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- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 2
I’m going though in my mind the times that Warren has plunked down a ton of cash on marketable securities- to me it seems to have mostly been after some kind of market event, asking those on the board here to correct me or add to this if they can.
KO- purchased in 1988, after 1987 crash
IBM- purchased in 2011, after the GFC
AAPL- purchased in 2016, not quite after a meltdown, but late 2015-2016 we had a good correction
OXY- 2022 during the war in Ukraine
Good sized repurchases of Berkshire after Covid
No. of Recommendations: 3
The greatest in % of assets terms was American express after the salad oil fiasco which was 25% of investible assets at the time.
No. of Recommendations: 1
The greatest in % of assets terms was American express after the salad oil fiasco which was 25% of investible assets at the time.
It certainly would be great for someone who wants a challenge to come up with a list of the biggest investments, in proportion to Berkshire's size at the time the investments were made. I'm not sure what you mean by 'investible assets', but one might calculate the proportion of Berkshire's then market cap that was spent on stock or company acquisitions (when the full size of the positions was reached, for instance). That would be interesting, and it might give us an idea of how high Buffett might go if he gets another fat pitch to swing at.
While we're waiting for some kind soul to take on this task, who wants to guess which of the following is bigger, or add to the list:
a. GenRe
b. BNSF
c. Apple
d. Coca-Cola
e. American Express
f. Wells Fargo
I've taken a stab at their order by size, but I'm sure I'm missing some big ones, especially from the early years, and my order is surely wrong.
No. of Recommendations: 1
"Warren Buffett began buying shares of American Express during the Salad Oil Scandal of the early 1960s. At the time, he invested around $13 million, which represented roughly 40% of Berkshire Hathaway's total assets."
