Abel was appointed vice chairman for non-insurance business operations, and Jain became vice chairman of insurance operations. In early 2012, 50-year-old Ted Weschler, founder of Peninsula Capital Advisors, joined Berkshire as a second investment manager. In October 2010, Berkshire announced that 39-year old Todd Combs, manager of the hedge fund Castle Point Capital, would join as an investment manager. Charlie Munger served as vice chairman of the company from 1978 until his death on November 28, 2023. Berkshire’s annual shareholders’ meetings, nicknamed “Woodstock for Capitalists”, take place at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska. Buffett also receives approximately $300,000 worth of home security services from the company annually.
Full text of Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders – Economic Times
Indeed , if you aren’t certain that you understand and can value your business far better than Mr . It is his pocketbook , not his wisdom , that you will find useful . On these occasions he will name a very low price , since he is terrified that you will unload your interest on him . When in that mood , he names a very high buy — sell price because he fears that you will snap up his interest and rob him of imminent gains . Even though the business that the two of you own may have economic characteristics that are stable , Mr .
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Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer – no Kindle device required. However, the company also manages hundreds of diverse businesses all over the world. As of 2025, Berkshire Hathaway had a market capitalization of over $1.05 trillion, making it one of the largest publicly traded companies worldwide. Its class A shares (BRK.A) are among the most expensive in the stock market and trade at over $700,000 dollars per share. Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company for a multitude of businesses, including GEICO and Fruit of the Loom, that is led by Warren Buffett. Buffett was reluctant to create the class B shares but did so to thwart the creation of unit investment trusts that would have marketed themselves as Berkshire look-alikes.
The company owns a variety of well-known businesses, such as GEICO and Fruit of the Loom, and has significant minority interests in public companies such as Apple. What is now Berkshire Hathaway started as a textile company and evolved into one of the largest companies in the world by market cap. While Buffett generally does not invest in tech stocks, he has said that Apple is a consumer products company and that he understands consumer products businesses.
The south-east of the county contains Swinley Forest, a remnant of Windsor Forest now used as a forestry plantation. The Thames then forms Berkshire’s northern border, flowing past Maidenhead, before entering the county and flowing past Slough and Windsor. The Berkshire Downs, a chalk downland and area of outstanding natural beauty, occupy the west of the county. The historic county included the parts of Oxfordshire south of the River Thames, which formed its northern border, but excluded Caversham and Slough.
- The financial company ING Direct has its headquarters in Reading, as does the directories company Hibu.
- It’s true , of course , that , in the long run , the scoreboard for investment decisions is market price .
- Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses, whether controlled or only partially owned.
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In April 2007, Berkshire acquired 10.9% of BNSF Railway for $3.23 billion. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, TTI is the largest distributor specialist of passive, interconnect, and electromechanical components. In 2019, Applied berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders Underwriters was sold back to its founder for $920 million. Products are produced in the United States and Europe and are sold primarily through a global network of independent dealers and distributors, with peak sales occurring in the second and third quarters. CTB, headquartered in Milford, Indiana, is a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of systems used in the grain industry and in the production of poultry, hogs, and eggs. In April 2002, Berkshire acquired Fruit of the Loom for $835 million in cash.
Annual letters and shareholders’ meetings
Berkshire began investing in Chubb Limited in 2023; by 2024, it owned a 6.4% stake worth $6.7 billion. In the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire acquired a $2.6 billion stake in Paramount Global. In the third quarter of 2020, the company agreed to buy Dominion Energy’s natural gas transmission and storage operations. By April 2023, Berkshire increased its stake in each of those companies to 7.4%. In 2019, by buying warrants and preferred stock, Berkshire provided $10 billion in financing to Occidental Petroleum as part of its acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum. In June 2017, Berkshire acquired a 38.4% stake in Home Capital Group for $400 million, giving a lifeline to the Toronto-based embattled mortgage lender.
Book notes and lessons learnt: “Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 1965–2018” by Warren…
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In the second quarter of 2020, Berkshire added a position of more than 20 million shares in Barrick Gold; the shares were sold in 2021. Berkshire began investing in common shares of Occidental beginning in 2022 and has increased its position since. In April 2020, Berkshire sold all shares in the airlines due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial air transport. Buffett had made an investment in US Airways in 1989 which, although he sold for a profit, almost lost Berkshire a substantial sum of money. Aggressive stock purchases continued and by March 31, 2017, Berkshire had amassed a stake of 129 million shares (2.5% of Apple). In the first quarter of 2016, Berkshire began investing in Apple Inc., with a purchase of 9.8 million shares (0.2% of Apple) worth $1 billion.
