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Cat, I figured you would at least take the time to read the article before dissing them [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
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Hey I read 40 quarterly reports yesterday, I only have so much time
But I was pretty accurate for not reading the article, wasn't I? My problem with these "Buffett owns" articles is many times it's Lou Simpson (which Morningstar pointed out in paragraph 7 after touting these as "buffett's Portfolio").
Now I agree with Morningstar, Lou's a hell of an investor too. But it's a bit of false advertising for their article, isn't it?
The real problem is that even though Buffett owns a position, say KO, would he buy it at today's prices? Probably not. Would Buffett buy any of these positions if his portfolio was only $10M in size? Probably not.
Almost every investor has a much wider universe to select from than Buffett or Simpson do. The idea of trying to produce good returns by buying their old ideas at higher prices than they paid strikes me as not very fruitful. If you want to do that, the best option really is to do a good job of estimating Berkshire Hathaway's intrinsic value, and buy it when it's cheap. Then you get Lou and Warren working for you for free
If you really want to understand what Buffett is buying and why, check out his annual reports on BerkshireHathaway.com. They are very readable, and he does break out his largest positions in the portfolio. Reading his opinions directly is much better than having some analyst trying to figure them out from afar.