$35B rebound for Berkshire's stocks
| Berkshire's portfolio rebounding with market The market value of Berkshire Hathaway's publicly-disclosed portfolio of U.S. stocks has bounced back somewhat over the past three weeks.
It's currently valued at $194 billion, up 22% from its weekly low of $159 billion on March 20. Over the same period, the S&P has gained 21%.
Since February 21 when Wall Street's coronavirus sell-off was just beginning to gain steam, the portfolio has lost $53 billion in value, a drop of 21% vs. the S&P's 16% decline.  These calculations assume holdings haven't changed since the end of December, as disclosed by Berkshire in mid-February, except for interim disclosures of relatively small changes for Delta Air, Southwest Airlines, DaVita, and Bank of New York Mellon (see below).
While it's all we have, that assumption may not reflect reality. Buffett and his portfolio managers may have been picking up bargains as stocks plunged on coronavirus fears.
We probably won't find out until mid-May when Berkshire tells us what it held as of the end of March.
Bank of New York stock sales bring stake just below 10% Late Thursday, Berkshire disclosed the sale of a little more than 869 million shares of Bank of New York Mellon valued at $32 million. They represented just about 1% of Berkshire's $3.3 billion stake.
Berkshire now holds 9.96% of the bank's outstanding shares. That's just below the 10% level that triggers a regulatory review. Presumably, stock repurchases by the bank had pushed Berkshire just above 10%.
It appears to be a similar situation as last week's sales of Delta and Southwest shares that also brought Berkshire's stakes in those airlines below 10%.
For all three of them, getting under the 10% level appears to be the driving factor, not a loss of faith on Buffett's part.
Buffett slips to #4 slot in Forbes' list of world's richest billionaires Warren Buffett is the world's fourth richest billionaire with an estimated net worth of $67.5 billion, according to the annual ranking by Forbes. LVMH's Bernard Arnault and his family, number four last year, moved ahead of Buffett with an estimated $76 billion this year.
Like last year, Jeff Bezos is at the top of the list, even though he transferred $36 billion of Amazon shares to his ex-wife in their divorce settlement. His net worth is estimated to be $113 billion.
Buffett's friend Bill Gates is number two with $98 billion.
Berkshire's GEICO gives policyholders credits as virus reduces driving The coronavirus "stay at home" orders around the country have kept many cars off the roads, reducing the number of vehicle collisions.
As a result, Berkshire's GEICO is offering around $2.5 billion of credits to its 19 million policyholders. Policies up for renewal between April 8 and October 7 will get a 15% credit at renewal. New policies bought during the same period will also get the credit.
Other auto insurers are announcing similar measures. BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription
BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
  BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS
 Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of December 31, 2019, as disclosed in the company's February 14 13F SEC filing, except for Bank of New York Mellon, which is as of April 8, 2020.
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.
For information on how to protect yourself and what to do if you think you are sick, go to the CDC's Coronavirus (COVID-19) information page.
-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Post a Comment