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.
Charlie and I avoid businesses whose futures we can’t evaluate , no matter how exciting their products may be . Over time , markets will do extraordinary , even bizarre , things . There are three connected realities that cause investing success to breed failure (talking about investment funds).
Local
By periodically investing in an index fund , for example , the know — nothing investor can actually out — perform most investment professionals . What he treasures is the price history of its stock . In assessing risk , a beta purist will disdain examining what a company produces , what its competitors are doing , or how much borrowed money the business employs .
Investment strategy
But Buffett’s main problem is not with the concept of debt — it is with the type of high-interest, variable-rate debt that consumer investors must take on if they want to use it to buy stocks. Much of Berkshire’s early success came down to the intelligent use of leverage on relatively cheap stocks, as a 2013 study from AQR Capital Management and Copenhagen Business School showed. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle There are some investment managers, of course, who are very good – although in the short term, it’s hard to tell whether a great record is due to luck or skill. When directors have skin in the game, they’re more likely to look out for the company’s best interests. This strategy of train and explain means you will leave this book with a wealth of knowledge you never knew you needed. Among those top 10 Berkshire Hathaway companies, the amount of earnings that are retained and reinvested is more than double the size of the earnings being paid out as dividends.
Market appears daily and names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell you his . Market who is your partner in a private business . He said that you should imagine market quotations as coming from a remarkably accommodating fellow named Mr . And the market aberrations produced by them will be equally unpredictable , both as to duration and degree .
Major stock purchases and sales
The company has acquired several residential real estate brokerages including Long & Foster, acquired in September 2017. In 2005, it acquired PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion in cash, and assumed $4.3 billion in PacificCorp debt and preferred stock. In February 1997, Berkshire acquired FlightSafety International (FSI), a pilot training company founded in 1951 by Albert Lee Ueltschi and headquartered at LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, New York. In January 1996, Berkshire acquired full ownership of GEICO, acquiring the 49% of the company that it did not then own for $2.3 billion.
In October 1999, Berkshire acquired Jordan’s Furniture for an estimated $200 million to $300 million. The division owns a residential real estate brokerage business, which, in March 2013, was rebranded as HomeServices of America, a division of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Berkshire paid for the acquisition with Class A shares valued at $58,400 each; Buffett later said he overpaid, despite strong performance by General Re. In December 1998, Berkshire acquired Gen Re, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, for $22 billion. NetJets is the world’s largest provider of fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. In July 1998, Berkshire Hathaway acquired NetJets, formerly Executive Jet Aviation, for $725 million in cash.
Industry
Its class A shares have the highest per-share price of any public company in the world, reaching $700,000 in August 2024, because the board of directors has historically been opposed to stock splits. In contrast , we’ll happily forgo knowing the price history and instead will seek whatever information will further our understanding of the company’s business . It’s true , of course , that , in the long run , the scoreboard for investment decisions is market price .
Book notes and lessons learnt: “Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 1965–2018” by Warren…
- In 2005, it acquired PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion in cash, and assumed $4.3 billion in PacificCorp debt and preferred stock.
- After all , why should the time required for a planet to circle the sun synchronize precisely with the time required for business actions to pay off ?
- By 2017, this position had yielded a profit of about $12 billion excluding the annual interest earned from the preferred stock.
- Reading has experienced significant growth due to its reputation as a technology and business hub.
- In July 2005, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Forest River, the world’s largest seller of recreational vehicles, from Pete Liegl for $800 million.
Buffett concedes that those who invest in companies on the speculation that they may one day be worthwhilecould reap returns berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders — he just has no interest in that kind of investment. For these extremely asset-laden businesses that have constant equipment and capital needs, debt makes more sense, and they will generate plentiful amounts of cash for Berkshire Hathaway even in an economic downturn. I learned most of the ideas in this investment discussion from Ben’s book The Intelligent Investor, which I bought in 1949. This is a must read for anyone who wants to seriously consider investing in equities. So much to learn on investing and really gels wells with my investment philosophy.
- In October 2025, Berkshire acquired OxyChem, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, in a $9.7 billion cash deal.
- The total market cap of Berkshire is now over $1 trillion dollars.