The open upland areas vie with Newmarket, Suffolk for horse racing training and breeding centres and have good fields of barley, wheat, and other cereal crops. In the heart of the county Reading’s northern suburb Caversham is also on that bank, but rises steeply into the Chiltern Hills. A flag for the historic county of Berkshire was registered with the Flag Institute in 2017. 94 (Berkshire Yeomanry) Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, even though the White Horse is now within the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire. The northern part of the county came under governance of Oxfordshire, with Faringdon, Wantage and Abingdon and their hinterland becoming the Vale of White Horse district, and Didcot and Wallingford added to South Oxfordshire district. The administrative county’s full legal name was “Berks” rather than “Berkshire” until 1967, when the government changed the name to Berkshire at the county council’s request.
Major stock purchases and sales
A truly great business must have an enduring “ moat ” that protects excellent returns on invested capital . Of course , some investment strategies — for instance , our efforts in arbitrage over the years — require wide diversification . By confining himself to a relatively few , easy — to — understand cases , a reasonably intelligent , informed and diligent person can judge investment risks with a useful degree of accuracy . 3 ) The certainty with which management can be counted on to channel the rewards from the business to the shareholders rather than to itself ;
Buffett began investing in Wells Fargo in 1989; however, by the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire Hathaway had sold its entire interest in the company. As part of the transaction, Berkshire reduced the purchase price of the company by any fees that it paid investment bankers. In 2012, Berkshire acquired Oriental Trading Company, a direct marketing company for novelty items, small toys, and party items for around $500 million.
Ice hockey
In January 1986, Berkshire acquired Fechheimer Brothers, owner of Flying Cross, which manufactures public safety uniforms, and Vertx, a civilian tactical clothing company. In 2014, Graham Holdings Company sold its Miami television station, ABC affiliate WPLG to BH Media in a cash and stock deal. He has estimated that had he invested the same money directly in insurance businesses instead of indirectly via Berkshire Hathaway (due to what he perceived as a slight by an individual), it would have paid off several hundredfold. Buffett has described buying the Berkshire Hathaway textile company as the biggest investment mistake he had ever made, denying him compounded investment returns of about $200 billion over the subsequent 45 years. In 1964, Buffett offered to sell his shares back to the company for $11.50 each. In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the eighth U.S. public company and the first non-technology company to be valued at over $1 trillion on the list of public corporations by market capitalization.
Understanding Berkshire Hathaway: Market Cap, Ownership, and More
By 2019, the $25 million investment had returned over $2 billion, or an 8000% return, to Berkshire. In 2012, National Indemnity acquired workers’ compensation insurer GUARD for $221 million. In 1963, Franklin Otis Booth Jr. invested $1 million in the company (equivalent to $10,300,000 in 2024), and in 1968 David Gottesman also invested in the company. As of the end of 2024, the company had only 27 employees at that corporate headquarters. However, this left Buffett’s fund with a major interest in a declining textile business.
This area of West Berkshire is the largest centre of racehorse training in the UK after Newmarket, and is known as the ‘Valley of the Racecourse’. Biosynth Carbosynth, along with its acquired companies, vivitide and Pepscan rebranded to Biosynth in 2022. Much of the county’s early history is recorded in the Chronicles of the Abingdon Abbey, which at the time of the survey was second only to the crown in the extent and number of its possessions, such as The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay. Despite investments in renewable energy, the company was criticized for its decision to operate these plants until at least 2049, raising public health and environmental concerns.
- In the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire acquired a $2.6 billion stake in Paramount Global.
- The administrative county’s full legal name was “Berks” rather than “Berkshire” until 1967, when the government changed the name to Berkshire at the county council’s request.
- Aside from its subsidiaries, Berkshire manages a portfolio of non-controlling stock investments into which its insurance companies invest policy premiums.
- Berkshire made its first investment in Tesco in 2006, and in 2012 it raised this stake to over 5% of the company, investing a total of $2.3 billion.
From 1965 to 2023, the stock price had negative performance in only eleven years. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company. Greg Abel now oversees most of the company’s investments and has been named as Buffett’s successor. ( This overstatement of earnings exists at all railroads . ) When CEOs or investment bankers tout pre — depreciation figures such as EBITDA as a valuation guide , watch their noses lengthen while they speak .
Buffett himself has described this as a “call on the industry” rather than a choice in an individual company. In 2017, Berkshire was the largest shareholder in United Airlines and Delta Air Lines and a top 3 shareholder in Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. In the third quarter of 2016, Berkshire surprised investors by making large equity investments in the major US airlines. Buffett had said that Apple has developed an ecosystem and level of brand loyalty that provides it with an economic moat, and that consumers appear to have a degree of price insensitivity when it comes to the iPhone.