As the company has evolved into principally a collection of operating companies—it should also gradually rise in its valuation relative to Book Value. This is a point Buffett made years earlier.

If this was a collection of stock holdings exclusively it would/should always trade at 1.0x Book value.

If Berkshire privately owned those companies, book value of Berkshire would be several times book value—I.e a similar large multiple the market prices Coke and Amex, etc today. Berkshire has considerably more ownership of private businesses than public stocks. And the public stocks are being further reduced at every turn. It becomes less and less 1985 each quarter. It’s running pretty close to treasuries now.

We’ve discussed this ad nauseum but the comparisons with Berkshire over decades using the P/BV yardstick at a valuation metric are apples to oranges.

Look through Earnings remains my favorite valuation measure. Buffett also recommends this measure. He’s a pretty good source. It cuts through a ton of noise and confusion. It’s simple. But it’s not easy.

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

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