Warren Buffett took the helm of Berkshire Hathaway in 1964, when its book value per share was $19.46 and its intrinsic value per share was far lower. Today, its book value per share is around $155,501* and its intrinsic value is far higher. The growth rate in book value per share during that period is 19.2%*compounded annually.
From “The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America” (Third Edition) By Lawrence A. Cunningham, Warren E. Buffett * Updated from Berkshire Hathaway 2015 annual report
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Panel (Part 1): “Why did you buy Berkshire Hathaway stock?”
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Panel (Part 2): “What’s the best advice you received from Warren Buffett?”
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Panel (Part 3): “What aspects of Berkshire Hathaway can be emulated?”
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Panel (Part 4): “What are the flaws in the Berkshire model?”
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Panel (Part 5): Audience Q&A
About the Speakers
Paul Lountzis serves as President of Lountzis Asset Management, LLC, which he founded in 2000 and is based in Wyomissing, PA. He has more than 25 years experience in the investment industry, beginning his career with Royce & Associates, a New York City-based investment advisory firm managing the Royce Mutual funds. Mr. Lountzis spent nine years – the last five as a partner – at Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, Inc., an investment advisory firm managing more than $9 billion, including the Sequoia Mutual Fund. At Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, Inc., Bill Ruane assigned him to conduct a number of specific research projects for the consideration of Warren E. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.
Thomas Russo commits capital to leading global consumer products companies whose brands enjoy growing market shares in parts of the world undergoing economic growth and enjoying increasing political stability. He prefers companies with sufficient cash flows from existing operations, combined with balance-sheet strength, to allow investments to activate emerging markets. He backs rare management teams willing to invest to secure robust future returns even when such investments burden current reported profits. Mr. Russo believes that family-controlled companies are often uniquely well positioned to bear burdens on reported profits in pursuit of long-term gains. Accordingly, he often invests in public companies where founding families still retain control and significant investment exposure, to reduce management agency costs and to align owner interests. As a Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner LLC, Mr. Russo oversees Semper Vic Partnerships, as well as separately managed accounts. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Stanford Business and Law Schools. Memberships include Dean’s Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, Dartmouth College’s President’s Leadership Council, Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing (Columbia), Facing History and Ourselves and Storm King Art Center.
Whitney Tilson is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kase Capital Management, which manages three value-oriented hedge funds. He is also the co-founder of Value Investor Insight, an investment newsletter. Mr. Tilson has co-authored two books, The Art of Value Investing: How the World’s Best Investors Beat the Market and More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times. He was one of the authors of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, the definitive book on Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, and has written for Forbes, the Financial Times, Kiplinger’s, the Motley Fool and TheStreet.com. He was named by Institutional Investor in 2007 as one of 20 Rising Stars, has appeared dozens of times on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network, was on the cover of the July 2007 Kiplinger’s, has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and has spoken widely on value investing and behavioral finance. Mr. Tilson received an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School, where he was elected a Baker Scholar, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in Government.
Jason Zweig (moderator) is the investing and personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Devil’s Financial Dictionary, a satirical glossary of Wall Street (PublicAffairs Books, 2015), and Your Money and Your Brain, on the neuroscience of investing. Mr. Zweig edited the revised edition of Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor, the classic text that Warren Buffett has described as “by far the best book about investing ever written.” He also wrote The Little Book of Safe Money; co-edited Benjamin Graham: Building a Profession, an anthology of Graham’s essays; and assisted the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman in writing his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. From 1995 through 2008 Zweig was a senior writer for Money magazine; before joining Money, he was the mutual funds editor at Forbes. Mr. Zweig has also been a guest columnist for Time magazine and cnn.com. He has served as a trustee of the Museum of American Finance and sits on the editorial boards of Financial History magazine and The Journal of Behavioral Finance. Mr. Zweig is a graduate of Columbia College.
