By: Parker Bazaz & Matthew Layden
Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company for a variety of businesses. Berkshire is run by Warren Buffet who is the CEO and chairman, and Charlie Munger who is the vice chairman. The company owns a variety of private companies and has a significant minority stake in other public companies. However, insurance companies represent a large portion of Berkshire's holdings. Some of the companies Berkshire owns are Duracell, International Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, NetJets, and GEICO. Berkshire also has a large investment portfolio and some of the companies they are investing in are Apple, Bank of America, Occidental Petroleum, Chevron, Coca-Cola, and American Express. Warren Buffet's investment strategy is value investing. Value investing is looking for securities with prices that have low market value, based on their intrinsic worth. This is basically saying that Buffett looks for companies with a market value lower than what he believes their intrinsic value is. If the company falls under this criteria he is likely to invest.
Berkshire is one of the largest companies based on market capitalization with a market cap of a little over 800 million. The company has two classes of stock, split into ¨A¨ shares and ¨B¨ shares. Both stocks follow the same chart however A shares are the most expensive single share as they trade for over half a million dollars. B shares are more affordable and trade for around $350.
Berkshire also holds an annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. The shareholder meeting is in early May. In 2023 over 30,000 people attended the meeting. Any shareholder of Berkshire Holder can get up to 4 tickets to the meeting no matter what class of stock they own. At the annual meeting there is a Q&A session with Buffett and Munger who answer the audience questions. There are also shops of the companies that Berkshire owns throughout the convention center. It is a great experience for anybody interested in the company or finance in general.
Comments