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

Spotify considers directly selling its shares to the retail public with no underwriter involvement.

Rose Prince

2018-01-08 10:37:00 Monday ET

Spotify considers directly selling its shares to the retail public with no underwriter involvement.

Spotify considers directly selling its shares to the retail public with no underwriter involvement. The music-streaming company plans a direct list on NYSE

+See More

Stanford computer science overlords Larry Page and Sergey Brin design Google as an Internet search company.

Charlene Vos

2020-03-05 08:28:00 Thursday ET

Stanford computer science overlords Larry Page and Sergey Brin design Google as an Internet search company.

The Stanford computer science overlords Larry Page and Sergey Brin design and develop Google as an Internet search company. Janet Lowe (2009) Google s

+See More

Value investment strategies make investors wiser like water with core fundamental factor analysis.

Jacob Miramar

2018-04-17 12:38:00 Tuesday ET

Value investment strategies make investors wiser like water with core fundamental factor analysis.

Value investment strategies make investors wiser like water with core fundamental factor analysis. Value investors tend to buy stocks below their intrinsic

+See More

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing announces his retirement in March 2018 with an incredible rags-to-riches life story.

John Fourier

2018-03-11 08:27:00 Sunday ET

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing announces his retirement in March 2018 with an incredible rags-to-riches life story.

At 89 years old, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing announces his retirement in March 2018. With a personal net worth of $35 billion, Li has an incredible ra

+See More

Apple revises down its global sales revenue estimate to $83 billion due to subpar smartphone sales in China.

James Campbell

2019-01-09 07:33:00 Wednesday ET

Apple revises down its global sales revenue estimate to $83 billion due to subpar smartphone sales in China.

Apple revises down its global sales revenue estimate to $83 billion due to subpar smartphone sales in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook points out the fact that he

+See More

American state attorneys general begin bipartisan antitrust investigations into Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Charlene Vos

2019-10-21 10:35:00 Monday ET

American state attorneys general begin bipartisan antitrust investigations into Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

American state attorneys general begin bipartisan antitrust investigations into the market power and corporate behavior of central tech titans such as Apple

+See More