Steven Wevodau Berkshire Hathaway
Buffett donates Berkshire stock to 2 charities - posted by Steven Wevodau
By Josh Funk, AP Business Writer
Warren Buffett donates Berkshire stock worth nearly $3.6 million to 2 unnamed charities
One donation of 676 Class B shares was made in September and a donation of 595 Class B shares was made in December. Class B shares sold for $2,822 Monday afternoon.
Buffett did not immediately respond to questions about the donations e-mailed to his Omaha office.
Buffett has previously said all of his Berkshire stock will go to charities over time.
After these latest donations, Buffett held 2,018,997 Class B Berkshire shares and 350,000 Class A shares, which were selling for $85,500.
Morningstar analysts name Buffett best CEO of 2008
POSTED BY STEVEN WEVODAU
Associated Press - January 9, 2009 6:25 AM ET
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Investment research firm Morningstar named billionaire Warren Buffett the best chief executive of 2008 for his leadership of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Paul Larson, who edits a Morningstar newsletter, says Buffett was chosen because of the key investments Berkshire made in 2008 at a time when most investors fled the market because of economic turmoil.
Berkshire invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and $3 billion in General Electric, and both companies promised to pay Berkshire a 10% annual dividend.
Berkshire’s bid to acquire Constellation Energy failed, but Berkshire walked away with $593 million cash and 20 million shares of Constellation stock. Plus, Berkshire receives 14% interest on its initial $1 billion Constellation investment.
Interesting Insurance Stocks For 2009 (BRK.A, TRV, CB) - Steven Wevodau
January 02, 2009 | by Eric Fox
American International Group (NYSE:AIG), the grand daddy of the insurance sector, was forced to seek a credit line from the government of more than $100 billion to meet its obligations. Even storied name Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) saw its shares sell off to $78,000 a share, a five-year low, as investors questioned a large derivative position the company took on.
So what do investors have to look forward to in 2009?
Industry Outlook
There is sure to be more pain as insurers’ investment portfolios are marked to market every quarter. There has been talk from regulatory authorities about relaxing the accounting rules that require mark to market accounting, but so far nothing concrete has been announced.
On the good side, one of the side effects of the financial crisis was an aversion to risk taking, which led to capacity leaving the market. Evan Greenberg, the CEO of Ace (NYSE:ACE) declared during the third quarter conference that the end of the soft market in insurance had arrived. Also, the hurricane season was fairly benign in 2008, with only two named storms hitting the Gulf Coast during the period.
Look for some insurers to purchase banks, so they can qualify for funds under the Capital Purchase Plan of the TARP in 2009. So far at least three insurers have announced an intention to go this route to boost capital ratios, including Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG), Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW) and Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC).
Valuations for the industry are at rock bottom as measured by price-to-book, but this analysis requires that an investor put faith in the value of the assets, or the denominator of the equation. It may some time until investor faith is restored in this measure due to the large writeoffs that have occurred to date.
Travelers (NYSE:TRV), Allstate (NYSE:ALL) and Chubb (NYSE:CB) are some large cap names that warrant further investigation as investors search for names to play the eventual recovery in the sector.
To learn more about investing in this sector, check out our Insurance Industry Handbook.
By Eric Fox
The dark side of Warren Buffett - Steven Wevodau
Warren Buffett comes across in the media as a very smart man with an impish sense of humor, particularly in his countless appearances on CNBC. But as one of his grandchildren found out, crossing the Oracle of Omaha can lead to a world of hurt.
The world’s richest man severed ties with Nicole Buffett after she appeared in the well-regarded documentary “The One Percent,” in which the scions of billionaires, including New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, spoke about what it was like to grow up wealthy. The film, made by Jamie Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) family, is well worth viewing.
Ms. Buffett, though, made the fatal error of not informing her grandfather about the motion picture debut, according to Marie Claire: “Asked in the film how he’d react to her interview, Nicole responds, ‘I definitely fear judgment. Money is the spoke in my grandfather’s wheel of life’.”
That was a stupid thing to say and the younger Buffett knows it. The head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) has argued his whole career that money is not everything. He abhors inherited wealth and has argued persuasively why an inheritance tax is good thing. That explains why he is giving away most of his money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
None of that occurred to Nicole Buffett, who told the magazine she really didn’t understand who her grandfather was until he topped Forbes’ annual list of the wealthiest Americans. To make matters worse, she shot her mouth off on “Oprah.” Warren Buffett had enough, writing to his grandaughter that as far he was concerned, they were strangers. I guess he did not feel that close to her anyway. His son Peter adopted Nicole and her siblings, but he later divorced their mother.
I can understand why Warren Buffett wanted to teach Nicole Buffett, who makes a living as an artist and reportedly goes without health insurance, that she should not act like a spoiled brat. But the punishment did not fit the crime.
The letter he wrote Nicole seems especially cold: “I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin,” the magazine quotes the letter as saying. “He signed the letter ‘Warren‘.”
This goes to show you that even rich people have problems.
Berkshire buys 3.26 million more BNSF shares - Steven Wevodau
By Josh Funk, AP Business Writer
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Buffett’s company buys 3.26 million BNSF shares, now controls nearly 20 percent of railroad
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s company bought another 3.26 million shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. stock, increasing its stake to 67.9 million shares.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. now controls nearly 20 percent of the nation’s second-largest railroad. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday show Berkshire completed its latest purchases on Monday and Tuesday.
Berkshire officials don’t typically comment on the Omaha company’s stock holdings. But previously, Buffett has said railroads have good long-term prospects and are healthier today than in past years.
Berkshire owns insurance, furniture and jewelry companies, utilities and a corporate jet firm, and has major stock investments.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com
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