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

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance (Part 2)

Chanel Holden

2022-02-15 14:41:00 Tuesday ET

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance (Part 2)

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance   Lee, C.M., Shleifer, A., and Thaler, R.H. (1990). Anomalies: closed-end mutual funds. Journal

+See More

Apple adds fresh features to its new iPad Pro and MacBook Air in addition to its prior suite of iPhones.

Joseph Corr

2018-11-03 11:36:00 Saturday ET

Apple adds fresh features to its new iPad Pro and MacBook Air in addition to its prior suite of iPhones.

Apple adds fresh features to its new iPad Pro and MacBook Air in addition to its prior suite of iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR back in September 20

+See More

Goop Founder and CEO Gwyneth Paltrow serves as a great inspiration for female entrepreneurs.

Laura Hermes

2019-12-01 10:31:00 Sunday ET

Goop Founder and CEO Gwyneth Paltrow serves as a great inspiration for female entrepreneurs.

Goop Founder and CEO Gwyneth Paltrow serves as a great inspiration for female entrepreneurs. Paltrow designs Goop as an online newsletter, and this newslett

+See More

The global cloud expands what can be made digitally viable from electric vehicles (EV) and virtual reality (VR) headsets to artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse.

Chanel Holden

2025-04-30 08:27:00 Wednesday ET

The global cloud expands what can be made digitally viable from electric vehicles (EV) and virtual reality (VR) headsets to artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse.

The multiple layers of the world cloud Internet help expand what can be made digitally viable from electric vehicles (EV) and virtual reality (VR) headsets

+See More

Goldman Sachs takes a $5 billion net income hit that results from its offshore cash repatriation under the Trump tax law.

Charlene Vos

2018-01-02 12:39:00 Tuesday ET

Goldman Sachs takes a $5 billion net income hit that results from its offshore cash repatriation under the Trump tax law.

Goldman Sachs takes a $5 billion net income hit that results from its offshore cash repatriation under the new Trump tax law. This income hit reflects 10%-1

+See More

Partisanship matters more than the socioeconomic influence of the rich and elite interest groups.

John Fourier

2019-08-26 11:30:00 Monday ET

Partisanship matters more than the socioeconomic influence of the rich and elite interest groups.

Partisanship matters more than the socioeconomic influence of the rich and elite interest groups. This new trend emerges from the recent empirical analysis

+See More