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

U.S. trade envoy Robert Lighthizer proposes America to require regular touchpoints to ensure Sino-U.S. trade deal enforcement.

Daisy Harvey

2019-03-17 14:35:00 Sunday ET

U.S. trade envoy Robert Lighthizer proposes America to require regular touchpoints to ensure Sino-U.S. trade deal enforcement.

U.S. trade rep Robert Lighthizer proposes America to require regular touchpoints to ensure Sino-U.S. trade deal enforcement. America has to maintain the thr

+See More

Self-Improvement Book Review: The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey.

Monica McNeil

2026-05-02 10:28:00 Saturday ET

Self-Improvement Book Review: The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey.

Stephen Covey recommends the 8th habit for effective team leaders to find their own voices (in addition to the 7 habits of highly effective people). In esse

+See More

Our proprietary alpha investment model outperforms most stock market indices from 2017 to 2022.

Peter Prince

2022-02-02 10:33:00 Wednesday ET

Our proprietary alpha investment model outperforms most stock market indices from 2017 to 2022.

Our proprietary alpha investment model outperforms most stock market indices from 2017 to 2022. As of early-January 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark O

+See More

The social media factor serves as a new measure of investor sentiment in addition to the fundamental factors.

Rose Prince

2017-05-07 06:39:00 Sunday ET

The social media factor serves as a new measure of investor sentiment in addition to the fundamental factors.

While the original five-factor asset pricing model arises from a quasi-lifetime of top empirical research by Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama and his long-time co

+See More

The Phillips curve becomes the Phillips cloud with no inexorable trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

Fiona Sydney

2019-08-02 17:39:00 Friday ET

The Phillips curve becomes the Phillips cloud with no inexorable trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

The Phillips curve becomes the Phillips cloud with no inexorable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. Stanford finance professor John Cochrane disa

+See More

Persistent post-Roman European fragmentation leads to modern economic growth and development.

Jacob Miramar

2023-10-21 11:32:00 Saturday ET

Persistent post-Roman European fragmentation leads to modern economic growth and development.

Walter Scheidel indicates that persistent European fragmentation after the collapse of the Roman Empire leads to modern economic growth and development.

+See More