Lots of people show up to pay homage to the Oracle of Omaha. Are they a bunch of idiots? The short answer is yes.
Buffett was great for many decades, but he's currently 93. Is age an issue, does he really have a good succession plan...is not running the show? The answer is all bad. It's 100% Buffett, especially with the recent death of his partner Munger. You bet the farm with someone his age?
Then there's his recent performance. Since 2010 Berkshire Hathaway has underperformed the SP500 (albeit they've edged the index by 1.5% since 2019). But let's not forget that Buffett has 40% of his money invested one stock, Apple Computer (which makes almost 60% of its revenue from iPhone sales).
You get much greater diversification investing in an SP 500 index fund (meaning lower risk) plus you save hotel and airfare each year avoiding their stupid party.
Or you can invest in the Spritzler Defense Index Fund...we invest in companies that sell military hardware to the US Gov and NATO...and I can assure you this is a license to print the green stuff. Risk? You kidding me?
Warren Buffett Praises Apple After Berkshire Hathaway Cuts Stake
The storied investor also pays tribute to his late business partner Charlie Munger
By Karen Langley, WSJ
Updated May 4, 2024
OMAHA, Neb.—Warren Buffett is still a big fan of Apple
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The legendary investor praised the iPhone maker on Saturday from the stage of his annual meeting, even after revealing that Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B 0.07%increase; green up pointing triangle had slashed its stake in the first quarter. He hinted that tax considerations may have played into the decision.
Buffett told an arena of Berkshire shareholders that Apple is “an even better business” than American Express and Coca-Cola, two other big positions in his company’s massive stock portfolio.
Berkshire sold about 13% of its mammoth stake in Apple in the first months of 2024, leaving it with $135.4 billion of the iPhone maker’s shares at the end of March, according to a regulatory filing released Saturday morning.
Apple shares dropped 11% in the first quarter as iPhone sales slumped in China.
“Unless something really extraordinary happens we will own Apple, American Express and Coca-Cola when Greg takes over this place,” Buffett said.
Greg Abel, Buffett’s designated successor as chief executive of Berkshire, sat beside him on the stage, while Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, watched from the crowd.
Buffett, the Berkshire chairman and chief executive, said it is “extremely likely” that Apple will remain the company’s largest stock position at the end of the year.
By contrast, he said Berkshire has sold its position in Paramount Global, which has been the subject of unfolding merger drama. Its shares are down 13% this year.
“We’ve sold it all, and we lost quite a bit of money,” said Buffett, who dismissed any speculation that one of his lieutenants was responsible for the investment. “I did it all by myself.”
Investors from around the world have flocked to Omaha to hear Buffett, 93 years old, hold forth on investing, business and life. The meeting is significant for many as the first without Buffett’s late business partner Charlie Munger, who died in November at age 99.
Buffett himself fell back into the rhythm of past Berkshire meetings when he accidentally said “Charlie” instead of “Greg” as he turned to the man beside him. The crowd broke into applause.
Asked about his most trusted advisers today, Buffett said that he trusts his children and wife totally, “but that doesn’t mean I ask them what stocks to buy.”
“In terms of managing money there wasn’t anybody better in the world to talk to for many, many decades than Charlie,” Buffett said.
The short movie that preceded the Q&A session was a tribute to Munger. It featured clips of his appearances over the years on TV shows like “Breaking Bad,” “Desperate Housewives” and “The Office,” as well as clips of Munger’s memorable lines at past annual meetings. It concluded with a montage of famous real-life and fictitious duos that ended with Buffett and Munger. Munger then received a standing ovation from the crowd.
At events leading up to the annual meeting, visitors spoke frequently of Munger. His death prompted shareholder Melissa Vainik and her mother, Rosalyn Slater, to travel again to Omaha from West Bloomfield, Mich. Slater recalled appreciating Munger’s “biting humor.”
“Because of his passing, we felt the need to come,” Vainik said. “What if something happens to Warren Buffett and then it’s the end of an era?”
Buffett has long served as Berkshire’s chief stock picker. Asked Saturday whether Abel or investment managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler would take over Berkshire’s investment portfolio in the future, Buffett said the company’s board will decide. But he said his own thinking on the matter has developed.
“I would leave the capital allocation to Greg,” Buffett said. “He understands business extremely well. If you understand businesses you understand common stocks. If you really know how business works you are an investment manager.”
Shareholders lined up before sunrise to hear Buffett live in an arena by the Missouri River. Early birds aiming for a good seat had the chance to enter the convention center’s parking lots at 3:30 a.m. local time Saturday.
Nearby hotels filled up early. On the Friday and Saturday nights of last year’s annual meeting, 93% of hotel rooms in the county were filled, according to Visit Omaha.
At the exhibit hall, shareholders walked by a towering inflatable Geico gecko to snap up Squishmallows plush toys in the form of Buffett and Munger from subsidiary Jazwares. They queued to tour a mock-up of a NetJets private plane while eating frozen treats from Dairy Queen.
LaWanda Cartwright, a semiretired kindergarten teacher, traveled to Omaha from Auburn, Wash., with her son and teenage granddaughter. Years ago, Cartwright decided to give her grandchildren a share of Berkshire instead of a toy for gifts. “You own a little bit of Dairy Queen,” she would tell them when they visited the chain.
“So it made them aware of investment possibilities,” Cartwright said.
Saturday’s events kicked off with the release of Berkshire’s results for the first quarter. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose to $11.2 billion from $8.1 billion last year.
Berkshire’s cash pile rose to a record $189 billion, including cash equivalents, from $167.6 billion at the end of last year. Followers of the company have been looking for clues about what Buffett might do with the cash hoard, from acquiring a new business to buying stocks to stepping up share repurchases. Berkshire doesn’t pay a dividend.
Buffett said Saturday that he and his deputies don’t know how to use the cash effectively “and therefore we don’t use it.”
“We only swing at pitches we like,” he added.