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

The U.S. further derisks and decouples from China.

Peter Prince

2023-05-31 03:15:40 Wednesday ET

The U.S. further derisks and decouples from China.

The U.S. further derisks and decouples from China.   Why does the U.S. seek to further economically decouple from China? In recent times, th

+See More

Berkeley professor and economist Barry Eichengreen reconciles the nominal and real interest rates to argue in favor of greater fiscal deficits.

Joseph Corr

2019-05-23 10:33:00 Thursday ET

Berkeley professor and economist Barry Eichengreen reconciles the nominal and real interest rates to argue in favor of greater fiscal deficits.

Berkeley professor and economist Barry Eichengreen reconciles the nominal and real interest rates to argue in favor of greater fiscal deficits. French econo

+See More

Conservative Party wins the British parliamentary majority in the general election with hefty British pound appreciation.

Jonah Whanau

2020-01-08 08:25:00 Wednesday ET

Conservative Party wins the British parliamentary majority in the general election with hefty British pound appreciation.

Conservative Party wins the British parliamentary majority in the general election with hefty British pound appreciation. In response to this general electi

+See More

Amazon acquires an Internet pharmacy PillPack in order to better compete with Walgreens and many other drug distributors.

Peter Prince

2018-06-29 11:41:00 Friday ET

Amazon acquires an Internet pharmacy PillPack in order to better compete with Walgreens and many other drug distributors.

Amazon acquires an Internet pharmacy PillPack in order to better compete with Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS Health, Rite Aid, and many other drug distributo

+See More

Several pharmaceutical companies now switch their primary focus from generic prescription drugs to medical specialties.

Rose Prince

2018-10-15 09:33:00 Monday ET

Several pharmaceutical companies now switch their primary focus from generic prescription drugs to medical specialties.

Several pharmaceutical companies now switch their primary focus from generic prescription drugs to medical specialties such as cardiovascular medications an

+See More

St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard indicates that his ideal baseline scenario remains a mutually beneficial China-U.S. trade deal.

Charlene Vos

2019-06-09 11:29:00 Sunday ET

St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard indicates that his ideal baseline scenario remains a mutually beneficial China-U.S. trade deal.

St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard indicates that his ideal baseline scenario remains a mutually beneficial China-U.S. trade deal. Bullard ind

+See More