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 Biden Inflation Reduction Act is central to modern world capitalism.

Andy Yeh Alpha

2023-02-28 11:30:00 Tuesday ET

The Biden Inflation Reduction Act is central to modern world capitalism.

The Biden Inflation Reduction Act is central to modern world capitalism. As of 2022-2023, global inflation has gradually declined from the peak of 9.8% d

+See More

Is Bitcoin a legitimate (crypto)currency or a new bubble waiting to implode?

Monica McNeil

2017-11-24 08:41:00 Friday ET

Is Bitcoin a legitimate (crypto)currency or a new bubble waiting to implode?

Is Bitcoin a legitimate (crypto)currency or a new bubble waiting to implode? As its prices skyrocket, bankers, pundits, and investors increasingly take side

+See More

College education offers a hefty 8.8% pay premium for each marginal increase in the number of years of intellectual attainment.

Fiona Sydney

2018-04-29 13:44:00 Sunday ET

College education offers a hefty 8.8% pay premium for each marginal increase in the number of years of intellectual attainment.

College education offers a hefty 8.8% pay premium for each marginal increase in the number of years of intellectual attainment in contrast to the 5.6%-6% lo

+See More

The Trump administration weighs the pros and cons of a potential mega merger between AT&T and Time Warner.

Laura Hermes

2018-05-08 13:39:00 Tuesday ET

The Trump administration weighs the pros and cons of a potential mega merger between AT&T and Time Warner.

The Trump administration weighs the pros and cons of a potential mega merger between AT&T and Time Warner. Recent stock prices show favorable trends for

+See More

Mark Granovetter follows the key principles of modern economic sociology to analyze social relations and economic phenomena.

Charlene Vos

2023-02-21 08:27:00 Tuesday ET

Mark Granovetter follows the key principles of modern economic sociology to analyze social relations and economic phenomena.

Mark Granovetter follows the key principles of modern economic sociology to analyze social relations and economic phenomena. Mark Granovetter (2017) &

+See More

Amazon faces E.U. antitrust scrutiny over the current e-commerce use of merchant data.

Olivia London

2019-08-16 17:37:00 Friday ET

Amazon faces E.U. antitrust scrutiny over the current e-commerce use of merchant data.

Amazon faces E.U. antitrust scrutiny over the current e-commerce use of merchant data. The European Commission probes into whether Amazon uses key third-par

+See More