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

Capital structure choices for private firms

James Campbell

2022-09-15 11:38:00 Thursday ET

Capital structure choices for private firms

Capital structure choices for private firms The Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) database provides comprehensive panel data on 5,000+ American private firms fr

+See More

Carl Icahn mulls over steps to shake up the board of SandRidge Energy after it adopts a counter poison pill.

Jacob Miramar

2017-11-29 07:42:00 Wednesday ET

Carl Icahn mulls over steps to shake up the board of SandRidge Energy after it adopts a counter poison pill.

The octogenarian billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn mulls over steps to shake up the board of SandRidge Energy after the oil-and-gas company adopt

+See More

U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson encounters Brexit defeat during his new premiership.

Chanel Holden

2019-10-15 09:13:00 Tuesday ET

U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson encounters Brexit defeat during his new premiership.

U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson encounters defeat during his new premiership. The first major vote would pave the path of least resistance to passing a no

+See More

Chicago financial economist Raghuram Rajan views communities as the third pillar of liberal democracy.

Jonah Whanau

2019-02-25 12:41:00 Monday ET

Chicago financial economist Raghuram Rajan views communities as the third pillar of liberal democracy.

Chicago financial economist Raghuram Rajan views communities as the third pillar of liberal democracy in addition to open markets and states. Rajan suggests

+See More

Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have become the most valuable public companies in the world.

Olivia London

2017-05-13 07:28:00 Saturday ET

Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have become the most valuable public companies in the world.

America's Top 5 tech firms, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have become the most valuable publicly listed companies in the world. These

+See More

Elizabeth Warren warns of Trump financial reforms that shake up the 5 key pillars of bank regulation.

Dan Rochefort

2017-11-19 08:37:00 Sunday ET

Elizabeth Warren warns of Trump financial reforms that shake up the 5 key pillars of bank regulation.

In 2000, a former law professor at Harvard proposed establishing the Financial Product Safety Commission in order to protect consumer rights in the provisio

+See More