Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway AGM 2023: Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger concluded the Q&A session today. They covered a lot of ground, including regional banking troubles, their scepticism around artificial intelligence “hype,” the rationale behind Berkshire’s recent investments in Japan, and the dollar’s status as a reserve currency, while offering up patented advice on investing. Earlier, Berkshire Hathaway announced that its fiscal first quarter net profit soared to as much as $35.5 billion, with the firm’s cash hoard topping $130 billion.
Warren Buffett AGM 2023 Highlights: Berkshire Hathaway 59th shareholder meeting
“Berkshire only paid dividends once in his life, and it was a mistake.” – Warren Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway has a float of $165 billion on its books at the end of March, says Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett earlier today said that while AI can help screen for stocks that fall under certain parameters, it has its limitations beyond that. “I don’t think it’s going to tell you what stocks to buy. It can tell me every stock that meets a certain criteria, or criteria in three seconds. But it has decided limitations in some ways. You ought to see the jokes it came up with.”
Warren Buffett reads out Berkshire Hathaway fiscal first quarter earnings at the Q&A session ahead of the annual general meeting. Earlier today, Berkshire Hathaway reported a net profit of $35.5 billion in January-March.
Warren Buffett acknowledges presence of Berkshire Hathaway's insurance business head Ajit Jain, amog Greg Able and other senior executives of the firm.
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have taken the stage to address a two-part question-and-answer session, ahead of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled later today.
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger greeted shareholders with a welcome video starring actress Jamie Lee Curtis. Buffett asked the actress to convince Munger to snap up stocks in “this something called the Internet.”
Warren Buffett will likely talk about some of his own investing mistakes during the Q&A today.
Today, thousands of people gather to listen to Berkshire Hathaway’s chief Warren Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska. The annual gathering doubles as a showcase for the company’s businesses and a platform for its billionaire chairman and CEO to share his investing philosophy with thousands of fans.
Warren Buffett shares a letter with investors every year, along with the financial report of Berkshire Hathaway. Earlier this year, the most awaited letter was published in which Warren Buffett gave a few important lessons to investors. He called the critics of share-buyback economic illiterate or silver-tongued demagogues.
Warren Buffett earlier this year talked about his long-time friend and business partner Charlie Munger in his annual letter to the investors that was published along with Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report. Warren Buffett listed a few of Munger’s thoughts and gave a piece of advice to investors, “Find a very smart high-grade partner preferably slightly older than you and then listen very carefully to what he says.”
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold billions of dollars worth of stock and invested a tiny amount in the US equity market in the first three months of the year, as the famed investor saw little appeal in a volatile market. Berkshire disclosed on Saturday that it had sold shares worth $13.3bn in the first quarter and bought stocks worth just a fraction of that figure.
Berkshire Hathaway’s auto insurer Geico experienced a big turnaround in the first quarter, after profiting from higher average premiums and a reduction in advertising costs. Geico posted an underwriting profit of $703 million. The auto insurer suffered a $1.9 billion pretax underwriting loss last year as it lost market share to competitor Progressive.
An accounting compulsion requires Berkshire Hathaway to report unrealized gains and losses with net results, and Warren Buffett urges investors to ignore the resulting volatility.
Berkshire Hathaway sped up repurchases of its own stock, buying back $4.4 billion, while paring its investments in other stocks such as Chevron Corp, which is still a major holding.
“Investors shouldn’t expect a change of leadership at the top of Berkshire Hathaway anytime soon, even though Chairman Warren Buffett is 92 and his partner Charlie Munger is 99.” – Longtime board member Ron Olson.
Greg Abel will be joining Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on stage Saturday, answering questions about non-insurance operations.
Despite managing $347 billion in invested assets, Warren Buffett’s portfolio consists largely of just 11 stocks, accounting for 89% of his total holdings. Tech-stock Apple has been dubbed by the Oracle of Omaha as one of Berkshire Hathaway’s “four giants.” Apple is, by far, Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holding by market value, and has received $214 million in dividend income this quarter.
NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty plans to make a statement at the Berkshire annual meeting on Saturday, May 6 in Omaha, Nebraska.
National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), the sponsor of a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder has proposed to separate the roles of Chairman and CEO. Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder NLPC is criticizing Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for politicized philanthropy.
Warren Buffett may talk on recent U.S. bank seizures, Federal Reserve efforts to bring down inflation while avoiding recession, and the potential fallout if lawmakers in Washington do not raise the ceiling on how much debt the federal government can take on.
Warren Buffett will preside over Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual meeting for the 59th time today as investors make their pilgrimage to hear the investing legend, at a time of turmoil for the banking industry and as trouble looms for the US economy.
Prior to the Annual Shareholders Meeting, Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s Vice Chairman, Greg Abel, Vice Chairman Non-Insurance Operations and Ajit Jain, Vice Chairman Insurance Operations, will hold a question-and-answer session that will commence at approximately 9:15 a.m. Central time.
Berkshire Class A shares are up 4.9% this year through Friday’s close, behind the S&P 500′s 7.7% jump. However, the stock is less than 3% below an all-time high.
“The amount of investment gains (losses) in any given quarter is usually meaningless and delivers figures for net earnings per share that can be extremely misleading to investors who have little or no knowledge of accounting rules” – Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway’s operating earnings, encompassing profits from the conglomerate’s fully-owned businesses, totalled $8.065 billion in the first quarter, up 12.6% from $7.16 billion a year prior.
Berkshire Hathaway's insurance investment income jumped 68% to $1.969 billion from $1.170 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway's profit from insurance underwriting came in at $911 million, up sharply from $167 million a year prior.
Berkshire Hathaway’s cash hoard swelled to $130.616 billion from $128 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Berkshire Hathaway’s net earnings, which includes short-term investment gains, jumped to $35.5 billion in the quarter from $5.6 billion in the same period a year ago, reflecting a first-quarter comeback in Warren Buffett’s equity investments and income.