Warren buffett annual letter 2023

• Share to Facebook • Share to Twitter • Share to Linkedin Topline Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway—a conglomerate that owns Geico and holds majority shares in companies like American Express, Bank of America and Coca-Cola—posted fourth-quarter losses and nearly $23 billion in net losses for 2022, as Buffett remained optimistic despite his investment company struggling amid poor foreign exchange rates. Buffett expects the company’s gains to be “meaningfully positive in future decades,” adding the fourth-quarter losses—which are “regularly and mindlessly headlined by media”—effectively and “totally misinform investors.” Forbes Valuation Buffett, also known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” is worth $106 billion, Crucial Quote Buffett emphasized his optimism for the U.S. economy, adding he has “been investing for 80 years—more than one-third of our country’s lifetime.” Though he has observed an “almost enthusiasm” from Americans for “self-criticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America.” Key Background Buffett, an Omaha, Nebraska native, is the son of a U.S. congressman. He first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13. Buffett became CEO of Berkshire Hathaway–a company initially founded in 1839 to oversee New England-based textile firms—in 1965. By the end of 2022, the company held majority shares in a number of major U.S. companies—including American Express, Bank of America, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Occide...

Wennie Wen of New York City poses for photos in the exhibition hall of the Berkshire Hathaway annual ... [+] meeting on Saturday, May 6, 2023, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK/A, BRK/B) annual “Woodstock for Capitalists” was held on May 6 th. After last year’s attendance was below recent years, it was a packed house on Saturday. Warren Buffett, CEO and Chairman, and Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman, answered questions from shareholders for over five hours. Greg Abel and Ajit Jain joined in answering questions for the first part of the meeting. After the traditional movie to open the meeting, featuring Jaime Lee Curtis this year, Buffett briefly reviewed first-quarter earnings. He provided the closest thing to earnings guidance that he has ever uttered. Buffett noted that it is a “different climate than it was six months ago,” so the majority of Berkshire’s businesses are likely to have lower earnings in 2023 than the previous year. The good news is that higher yields should lead to higher investment income in 2023, and insurance underwriting does not “correlate with economic activity.” In other words, the insurance businesses should do better than in 2022. With the tailwind from the insurance segment, Buffett expects Berkshire’s 2023 operating earnings to be better than last year. As one would expect, given the recent banking failures, the pair was asked multiple questions about the U...

"Charlie and I think pretty much alike. But what it takes me a page to explain, he sums up in a sentence," Buffett wrote in the recent letter, saying that many of the following life and business takes were taken from a "recent podcast." On business Munger had several choice pieces of advice about business and investing. Here are a few: "The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor," he wrote. Hathaway has owned portions of some companies for a long time, such as American Express, a portion costing $1.3 billion it purchased in 1995, which is still paying out dividends, Related: In a similar vein, the letter said that the Munger and Buffett don't keep their minds on the "froth of the market" and instead sit on "good long-term investments." The market was not kind to Berkshire this year, with its major fluctuations helping to contribute to some $22.8 billion, in losses, at least on paper, per the The pair also gave some advice about adapting to change: "You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change. Warren and I hated railroad stocks for decades, but the world changed and finally the country had four huge railroads of vital importance to the American economy. We were slow to recognize the change, but better late than never." On life Some of the advice on life in the letter related to how a person thinks about their death. "Early on, write your desired obituary – and then...

Photo via Getty In what is the investment world’s equivalent of a Harry Potter book release, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett recently published his annual letter to shareholders . The letter has been required reading for decades among investors eager to pick the brain of one of the five richest people in the world. In addition to company happenings, Buffett openly shares insights into the strategies that have contributed to his legendary investment success. This year’s letter has been particularly anticipated given the high uncertainty in the economy and stock market. His timeless messages may be more timely than ever. Ad A Related America’s Healthcare Debt Is Deepening So, let’s dig into Buffett’s letter and explore what’s different this year, as well as highlight some of his recurring yet profound themes. Takeaway #1: Count on the “American Tailwind” One major thing that’s different this year is the environment Buffett is writing in. Inflation is stubbornly sticking to levels last seen in the 1980s. Interest rates haven’t been this high since around the 2008 financial crisis. And the threat of a recession looms large. Ad B Yet, Buffett remains steadfast in his confidence in the American economy, which is a major takeaway from the letter. He observes that Berkshire is more broadly aligned with the country’s economic future than any other U.S. company. The conglomerate owns dozens of subsidiary businesses, including household names like GEICO, Duracell, and Kraft Hei...

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. B ERKSHIRE H ATHAWAY INC. 3555 Farnam Street Omaha, NE 68131 Official Home Page • • Updated May 15, 2023 • Updated May 6, 2023 • Updated February 28, 2023 • • • • Updated February 25, 2023 • • • • (A commemorative book first sold at the 2015 Annual Meeting and now for sale on eBay.) • • • •

This weekend, the most sought-after and analyzed shareholder letter in the world, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway letter (2023), was published. Buffett’s core message remained the same —discipline-oriented investing will prevail regardless of the uncertain investing landscape we face. However, there were a few surprises that caught even the most avid Buffett fans off guard. Let’s cover the five main points of Warren Buffett’s 2023 annual letter. 1. Berkshire Hathaway Had a Lukewarm Fourth Quarter Not bad, not great — that was the earnings picture for Berkshire Hathaway. While Berkshire’s earnings weren’t the key focus of Buffett’s annual shareholder letter, it offered a preface on the message that Buffett was going to send. In this case, that backdrop was a decrease in most metrics for Berkshire. • Operating earnings fell by 7.9% year-over-year, from $7.285B to $6.7B. • Earnings from the industrials and energy sectors —including the railroads (a famous staple of Buffett’s portfolio) fell to $2.2B. • Earnings from Berkshire’s insurance-underwriting business fell dramatically year-over-year $244M in Q4 (compared to $372M the year before). • Total earnings dropped a whopping 54% relative to Q4 of the previous year. • Worse yet, full year earnings in 2022 came in at a loss of $22.8B, compared to a gain of $89.8B in 2021. However, that figure largely had to do with the poor market environment. _ As a result, shares of BRK.B are trading flat on the day, relative to an S&P 500...

Warren Buffett recently released his 2023 letter to Berkshire Hathaway ( 1.25%) ( 1.17%) shareholders, and as usual, it was packed full of important lessons and takeaways. In this video, I review the five most important things investors should pay attention to. *Stock prices used were the morning prices of Feb. 28, 2023. The video was published on Feb. 28, 2023.

The Berkshire CEO described his firm’s wins over the years, highlighting its $1.3 billion bet on The legendary investor also defended stock buybacks. Last year, the U.S. government “When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive),” he wrote. His firm has been among the largest U.S. repurchasers in recent years, buying back almost $8 billion of its own shares in 2022, $27 billion in 2021, and about $25 billion in 2020. “There are many Berkshire centimillionaires and, yes, billionaires who have never studied our financial figures,” he wrote. “They simply know that Charlie and I—along with our families and close friends—continue to have very significant investments in Berkshire, and they trust us to treat their money as we do our own.” Buffett also took aim at the financial trickery that managers often perform to beat analysts’ expectations. “Even the operating earnings figure that we favor can easily be manipulated by managers who wish to do so,” he warned. “Such tampering is often thought of as sophisticated by CEOs, directors, and their advisors. Reporters and analysts embrace its existence as well.” He called the activity “disgusting,” adding, “It requires no talent to manipulate numbers: Only a deep desire to deceive is required. ‘Bold imaginative accounting,’ as a CEO once ...