Please be responsible for your own actions and words, and avoid blaming others or making excuses for your behavior. If you make a mistake, apologize and take steps to correct it.
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
No. of Recommendations: 3
The face page of Berkshire's 10-Q, when compared to its related News Release (p. 2), indicates to me that it repurchased some combination of A and/or B shares equivalent to approximately 174 A shares between July 1 and July 26, 2023.
If I am correct, and if the purchase was all in A shares, the lowest price in that time frame (per Yahoo Finance) was $513,874.
If it was all in B shares, the lowest price was $338.41. However, if they observed the 5% rule, it appears to me that an "all B-share purchase" would have required 3 purchase days and the 3rd-lowest price day for the B's was on July 6 at $338.91.
If I've missed something here (not unlikely), please let me know.
Phil
No. of Recommendations: 0
Thanks for this. I saw the two dates, but for some reason thought the 10-Q date was JUNE instead of July, and I was wondering why they *issued* 174 A shares.
As far as A vs B. If the volume is available, I think they'll pay at least 2% more for the A shares. 2% because Buffett has said A shares are the better deal if they're selling for less than a 2% premium to B shares.
No. of Recommendations: 3
If I've missed something here (not unlikely), please let me know.
Sounds right to me. The only 'negative' is they seem to have pulled back significantly on the amounts being purchased in July. In all of Q2 they purchased over $1B worth of shares if my calculations are correct. In July they reduced that rate to only about $80-90M. Nothing new here but seems price has possibly reached the upper bounds of what they are willing to pay.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 7
Having lived through many periods when WEB did not buy back stock and probably should have, I don't think that he would repurchase even one share at less than a 10% discount to his own calculation of IV. If you agree with my assumption, the July purchases would indicate an IV calculation of at least $570,000. The slowing pace of buy backs may mean we are getting close to IV minus whatever WEB uses as his appropriate discount for repurchases (which may well be more than 10%).
No. of Recommendations: 14
Having lived through many periods when WEB did not buy back stock and probably should have, I don't think that he would repurchase even one share at less than a 10% discount to his own calculation of IV...
There seem to be quite a few factors going into when the buybacks happen. It's not just the prevailing price or price/IV.
They seem to go on at relatively high valuations sometimes, and seem to stop at relatively low valuations at other times.
I think other factors are other [potential] short term uses for the money, and whether there is a material bit of undisclosed news (or just statements) imminent.
Not necessarily for regulatory reasons, but I suspect that things stop for a while before statements are out if the statements have any sort of surprise.
Speaking of buybacks, the overall cumulative effect of the buybacks is starting to show a bit.
In terms of economic interest, 12.02% of shares have been retired since the temporary peak share count five years ago. Due to conversions, the A-share count is down by 22.93% and the B-share count is down by 2.95%.
The count is down 12.34% from the all time peak which I think was end 2011.
I certainly don't read anything into it when buybacks stop.
But the highest valuation level at which they have taken place is worth noting.
Jim
