Warren Buffett: Performance streak may end this year
Berkshire Hathaway may end a long streak of outperforming the S&P 500 this year, Chief Executive Warren Buffett warned shareholders on Friday, even as he said he was still eagerly hunting for acquisitions to grow the ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate.
In his annual letter to investors, Buffett opened up with a caution that this year, for the first time, the growth in Berkshire's book value per share may under perform the growth in the S&P 500 when measured over a five-year period. "To date, we've never had a five-year period of under performance, having managed 43 times to surpass the S&P over such a stretch," he wrote. "But the S&P has now had gains in each of the last four years, outpacing us over that period.
If the market continues to advance in 2013, our streak of five-year wins will end." Buffett said he expects the growth in Berkshire's intrinsic business value will over time exceed the S&P's returns by small margins. But at the same time, he said the firm would continue to under perform in a strong market like this year. Long-time Berkshire investors said they detected almost a sense of frustration in this year's letter.
"He's gotten away from some of the things that used to just matter to him so much," said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. "He has so much capital I don't think he can just rely on a stock portfolio the way he used to."Just last month, Berkshire struck
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