Warren Buffett is the most respected and successful investor in history. Buffett has been called “The Oracle of Omaha” for his impressive investing prowess. As of September 2007, he was the third richest person in the world. Buffett studied under the legendary Benjamin Graham at Columbia University. Graham had a major impact on Buffett’s life and investment strategies. Buffett is Chairman of the miraculous Berkshire Hathaway, which he built from a textile company into a major corporation with a market cap in excess of $200 billion. Under Buffett’s leadership, Berkshire shares averaged a 21.4% compounded annual gain in per-share book value from 1965-2006.
Investing Philosophy:
Warren Buffett follows a value investing strategy that is an adaptation of Benjamin Graham’s approach. His investment strategy of discipline, patience and value consistently outperforms the market and his moves are followed by thousands of investors worldwide. Buffett seeks to acquire great companies trading at a discount to their intrinsic value, and to hold them for a long time. He will only invest in businesses that he understands, and always insists on a margin of safety. Regarding the types of businesses Berkshire likes to purchase, Buffett stated, “We want businesses to be one (a) that we can understand; (b) with favorable long-term prospects; (c) operated by honest and competent people; and (d) available at a very attractive price.”
With so much attention being paid to Buffett's recent acquisition of BNI (myself included), little has been written about his other recent transactions. In the third quarter of 2009, Buffett added two new positions from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA, to Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio: Exxon Mobil and Travelers. In addition, he also doubled Berkshire’s stake in Walmart. Currently, Buffett has forty-three stocks in his portfolio, worth a total of approximately fifty six-billion dollars. It seems that as Buffett's portfolio grows, he is forced to buy only the big blue chip stocks, thereby making it harder for him to beat the market. More...
Recently, Berkshire filed its mandatory disclosures detailing its positions in various securities. As a result, you will undoubtedly see headlines beginning "Buffet Buys X Stock" and "Buffett Sells Y Stock". And when word gets out that Buffett has bought a particular stock, its shares jump immediately. After all, if the Oracle of Omaha wants into a company, surely it has a bright future, right? Unfortunately, determining whether Buffett has actually bought a company is not so easy. More...
Warren Buffett, Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway, participated in an interview on The Charlie Rose Show that was broadcast on November 13, 2009. The following are the highlights: More...
I know this is probably the millionth article written about Buffett's recent bid for BNI, but I thought I had something to add to the controversy over his move. I was disappointed by the interview with Charlie Rose, since there was only a few minutes devoted to the BNI acquisition. More...
Berkshire Hathaway has released a new 13-F filing today which reveals the composition of the company’s equity portfolio as of September 30, 2009. In addition, the company released an amended 13-F filing for Q2 which shows a position in Exxon Mobil as of June 30, 2009. This was previously not disclosed due to Berkshire’s request for confidential treatment for the position. More...
The long awaited portfolio update of Warren Buffett is out today. His largest purchase in Q3: WalMart. He got into Republic Services Inc., a Bill Gates holding. These are the details. More...
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, who agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. in his biggest takeover, said the railroad’s results in the next 100 years will justify a $26 billion bid that’s “not a bargain.” Bloomberg's Monica Bertran reports. More...
Imagine for a moment that you were approached by a very wealthy foundation, and they asked you to invest their money. They offer a low asset-based fee, but the assets are so large that it looks like a dream to you. Then they tell you the conditions: More...
(GuruFocus, November 13, 2009)As promised, we will make available the video of the event if and when it is available. The video is here. Hat Tip to Ravi Nagarajan, who wrote a review piece on his blog.More...
Warren Buffett probably boosted Andrew Ross Sorkin's bottom line a good bit tonight by plugging Sorkin's new book during a town hall event with Columbia Business School students that aired on CNBC. More...
As a prelude for tonight's big show featuring both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, CNBC has the following survey conducted among the Columbia Business School students: More...
Tom Gayner is the Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Of Markel Corp and President of Markel Gayner Asset Management, Inc. since December of 1990. The asset under management is about $2 billion. Markel Corp. has a market cap of $3.21 billion; its shares were traded at around $327.41 with a P/E ratio of 13.16 and P/S ratio of 1.69. (See Guruek’s article on 3Q performance of Markel Corp.) Over the last 10 years, Mr. Gayner has averaged an investment return of 14.3% a year, compared with S&P500s 7.6% over the same period. He is also the director of Colfax Company (industrial) and The Washington Post Company (news media). More...
Warren Buffett’s position on gold is well known, if a little difficult to fathom. This is from Buffett’s appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box on March 9, 2009, but could have been taken from any of his commentary over the last fifty years: More...
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