Warren Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway shares for $7 50 each in 1962 There are hundreds of books about Buffett’s life, advice, and methods. These are his actual letters — word for word — a “lesson plan” of his views on business and investing. You can find most of the letters for free on Berkshire’s website, but this compiles them into a well-designed, easily readable format. This book compiles the full, un-edited versions of every one of Warren Buffett’s letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. In addition to providing an astounding case study on Berkshire’s success, Buffett shows an incredible willingness to share his methods and act as a teacher to his many students. This book compiles the full, un-edited versions of 50 years of Warren Buffett’s letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. Results from Google Books Last year, Buffett was one of just 10 billionaires on The Forbes 400 list of richest American with the highest philanthropy score of 5, meaning they’ve given away at least a fifth of their fortune. If Buffett had held onto all of his Berkshire Hathaway stock, he’d be worth nearly $198.3 billion today, enough to make him the second-richest person on the planet behind Jeff Bezos, who is worth $201.5 billion, Forbes calculates. Buffett may still love Apple’s business characteristics as much as he did when he established the position, but there’s a big difference between paying a P/E multiple of 10 versus 30. Companies need to grow earnings at a high rate to justify their high multiples and for a company as large as Apple, that’s not as easy as it once was. Buffett’s decision to reduce Berkshire’s Apple holdings provides some key lessons that individual investors can learn from when managing their own portfolios. The point is, we don’t know yet exactly why he and his team decided to unload such a big chunk of Apple stock or whether they intend to keep selling or maintain most or all of their still-sizable stake. Top reviews from Australia Berkshire collected dividends during that time, but the high multiple of the late ‘90s acted as an anchor on the stock for more than a decade. Buffett seems determined to avoid the same mistake berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders with Berkshire’s Apple shares. This is sure to keep dinging the stock, but Apple bulls should hold fast. The company continues to be robustly profitable and is sure to remain so. Services If we’re lucky, the famed investor will expound on a particular move in one of his famously well-written letters to shareholders. It’s just a shame these missives are published only once per year. Buffett might also comment when asked in a public forum or TV appearance, but he usually does so quite some time after Berkshire’s made the move. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. I suppose if the author was another notable investor the curation might be useful, but that wasn’t the case. Buffett and Berkshire rarely, if ever, immediately explain why they buy or sell a stock. He is 90 years old, and he said he’d been an inactive trustee. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, and Chevron. Reviews with images Berkshire has owned shares of The Coca-Cola Company (KO 0.47%) longer than any other stock. Buffett thinks that Coke is a “truly wonderful business” that Berkshire will “maintain indefinitely.” Roughly 72% of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway portfolio is invested in just five dividend stocks. Buffett has said that many investors focus too much on avoiding taxes. It has posted a compounded annual gain of nearly 21 percent since 1965, when Buffett first took over, according to Berkshire’s 2016 annual report. Buffett was just an investor in the business like any other until a dispute arose. The management of the company offered to pay Buffett $11.50 for his shares, but later lowered the amount. “Berkshire Hathaway was closing mills, and as they closed mills it would free up some capital, and then they would re-purchase shares,” he explains. “So I bought some stock with the idea that there would be another tender offer at some point, and we would sell the stock at a modest profit.” He first purchased shares on Dec. 12, 1962 for $7.50 each. “I bought the first shares of Berkshire in 1962 and it was a northern textile business destined to become extinct eventually,” Buffett says in the documentary. Buffett was on Coca-Cola’s board of directors at the time, a position that made it difficult for him to sell the stock, even though he likely knew it was overvalued. Apple remained Berkshire’s largest stock position at the end of the second quarter, worth $84.2 billion, down from $174.3 billion at the end of 2023. Buffett started selling Apple in the fourth quarter of last year, but the selling has accelerated in 2024. In it, the company provided an update on some of the larger holdings in the equity portfolio. At the end of last December, the market value of Berkshire’s Apple position was over $173 billion. The total market value of all Berkshire equity holdings was just under $354 billion, meaning Apple comprised just over half the portfolio in terms of dollar amount. Keith Speights has positions in Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, and Chevron. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, and Chevron. The company is a Dividend King with 62 consecutive years of dividend increases. American Express (AXP 1.61%) could soon take the No. 2 spot away from Bank of America. With capital gains taxes, you don’t owe any taxes until the gain is realized, that is until you’ve sold some of the investment. Buffett clearly doesn’t mind paying taxes on gains at today’s low rates when they could be higher down the road. Individual investors can also benefit from periodic portfolio rebalancing. It was also short; the book was small with large print and still only ran a little more than 100 pages. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. Using your mobile phone camera – scan the code below and download the Kindle app. American Express is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. If history is any indication, Buffett, who’s been known to spread out his sells across quarters, will continue shedding Apple until he and his team feel the position is sized appropriately. According to The Wall Street Journal, all told, Berkshire sold $76 billion worth https://forexarena.net/ of stocks in the second quarter alone, a move that helped push up the company’s cash holdings to a new record of almost $277 billion. That business became the foundation for what is now a globally renown holding company with a market cap of more than $492 billion. Warren E. Buffett first took control of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a small textile company, in April of 1965. Fifty letters to shareholders later, the same share traded for $226,000, compounding investor capital at just under 21% per year-a multiplier of 12,556 times. By selling Berkshire’s largest position, Buffett is reducing the impact it will have on Berkshire’s value going forward. If Berkshire hadn’t sold any of its Apple shares, the stake would have been worth nearly $200 billion at the end of June, compared to Berkshire’s market cap of about $890 billion. Even if Buffett still likes Apple’s business, a stake that large would have an outsized impact on Berkshire over time. Buffett and Berkshire rarely, if ever, immediately explain why they buy or sell a stock. However, it’s currently Berkshire’s third-largest holding. To be sure, Apple isn’t known primarily as a dividend stock. However, the iPhone maker has paid and increased its dividend every year since 2012. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool’s premium services. Buffett doesn’t own many high-yield dividend stocks, but Chevron is one of the few. Chevron has increased its dividend for 37 consecutive years. Although Buffett trimmed his position in the oil giant in the first quarter of 2024, the move followed a large purchase of the stock in the fourth quarter of 2023.
