In His Annual Letter, Warren Buffett Tells Investors To Ignore Wall Street Pundits

OMAHA, Nebraska – Warren Buffett credited his longtime partner, the late Charlie Munger, with creating the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate he is credited with leading, and warned shareholders in his annual letter on Saturday not to listen to Wall Street pundits or financial advisors who advise them to trade frequently.

Buffett said he always writes his letters with knowledgeable, long-term investors in mind, such as his sister Bertie, and attempts to give them what he believes they want to know about Berkshire.

“She is sensible – very sensible – instinctively knowing that pundits should always be ignored,” Buffett wrote about Bertie. “After all, if she could accurately forecast tomorrow’s winners, would she openly share her unique insights, increasing competitive buying? That would be like discovering gold and then throwing out a map to the neighbours indicating its whereabouts.”

Buffett told investors that Berkshire is a safe place to park their money as long as they don’t expect “eye-popping performance” like in the past because there are no attractively priced acquisition targets large enough to make a meaningful difference in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s results. However, he stated that Berkshire would be ready to invest $167.6 billion when the casino-like stock market seizes.

Munger, Buffett’s longtime investing partner, died in November at the age of 99, removing one of the key sounding boards Buffett relied on for decades as Berkshire acquired companies such as See’s Candy, Geico Insurance, BNSF Railway and others to reshape the failing textile mill they took over in the 1960s into the massive eclectic conglomerate Berkshire is today.

In His Annual Letter, Warren Buffett Tells Investors To Ignore Wall Street Pundits

Buffett devoted a portion of last year’s annual letter to Berkshire shareholders to an homage to Munger, but this year’s edition began with even more appreciation for the revered curmudgeon’s services to the company over the years. Buffett stated that “Charlie was the ‘architect’ of the present Berkshire”, who recognised early on that buying excellent enterprises at reasonable rates was preferable.

“Charlie never sought to take credit for his role as creator but instead let me take the bows and receive the accolades,” Buffett said in a statement. “In some ways, his connection with me was like that of an elder brother and a caring father. Even when he knew he was correct, he handed me the reins, and when I made a mistake, he never reminded me of it.”

In His Annual Letter, Warren Buffett Tells Investors To Ignore Wall Street Pundits

Buffett also discussed how Berkshire’s insurance businesses, such as Geico, excelled last year, but its enormous utilities and BNSF railway underperformed. He also informed shareholders that he has no plans to sell its shares in approximately 30% of Occidental Petroleum and 9% of five significant Japanese trading companies but that he has yet to buy the oil company completely.

Berkshire’s diverse portfolio of operations and the good performance of its investments generated a profit of $37.57 billion, or $26,043 per Class A share, in the fourth quarter. This is more than double Berkshire’s $18.08 billion profit, or $12,355 per Class A share, posted a year ago.

However, Buffett emphasised that investors should mainly overlook such bottom-line figures since the paper worth of its stocks heavily influences them. Instead, he has always encouraged investors to focus on Berkshire’s operating earnings, which exclude investments.

By that metric, Berkshire reported a 28% increase in operating earnings to $8.48 billion, or $5,878.21 per Class A share. This is up from $6.63 billion, or $4,527.06 per Class A share.

In His Annual Letter, Warren Buffett Tells Investors To Ignore Wall Street Pundits

FactSet Research questioned three analysts, and they expected that Berkshire would report quarterly operating earnings of $5,717,17 per Class A share.

Berkshire’s stock has established several new peaks in recent weeks, reaching $632,820 per Class A share Friday morning as investors eagerly awaited Buffett’s letter. Buffett is admired for his extremely successful track record and the wise advice he has given over the years. His yearly letter is consistently one of the most-read papers in the corporate sector.

Berkshire also repurchased $2.2 billion of its stock in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to $9.2 billion for the year.

SOURCE – (AP)