This is a ChatGPT-free Zone
I am not a big fan of closed end funds, but if something is trading at a steep discount, we have to take a look. In general, a lot of funds have expense ratios in the 1%-2% range, sometimes higher. So in my mind, they deserve to trade at a discount to net asset value…
In Search of Premium to Book Value So in the last post, we found that the deferred tax assets (unrealized capital gains on stock holdings) is deducted from BRK’s total shareholders’ equity and not from the insurance segment shareholders’ equity. So when figuring the total value of BRK, the deferred taxes can be added back….
In Search of a Premium to Book Value We looked at the two column method of BRK valuation and saw that yes, BRK is in fact cheap trading at 20-30% less than something like $150,000/share in intrinsic value. However, we also noticed that if you value the investments held on BRK’s books dollar for dollar,…
Let’s look at the basic model for valuing Berkshire Hathaway. It’s the model that is endorsed by Buffett himself in his annual reports. BRK basically breaks down into two basic components: An insurance company A bunch of wholly owned operating businesses. In what is usually called the two column valuation method, the insurance…
I’ve been thinking a lot about Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) lately. It’s still one of the best investments out there for most people. I don’t think it’s the highest return investment around, but an investment in Berkshire Hathaway at the current price is far better in my mind than owning the S&P 500 index or most…
I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about where the markets are going to go, either up or down, but I do pay attention to what people say and see if there is anything useful in it. There are all sorts of reasons why the market will be flat for the next decade…
As usual, I was browsing the new lows list and noticed that Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) was hitting new lows every day. Well, of course it’s hitting new lows every day. This is a Greek company. But since it kept hitting new lows every single day, I decided to take a quick look as I really…
On November 21, Alleghany (Y) and Transatlantic (TRH) announced a merger. Since I mentioned Y here, I feel obliged to make a comment. I haven’t really ever looked at TRH in detail so I don’t know, but assuming that the folks at Y know what they’re doing (which has been my contention) then this is probably a…
Fairfax Financial Holdings is yet another financial company (insurance) that is run by an incredible manager that has done really well over the years. I know, I know. This is getting boring. Just talking about well-run financial institutions trading at book value is not interesting or exciting at all. I’d rather write about some interesting…
There was a decent article on Sony in Businessweek this week (read here). As I said before in another post, Sony is a company/stock that I would love to love. I grew up with the brand and I think it still has a very strong presence in Japan and globally and does have strong brand…