Berkshire A class

[dallas27]

Just wondering if a lot of people here bought themselves any of those high end brk A share for a cool 1/4 mill. If you did, do you have 1 for fun or more?

Will you keep it after Buffet dies?

 

[athena53]

I've got $118K in B shares (bought years before the split).

I absolutely intend to keep them after Buffet dies- it sounds like he has a succession plan set up and I agree with his contention that it would be useless to bring them to HQ right now and put them in adjoining offices because right now they're running Berkshire companies. Heck, he could outlive them! I heard from my advisor that once when rumors circulated that Buffet was near death the stock dropped 10%, which isn't a catastrophe.

 

[NW-Bound]

In 2009, as the market crashed and recovered, I thought about buying BRK, never owning it before. Thought about the A share, which was about $90K each then, but then decided against it.

I am not rich, and if I want to rebalance my AA, that's too big a percentage with each share. It may be good for bragging rights, but who do I brag to? And I do not care about the privilege of the A shares, like going to the annual shareholder meeting, for example.

So, I bought the B shares instead. If they did not have the B shares, I might have held my nose to buy the A's. Or I might not have.

By the way, I will keep the B shares after Buffett croaks. It's a good diversified conglomerate, so why not?

 

[GrayHare]

If you don't want dividends, both the A and B shares are a great way to get cap gains instead.

 

[athena53]

And I do not care about the privilege of the A shares, like going to the annual shareholder meeting, for example.

B share owners may attend the annual meeting. It's 3 hours away from where I live and DH and I attended many times.

 

[braumeister]

I actually bought one A share back when it was nearly 80,000. Made a little money as it went up but it made me so nervous I sold it. Shouldn't have, but it's the old story of you have to do what lets you sleep at night.

 

[euro]

Just wondering if a lot of people here bought themselves any of those high end brk A share for a cool 1/4 mill. If you did, do you have 1 for fun or more?s?

I do confess to occasionally holding some investments "for fun". For example, I used to own one share of WmWrigleyCo (before it went private), because they would send a box of chewing gum to each shareholder as a Christmas present). However, 250k, for me, is pretty serious- way past fun

 

[Sunset]

We hold B shares, as in our world, selling a single A share would be a large capital gain, not enough granularity with the A shares.

It's just easier to manage our allocations.

 

[NW-Bound]

B share owners may attend the annual meeting. It's 3 hours away from where I live and DH and I attended many times.

Thanks for the correction. I recall reading the contrary years ago, when the B shares came out. Either my memory was faulty, or I got the wrong info.
Anyway, it is not likely that I will attend any shareholder meeting.

About holding BRK, I feel safe because it is so diversified. Comparing BRK to the S&P, it is easy to see when it leads or lags the latter. BRK did significantly better in the Great Recession because it had no shenanigan financial components, but did not go up as much when the tech sector led.

I buy hi-tech sectors like biotech and semiconductor myself, so that complement BRK. I never pay much attention to BRK in day-to-day portfolio monitoring and just leave it alone.

 

[N02L84ER]

Woohoo! I owned Berkshire A. It made up less than 0.15% of my portfolio. Now, now, don't start thinking I am part of the 1%. This thread prompted me to check my "diversification" spreadsheet. I found out I sold it because it was held in the Fidelity Contrafund. One of my rebalance triggers had me sell the Contrafund and purchase a total bond fund on Friday.
I still own some Berkshire B. It is a small part of the Vanguard Total Stock Market fund and makes up less than 0.45% of my total portfolio. I will continue to own VTSAX after Buffet's passing.

 

[Totoro]

no A, diversification, I'm not in the USD two comma club Do have a few B-shares.

 

[Woodsrider]

We have an "A" share and several "Bs". I bought the "A" years ago when it was around 60,000 or 80,000 for my wife as a birthday present. We have both been fans and also traveled across the country about 4 years ago to participate in the shareholders meeting. I think we were in our 30s when I bought the "A" share so it was a stretch.

