over and over. Fooled me too, for a long time. They really abused their employees.

[MattR]

11 hours ago, gfp said:

I get a trade magazine called "Builder."  Today's issue ranks the largest Homebuilders by 2020 closings.  Was happy to see Berkshire's Clayton Properties Group (site-built only, does not include Clayton's manufactured homes) rising to number 9 on the list with 9,475 closings in 2020.  More than well known names like Toll Brothers, MDC, Hovnanian, Beazer, etc.

What does the green point mean? Is there an option to see homebuilders from last year,to see who is rising and who is falling?

[gfp]

The green dot means that builder is publicly traded. Last year’s rank is the number next to this year’s rank. Clayton was 11th last year and 9th this year.
 

I saw a lot of billboards for Clayton Properties Group traveling across the country a couple days ago - all of the billboards are seeking workers, not advertising homes. The US is blanketed in help wanted signs right now. Basically every business. 

[DooDiligence]

I should probably get a job.

[MarioP]

56 minutes ago, gfp said:

The US is blanketed in help wanted signs right now. Basically every business. 

Same thing in eastern Canada. I just heard a spot at the radio from a door and window maker : « Come  see us with your pay check stub and we will pay you 10% more »

[sleepydragon]

What happened to the “mystery ” buyer of BRK A ?

Some possibilities:  this “buyer” may actually had a large short  position in A or B and was covering( maybe a quant fund that had an algo bug that traded A shares regardless of the ADV). Or it could be a personal investor (very unlikely). Or someone who bought A shares and sold soon after?

[gfp]

There is no reason to suspect the increased volume was from a single buyer/seller.  It turned out it wasn't Berkshire, but Berkshire being in the market for A shares generally increases trading volume.  Other factors are new all-time highs and the age of many A-share holders.  Charities receiving A shares need to sell them to build the hospitals, etc...

It also appears that Renaissance Technologies is trading in A-shares, which may account for some increase in volume as their models will trade automatically.

By the way - does anybody know if there are 13-F style reports available for the equity holdings of Braeburn Capital (the entity in Reno that manages hundreds of Billions for Apple Inc) ?  I don't know what entity name an institutional holding report would be under (if any).  There is nothing under Braeburn Capital.  This guy appears to run it: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffery-power-cfa-frm-4915306