PDA

View Full Version : Berk Hath Bstock?


DrGutshot
04-10-2005, 04:25 PM
Wondering if any of you stock-gurus know much about it. I've read their reports and it sounds like a good pick. I just cashed out a bunch and am gonna split investing in vanguard500index and brk.b. sound reasonable?

-DrG

parttimepro
04-11-2005, 12:16 PM
Sounds fine. I'm sure you know about Buffett and his investing philosophy. One issue right now is that Berkshire has a lot of money sitting in cash, so the stock will be less volatile than the market as a whole. The other big question is what happens when Buffett retires or dies. I think he's built up a good team there that can continue to do value investing, but the stock may take a big one-time he when he leaves.
On the plus side, owning even 1 share will give you a discount on your car insurance through Geico. For me it's about $120/year, which works out to a 4% dividend.

DrGutshot
04-11-2005, 03:06 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Sounds fine. I'm sure you know about Buffett and his investing philosophy. One issue right now is that Berkshire has a lot of money sitting in cash, so the stock will be less volatile than the market as a whole. The other big question is what happens when Buffett retires or dies. I think he's built up a good team there that can continue to do value investing, but the stock may take a big one-time he when he leaves.
On the plus side, owning even 1 share will give you a discount on your car insurance through Geico. For me it's about $120/year, which works out to a 4% dividend.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, Buffet's retirement was my biggest worry as well.

Thanks for your reply though, it was very helpful.

-DrG

admo415
04-11-2005, 03:18 PM
Sorry what, you get a discount on car insurance?

I own some, did not know that, are you sure?

parttimepro
04-11-2005, 06:07 PM
Yeah, I was surprised too. I applied online for insurance on geico.com (which is owned by Berkshire), and one of the questions was whether you are a Berkshire shareholder. Later I looked at the discounts I was getting, and one of them was $60/6 months for being a shareholder. Maybe people who invest in Berkshire tend to be more prudent than day traders?

GeorgeF
04-12-2005, 06:16 PM
If Buffett dies does the stock price go up or down? Once Buffett is out of the picture, they might pay a dividend. Also note that Buffett sidekick, Charlie Munger has for the most part retired without any change in the stock price.

A bigger retirement problem at BRK is what happens when the people who run all those 'wonderfull' companies he bought start retiring/dying.

DesertCat
04-13-2005, 12:59 AM
[ QUOTE ]
If Buffett dies does the stock price go up or down? Once Buffett is out of the picture, they might pay a dividend. Also note that Buffett sidekick, Charlie Munger has for the most part retired without any change in the stock price.

A bigger retirement problem at BRK is what happens when the people who run all those 'wonderfull' companies he bought start retiring/dying.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the price action is immediately down, then back up as the new mgmt starts unlocking some value, probably through a dividend as you said. New mgmt is unlikly to be able to invest $40B or so, and Buffett's foundation will require cash for it's charitable activities.

Many of the subsidaries are franchises that have some competitive barriers, so they can probably get by without top notch management for a while. But you are still reliant on the new BRK mgmt to recruit and manage the "new blood" effectively and you won't see their results for years, maybe decades.

DiamondDave
04-16-2005, 01:43 AM
I think you may have to register the shares in your own name to get the discount. I bought some for my IRA, but I don't get the discount.