CNBC news anchor Becky Quick interviews Warren Buffett in early-2019.

James Campbell

2019-04-07 13:39:00 Sun ET

CNBC news anchor Becky Quick interviews Warren Buffett in early-2019. Buffett explains the fact that book value fluctuations are a metric that has lost relevance for Berkshire Hathaway over time. At least 3 circumstances lead to this outcome. First, Berkshire has gradually morphed from a company whose assets concentrate in marketable stocks into a unique public corporation whose major value resides in operating businesses. From a fundamental viewpoint, equity stakes represent key parts of corporate stock ownership and control as investors favor liquidity over managerial rent protection.

Second, the new U.S. accounting rules require the current collection of operating companies to be part of book value at a dollar sum far below their current market value. This gross undervaluation may mislead the typical retail investor.

Third, it is likely for Berkshire to reconsider significant share repurchases that take place at share prices above book value (but below the Buffett estimate of intrinsic value). Each share buyback boosts intrinsic value and also constrains the potential uptick of book value.

This combination of circumstances causes the book-value scorecard to become out of touch with economic reality. Buffett hence focuses on the Berkshire market capitalization, and this alternative better reflects business performance in practice.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Apple shakes up senior leadership to initiate a new transition from iPhone revenue reliance to media and software services.

John Fourier

2019-02-21 12:37:00 Thursday ET

Apple shakes up senior leadership to initiate a new transition from iPhone revenue reliance to media and software services.

Apple shakes up senior leadership to initiate a new transition from iPhone revenue reliance to media and software services. These changes include the key pr

+See More

President Trump allows most JFK files to be released to the general public.

James Campbell

2017-09-25 09:42:00 Monday ET

President Trump allows most JFK files to be released to the general public.

President Trump has allowed most JFK files to be released to the general public. This batch of documents reveals many details of the assassination of Presid

+See More

Timothy Geithner shares his reflections on the post-crisis macro financial stress tests for U.S. banks.

Fiona Sydney

2023-04-07 12:29:00 Friday ET

Timothy Geithner shares his reflections on the post-crisis macro financial stress tests for U.S. banks.

Timothy Geithner shares his reflections on the post-crisis macro financial stress tests for U.S. banks. Timothy Geithner (2014)   Macrofinanci

+See More

China turns on its 5G telecom networks in the hot pursuit of global tech supremacy.

Becky Berkman

2019-12-07 11:30:00 Saturday ET

China turns on its 5G telecom networks in the hot pursuit of global tech supremacy.

China turns on its 5G telecom networks in the hot pursuit of global tech supremacy. China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile disclose 5G fees of $18-$2

+See More

The world now faces an economic inequality crisis with few policy options.

Daisy Harvey

2018-01-04 07:36:00 Thursday ET

The world now faces an economic inequality crisis with few policy options.

The world now faces an economic inequality crisis with few policy options. Some recent U.S. Federal Reserve data suggest that both income and wealth inequal

+See More

Facebook, Google, and Twitter attend a U.S. House testimony on whether these tech titans filter web content for political reasons.

Amy Hamilton

2018-07-15 11:35:00 Sunday ET

Facebook, Google, and Twitter attend a U.S. House testimony on whether these tech titans filter web content for political reasons.

Facebook, Google, and Twitter attend a U.S. House testimony on whether these social media titans filter web content for political reasons. These network pla

+See More