Berkshire Hathaway | Forum profile

This is why I like using the year 2000 and 2009, and using an implied assessment of intrinsic value by the master himself. That is, in 2000 Buffett clearly felt the IV was well above $1500/B. And I think it is fair to assume that if Buffett is issuing a fair number of shares in an acquistion at present, then at a minimum he does not believe they are seriously undervalued at today's prices (and this concords with recent public statements...

(2) The BNSF transaction is misunderstood. It is NOT being bought at a large discount to its intrinsic value, but it IS a business with a huge moat being purchased with insurance business “float” whose cost approaches zero (if not positive) and debt financing of $8 billion secured on very favorable terms. Berkshire is putting to work about two year’s cash flow with this purchase. Was that meant for me? :) et

The balance sheet is a typical Japanese fortress. Cash and short term investments exceed total liabilities, Mungofitch Even though the Japanese economy seems to be slipping, I'm sure there are many Japanese companies which are financially prepared to weather the current financial storms. People frequently compare the US and Japan and fear that we will go their way too. This article from 08 blames their economic slippage on a lack of...

For all practical purposes, Berkshire's earnings (at least during Buffett's life) are not free to be distributed. Well, duh. Buffett has been pretty clear about his investment strategy. Essentially, he purchases (at prices which include a margin of safety) businesses with wide moats which generate cash. He then accumulates this cash until he is able to find ohter businesses to acquire at prices which include a margin of safety....

gdefelice: I too have gone through all sorts of ways of trying to calculate the intrinsic value of Berkshire using all sorts of various metrics. And while I do believe those approaches can have merit, I believe the issue might be much simpler if we strip it down to the basics. Is it reasonable to agree with Buffett that the shares were grossly undervalued in early 2000? Is it reasonable to assume that the shares are not MORE undervalued now?...

The article doesn't answer the question the headline poses. But, non-the-less, a reasonable thesis as to why Buffett might be disinclined to hand over a Berkshire too weighed down with financial and insurance services. kelbon Alice Schroeder On Buffett And BNI; Which Company Will Berkshire Hathaway Acquire Next? http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=76366 snip: know this is probably the millionth article written about Buffett's...

Ican only conclude that he will never buy back shares and that his explanations of his reasons for this refusal are disingenuous. If I understand value reasoning correctly, presumably if BRK is a great buy for Buffett, it is an even better buy for everybody who is not Buffett? So even though these posts seem to be complaining about how Buffett runs Berkshire capital allocation, they are actually at least as Bullish as any of the more...

Euro, Very good question about the bottlers making deals with retailers. Are bottlers regional? If so, it is hard to imagine regional bottlers negotiating deals with the Costco/s headquarters in their region and then maybe having different prices from one area of the country to the next. FWIW: I am just surmising. Maybe someone else has more knowledge in how Coca-Cola negotiates with buyers like Costco & Walmart who come to the table...

This is my opinion, but CNBC, despite the fact that my grandfather watches it religiously for it's investing advice, is not more than a forum for the fringes. It makes investing and money more emotional and dangerous. No different than Fox news and MSNBC on either side of the political spectrum. All of them should be aired with warnings like infomercials. !!!!!!!!!!! hear hear, or they could just have a little music with the...

>Microsoft retains its dominant position because of its relatively proprietary file formats that everyone is using make it so difficult for any individual or business to leave the established standard. I don't know if this is true...but suppose it is. As a shareholder (and I'm a shareholder posting on a stock site), is this supposed to be a bad thing? Is making the file format readable for the world the best thing for...