Links - 11/04/2024
“The history of much of which we don’t like in modern corporate capitalism comes from an unreasonable expectation, communicated from headquarters, that earnings have to go up with no volatility and great regularity.” —Charlie Munger (2005)
“Businesses do not meet expectations quarter after quarter and year after year. It just isn’t in the nature of running businesses. And, in our view, people that predict precisely what the future will be are either kidding investors, or they’re kidding themselves, or they’re kidding both. Charlie and I have been around the culture, sometimes on the board, where the ego of the CEO became very involved in meeting predictions which were impossible, really, over time. And everybody in the organization knew, because they were very public about it, what these predictions were and they knew that their CEO was going to look bad if they weren’t met. And that can lead to a lot of bad things.” —Warren Buffett (2005)
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Slashes Apple Stake Again (LINK)
Chris Bloomstran, president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group, which has owned Berkshire shares since 2000, had said he expected the company would disclose it continued to sell Apple in the third quarter.
Bloomstran said Apple’s stock has been too expensive given that he doesn’t expect its business to grow as rapidly as in the past. Apple traded late this week at roughly 30 times its projected earnings over the next 12 months, above a 10-year average of about 20 times, according to FactSet.
“It’s trading at a price at which Warren determined the economics don’t merit as big of a position as it was,” he said.
Berkshire’s mountain of cash grew to a record $325.2 billion, including equivalents, at the end of September, the company’s financial statements show. It was the first time Berkshire ended a quarter with more than $300 billion in cash. The enormous cash pile gives Buffett ample ammunition should he spot an appealing company to add to the Berkshire empire. But it also shows the challenge he faces finding good investments that are attractively priced.
Economic Moats Explained: What They Are & Why They Matter - Part V - by Todd Wenning (LINK)
An excerpt from David Faber’s recorded, soon-to-be-released annual interview with Liberty Media's John Malone (video) (LINK)
Financial Guru, TV Star, Bestselling Author? Not So Fast - by Jason Zweig (LINK)
Founders Podcast: #369 Elon Musk and The Early Days of SpaceX (LINK)
The Business Brew Podcast: John Buckingham - The Prudent Election Episode (LINK)
The Education of a Value Investor Podcast: Asset Liability Management & Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book (Part 1 of 3) (LINK)
The Rest Is History Podcast: America in '68: The Killing of Robert Kennedy (Part 3) (LINK)
Short History Of... Podcast: Vlad The Impaler (LINK)
We the People Podcast: How Should We Elect the President? (LINK)
“To love truth for truth’s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.” —John Locke