WFC - Berkshire's 15 Years Of Disappointing Acquisitions

2024-05-14 11:48:40 ET

Summary

• Every major non-insurance acquisition Berkshire Hathaway has made in the past 15 years has underperformed the alternate of just buying the S&P 500, including BNSF.
• Operating performance in most of the major non-insurance Berkshire companies seems to have performed worse under Berkshire's ownership.
• I believe Berkshire's financial disclosures are too inconsistent for many of its major operating businesses.
• Berkshire would have been far better off simply investing the money in the S&P 500.

Berkshire's Acquisitions

I've owned Berkshire ( BRK.A ) ( BRK.B ) for nearly 15 years, which is the majority of my serious investing career, prior to selling it all this February. I really did not want to sell it and pay the IRS a ton of money; I hoped this was a forever holding.

I've spent thousands of hours studying Berkshire. I've read every 10-Q from the last 20 years, every 10-K from even further back, and watched every interview with Buffett I could find....

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