Whitney Tilson – I Don't Want a Dividend from Berkshire Hathaway, Let Warren Invest the Money

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Feb 27, 2012
For my money, Tilson provides the best recap of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, Financial)(BRK.B, Financial) you can get. He was on CNBC following Warren this morning and does a gracious job handling some silly questions.


- Blown away by the performance of Berkshire’s businesses


- Believes Berkshire is worth almost $180k per A share


- Can’t believe the stock price is down today


- Trading at 2.5 times the earnings of its operating businesses when you back out the investment portfolio


- Thinks it is trading at 65 cents on the dollar, believes the share repurchase program puts a floor under the share price


- There is no answer to what the catalyst will be to close this gap to intrinsic value


- Doesn’t want a dividend because he thinks Buffett is still at the top of his game and can do great things with the money


- Thinks Buffett thinks Berkshire is wildly undervalued


- $60 billion of cash and short term bonds, Buffett could buy back 20% of the outstanding shares


- Glad the successor has been picked but not named, would want to know if Buffett was leaving one year from today


- A healthy 81-year-old has another 12 years to live according to an actuarial table so Buffett will likely be running this company for 5 to 10 years


- Tilson is buying Berkshire today


- Tilson would be comfortable with 100% of his money in Berkshire for the next five years