- In contrast , we’ll happily forgo knowing the price history and instead will seek whatever information will further our understanding of the company’s business .
- In April 2020, Berkshire sold all shares in the airlines due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial air transport.
I enjoy reading the letter first (with no spoilers), then peruse the various newspaper and media commentary, and finally re-read the letter again. As always, I recommend reading it yourself (only 13 pages total this year). Post that, I read another book named The Essays of Warren Buffett – it is an excellent compilation of all the letters by Lawrence A. Cunningham. Intense competition in the reinsurance business has produced major losses for practically every company operating in the area. It was really fun to read through the history and see how Buffett went from small time to big time.
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The county has an area of 1,263 km2 (488 sq mi) and a population of 911,403. Berkshire (/ˈbɑːrkʃɪər, -ʃər/ ⓘ BARK-sheer, -shər; abbreviated Berks.), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a ceremonial county in South East England. In January 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit against Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, alleging the company steered borrowers into unaffordable loans. In 2007, the company was named by Barron’s as the most respected company in the world based on a survey of American money managers.
2 ) The certainty with which management can be evaluated , both as to its ability to realize the full potential of the business and to wisely employ its cash flows ; 1 ) The certainty with which the long — term economic characteristics of the business can be evaluated ; He may even prefer not to know the company’s name . For owners of a business — and that’s the way we think of shareholders — the academics ’ definition of risk is far off the mark , so much so that it produces absurdities . We believe this margin — of — safety principle , so strongly emphasized by Ben Graham , to be the cornerstone of investment success . Second , and equally important , we insist on a margin of safety in our purchase price .
GEICO, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, primarily offers private passenger automobile insurance marketed directly to individual consumers in the United States. It included Kirby Company, which was sold in 2021, Wayne Water Systems, and Campbell Hausfeld products. In 1986, Berkshire acquired Scott Fetzer Company, a diversified group of 32 brands that manufactures and distributes products for residential, industrial, and institutional use, including Ginsu knives and World Book Encyclopedia. In 2020, Lee Enterprises acquired BH Media Group’s publications and The Buffalo News for $140 million in cash, retaining WPLG. In 2013, the company bought the Tulsa World, the Greensboro, North Carolina-based News & Record, Virginia’s Roanoke Times, and Press of Atlantic City.
Other hockey teams in the county include Tadley, Yateley, Maidenhead, Windsor, and Newbury & Thatcham Hockey Clubs. There are several amateur and semi-professional football clubs in the county. Berkshire hosts more Group 1 flat horse races than any other county. The county’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Berkshire, Heart South and Greatest Hits Radio Berkshire & North Hampshire. Abingdon Abbey once had dairy-based granges in the south-east of the county,citation needed Red Windsor cheese was developed with red marbling.
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The salary for Buffett is $100,000 per year with no stock options, which is among the lowest salaries for CEOs of large companies in the United States. The increased market liquidity resulted in the company’s inclusion in the S&P 500. In January 2010, as part of the acquisition of BNSF Railway, Berkshire completed a 50-to-1 stock split of its class B shares. Berkshire Hathaway has never undergone a stock split of its Class A shares because of management’s desire to attract long-term investors as opposed to short-term speculation. As of June 30, 2025, the company had $344 billion in Treasury bills, which together with its reported cash of $44 billion made up the largest cash position of any U.S.-based public company.
He focused on selecting stocks that would be held for the long term. As of Dec. 31, 2022, Berkshire’s public market equity portfolio was valued at more than $346 billion. Class A shares have never split and closed above $734,000 per share on October 10th of 2025 (its Class B shares traded at about $489 on the same date). Berkshire Hathaway has a long history of operating success and smart investments.
Would that description have then made any sense to someone who was offered the entire company at a vastly — reduced price ? If we calculate the value of a common stock to be only slightly higher than its price , we’re not interested in buying . Market allegory may seem out — of — date in today’s investment world , in which most professionals and academicians talk of efficient markets , dynamic hedging and betas . At other times he is depressed and can see nothing but trouble ahead for both the business and the world . At times he feels euphoric and can see only the favorable factors affecting the business .