 

[clifp]

I bought a A share in 2005 for 85K and 1200 more Bs at various times right after the great recession.

I was also pushing people to buy the stock starting in Dec 2008 and right before the bottom in March 2009.

I don't think its a great bargain right now, but it is still safer than most stocks.

 

[pb4uski]

I think Berkshire has lost a lot of its luster. Its performance over 1, 3 and 5 years is only slightly better than VTSAX.... for 10 years it is a little better... of course for longer periods BRK.A is the clear winner but its recent history has been just ok.

VTSAX Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares Fund VTSAX chart

 

[clifp]

I think Berkshire has lost a lot of its luster. Its performance over 1, 3 and 5 years is only slightly better than VTSAX.... for 10 years it is a little better... of course for longer periods BRK.A is the clear winner but its recent history has been just ok.

I agree and that's likely to continue for a while. However, Berkshire's volatility is below average with a Beta of .87 so on risk adjusted basis just keeping up with the market is a win.

Berkshire is the ultimate defensive stock. As I talked about during my post about it during the recession, it has a bunch of very stable business offering everything from auto insurances, to rail transportation, too fast food, and bricks and paint. They are likely to suffer less in in recession (which is what happened).

Meanwhile, Warren's reputation gave him access to some incredible deals, his investments in GE, Goldman Sachs, and BofA were all amazing deals. First, because Berkshire was one of the few companies that had $5 and $10 billion in cash and second because investment by Warren Buffett means something. Meaning that if I had spare $10 billion lying around BofA was willing to give Buffett better terms on his investment than I'd would have gotten.

There are plenty of better stocks (or just the total market index fund) that are likely to do better than Berkshire in a bull market, few better in a bear.

 

[free2020]

I own BRK and have bought continuously over the past decade. Despite being a well known name, clearly understood (much discussed) financials, the market grossly misunderstands the value. The dichotomy of the index's stellar performance and Berkshire's undervaluation over the past decade will show up in Berkshire's out performance over the next ten. That is my current investment thesis. Not so much who is going to replace Buffett or how size will become an anchor. Berkshire has much positive surprise in store.

 

[RunningBum]

I thought seriously of buying it ~2000, when (I think) it was well under $100K. Decided not to, figuring that Buffet was getting old and the stock would dive when he retired/died, no matter how competent the next overseer would be. Oh well, I've had worse missed opportunities.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

Just think A shares were around $25 in 1975 That is wild.

 

[ikubak]

I own B shares. Now that I’m retired I might go to the annual meeting. I rank seeing Warren and Charlie on stage right up there with seeing Elton John.

 

[RenoJay]

I have B shares. When Warren passes, I’ll buy more...not because I’m smart, but because Warren himself said to buy upon his death when there will likely be a big discount.

 

[free2020]

I have B shares. When Warren passes, I’ll buy more...not because I’m smart, but because Warren himself said to buy upon his death when there will likely be a big discount.

Second decade of owning the shares. I hope to be fully invested in Berkshire well before that day. Hope he beats Methusaleh's record and live for a long time. Hope he can see his painting sell for a Million dollars per share.

 

[bada bing]

I've never owned Berkshire directly.

When my first niece was born 32 years ago my parents wanted to put some money away for her education. I recommended a share of BK, which was ~$3.5K at the time. It made sense as a longterm holding with no expenses and no distributions to mess with. My folks elected to put the money in savings bonds. That was one lucky recommendation I can still rib my mom about. 

 

[MarieIG]

No, don't own any class A and at this point, probably never will. It's too unwieldy. I wouldn't mind taking a look at class B however . . .

 

[racy]

I bought 1 share in October 1987 after Black Monday for about $3200. In the late 1990s I converted my share to 30 shares of class B. And, then proceeded to sell 2/3rds of them and buy individual company shares... Sure wish I had kept my 1 share intact...

Yes, I plan to keep my remaining B shares for awhile. I trust Warren has picked good successors, just as he's picked good companies (mostly)...