“股神”巴菲特旗下伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司5日发布的财报披露，该公司在今年二季度大举增持股票资产，单季增持量创下近3年之最。与此同时，伯克希尔公司当季财务表现亦可圈可点，盈利同比大增73.6%。
根据伯克希尔的财报，截至6月30日，该公司在今年二季度实现净利34.2亿美元，合每股2072美元；去年同期分别为19.7亿美元、1195美元。该公司表示，盈利主要来自衍生品投资及所持股票的增值。值得注意的是，伯克希尔在二季度大举增持了股票类资产。数据显示，二季度该公司买入总市值约为36.2亿美元的股票，是2008年第三季度该公司斥资39.4亿美元购买股票以来的最大单季买入额。截至6月30日，该公司所持股票资产的市值增至676亿美元。由于上周全球股市普遍下跌，彭博资讯的预计，伯克希尔持仓最大的3只股票市值缩水约16亿美元。
Buffett Bet on Stocks Before Rout by Spending Most Since 2008Berkshire's cash holdings climbed 16 percent in three months to$47.9 billion at the end of June as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)repaid Warren Buffett’s 2008 investment. Photographer: Xinhua NewsAgency/eyevine/Redux
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-08/buffett-bet-on-stocks-before-rout-by-spending-most-since-2008.html
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett, chief executive officer ofBerkshire Hathaway Inc., talks about the debt ceiling debate andthe U.S. economy. Buffett, speaking with Betty Liu on BloombergTelevision's "In the Loop," also discusses his views onacquisitions, the labor market and Todd Combs. (Source:Bloomberg)
WarrenBuffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), whose top threeshareholdings declined by about $1.6 billion last week, disclosedits biggest quarterly purchase of equities in almost threeyears.
Berkshire bought $3.62 billion of stock in the three monthsended June 30, the most since it spent $3.94 billion in the thirdquarter of 2008, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said late Aug. 5in a filing. Equity purchases exceeded acquisitions offixed-maturity securities for the first time since 2009.
Buffett, 80, turned his focus to stocks as Berkshire’s cashswelled and interest ratesremained near record lows. The firm’s equity portfolio, which roseto $67.6 billion as of June 30, suffered last week as marketsplummeted. Stocks around the world fell amid signs the U.S. economy wasstalling and speculation that Europe will fail tocontain its sovereign-debt crisis.
“He’s gotta put the cash to work somewhere,” said TomLewandowski, an analyst with Edward Jones & Co.“We’ve seen the market pull back, and this is the environment helikes to make investments in.”
Transatlantic Holdings Inc. said yesterday that Berkshireoffered about $3.25 billion in a bid to break up the New York-based reinsurer’s deal to merge with Allied World Assurance CompanyHoldings AG. The equity market rout helped push down the value ofAllied’s all-stock bid by about 13 percent from the last tradingday before the June announcement through Aug. 5.
U.S. and European stocks posted the biggest weekly declinessince November 2008. The Standard & Poor’s 500Index fell 7.2 percent, erasing its gains for the year, while theStoxx 600 Europe Index tumbled 9.9 percent to its lowest in 13months. The U.S. government was stripped of its AAA credit ratingby S&P on Aug. 5 after the close of New Yorktrading.
Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer,reported a 74 percent jump in second-quarter profit in the filing.Cash holdings climbed 16 percent in three months to $47.9 billionat the end of June as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) repaid Buffett’s 2008investment. Net income of $3.42 billion was boosted by derivativereturns and earnings from the company’s manufacturing and retailingunits.
Buffett said Aug. 6 that while the market slump may hurtconfidence, the U.S. will probably avoid a recession.
“Financial markets create their own dynamics, but I don’t thinkwe’re facing a double-dip recession,” Buffett told BloombergTelevision’s Betty Liu. “Clearly what stock markets do have is aneffect on confidence, and this selloff can create a lack ofconfidence.”
Two-year Treasury yields fell to a record low on Aug. 4 asreports on manufacturing and consumer spending trailed economists’forecasts. The EuropeanCentral Bank has signaled it is ready to start buying Italianand Spanish securities to counter the sovereign debt crisis.Buffett said S&P made a mistake and the U.S.deserved a “quadruple A” rating.
Berkshire sold $200 million of equities in the three monthsended in June, the second-smallest quarterly total in more thanthree years. The company spent $2.78 billion on fixed-maturitysecurities.
Buffett built Berkshire over four decades by acquiringbusinesses including car insurer Geico Corp. and betting on stockslike Coca-Cola Co. (KO) After debt markets frozein 2008, Buffett used more than $10 billion of Berkshire’s cash tofinance New York-based Goldman Sachs, General Electric Co. andSwiss Reinsurance Co. In 2010, he spent $26.5 billion on thetakeover of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Berkshire increased its stockholdings this year in firms itlabeled “commercial, industrial and other.” That portfolio was$10.7 billion on June 30 on a cost basis, compared with $6.5billion on Dec. 31. The “consumer products” portfolio was down 2.4percent by that measure while holdings of “banks, insurance andfinance” were up less than 1 percent.
“That is basically a recovery bet,” Glenn Tongue, a partner atBerkshire shareholder T2 Partners LLC, said of the increase in thecommercial and industrial portfolio. “Equities are available todayat prices where he’s almost certain to generate an adequate rate ofreturn.”
Coca-Cola, Berkshire’s biggest shareholding, fell 1.8 percentlast week, wiping $248 million from the market value of Buffett’sstake. Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), theNo. 2 holding, dropped 9.8 percent, lowering Berkshire’s holding by$935 million. The stake in American Express Co. (AXP), Berkshire’sthird-largest stockholding, fell by $429 million as the credit-cardcompany’s shares slipped 5.7 percent.
Buffett is overseeing changes to the stock portfolio afterhiring former hedge-fund manager Todd Combs last year to help withinvestments. Berkshire bought MasterCard Inc. (MA) shares in the first quarter,the only publicly disclosed addition to Berkshire’s U.S. equityholdings. The company hasn’t filed its second-quarter list ofholdings yet.
Berkshire agreed in March to buy Lubrizol Corp., the Wickliffe,Ohio-based maker of engine additives, for about $9 billion in cash.Buffett’s firm, which doesn’t pay a dividend, uses earnings andpremiums from insurance units to fund investments andacquisitions.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Frye in New Yorkat afrye@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut atdkraut2@bloomberg.net
联系客服
