Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 2023

Berkshire Hathaway has never been very active in commercial real estate, but the “hollowing out of the downtowns in the United States and elsewhere in the world is going to be quite significant and quite unpleasant,” Munger said.

Buffett said the commercial real estate market value mainly depends on how much you can borrow non-recourse, and it’s starting to see the consequences of that.

“That’s the attitude of most people that have become big in the real estate business and it does mean the lenders are the ones that get the property,” Buffett said. “And of course they don’t want the property… the bank tends to extend and pretend.”

“It all has consequences,” he added. “We are starting to see the consequences of people who could borrow at 2.5% and find out it doesn’t work at current rates, and they hand it back to somebody that gave them all the money they needed to build it.”

— Tanaya Macheel

Billionaire investor Charlie Munger expressed skepticism in response to a shareholder question on the future of artificial intelligence — though he admits it will rapidly transform many industries.

“We’re going to see a lot more robotics in the world,” Munger said. “I’m personally skeptical of some of the hype in AI. I think old fashioned intelligence works pretty well.”

Warren Buffett shared his view. While he expects AI will “change everything in the world,” he doesn’t think it will trump human intelligence.

— Sarah Min

Buffett said the regulators’ decision to backstop all depositors after Silicon Valley Bank failed had to be done, as not doing so could hurt the global financial system.

“It would’ve been catastrophic,” Buffett said in response to a question asking what the economic consequences would be in the U.S. if all depositors were not made whole.

While he noted the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has a $250,000 limit on insuring deposits, that’s “not the way the U.S. is going to behave.” He said no one would want to be the one explaining why the limit wasn’t expanded considering not doing so could prompt a run on more banks and disrupt the global financial system.

“I think it was inevitable,” he said.

— Alex Harring

Ajit Jain, Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance operations, said auto insurer Geico is “taking the bull by the horns” to improve the use of telematics.

Telematics programs allow insurers to collect clients’ driving data, including their mileage and speed, to help price policies.

Geico has been losing market share to Progressive in recent years as it didn’t embrace technology as quickly as its competitor. Jain previously said Geico started incorporating telematics two to three years ago, while Progressive has been on the bandwagon for close to 20 years.

Jain said Saturday that Geico is “still a work in progress” even though it posted a big underwriting profit of $700 million in the first quarter after suffering steep underwriting losses for 2022.

— Yun Li

Buffett said he was a net seller of stocks in the first quarter. Berkshire sold $13.2 billion worth of stocks, buying only $2.8 billion, according to its earnings report.

— Yun Li

As Buffett took the stage Saturday, he referenced the coronation of King Charles III happening in England hours earlier, as he introduced his longtime partner, Charlie Munger, to the crowd.

“When I woke up this morning, I realized that we had a competitive broadcast going out somewhere in the U.K.,” Buffett said. “They were celebrating a ‘King Charles,’ and we’ve got our own ‘King Charles’ here today.”

— Alex Harring

Warren Buffett said that while AI can help screen for stocks that fall under certain parameters, it has its limitations beyond that.

“It’s sort of weird,” he said in an interview with NBC’s local Omaha affiliate. “I don’t think it’s going to tell you what stocks to buy. It can tell me every stock that meets a certain criteria, or a criteria in three seconds. But it has decided limitations in some ways. You ought to see the jokes it came up with.”

Buffett added that he tinkered with ChatGPT three months ago when Bill Gates showed him how it worked.

“It’s very interesting,” he continued. “It can translate the Constitution into Spanish in one second. But the computer could not tell jokes. You could tell it to make a joke about Warren and crypto. It’s read every book and seen all TV, but it couldn’t do that. I told Bill to bring it back when I can ask it, ‘How are you going to get rid of the human race?’ I want to see what it says — and pull the plug out before it does it.”

— Hakyung Kim

Warren Buffett historically has been there as a source of stable capital for the financial system when it seemed like it was in trouble. Given the current turmoil in among banks, it would be a big deal if he were to show up for the sector again, said John Rogers, chairman and co-CEO chief investment officer of Ariel Investments.

“That would bring a lot of confidence to the economy and the financial system,” he said. “Whenever he steps up – all of us believe in him so much, so I think it would be great if he was able to be helpful during this period and get a great return for Berkshire shareholders.”

“He is so revered around the world and I know that the Biden administration has been talking with him and I know other leaders are,” Rogers added. “You can bet he is the first call of many of the major banking giants on Wall Street to make sure they’re getting his best advice and including him in these conversations.”

— Tanaya Macheel

Called “Woodstock for Capitalists,” the multiday event kicked off on Friday with a chance for shareholders to shop the company’s many brands, which range from Dairy Queen and See’s Candies to Brooks Sports and Pampered Chef. One of its latest additions to the portfolio, the plush toy brand Squishmallows, was on colorful display for the first time.

Those attending the meaning often jump at the chance to scoop up items made specifically for the event.

-Christina Cheddar Berk

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger greeted attendees with a welcome video starring a special guest — Jamie Lee Curtis.

Buffett asked the actress to convince Munger to snap up stocks in “this something called the Internet.”

The actress made flirtatious remarks while calling both separately from her bed, affectionately referring to Buffett as “Warren all-you-can-eat buffet,” and Munger as “Charlie hunger.”

— Sarah Min

A look at Warren Buffett’s long-term track record explains the smiling faces in Omaha Saturday, many of them were made millionaires by the investing guru’s astute moves and patient value philosophy over the years.

Berkshire Hathaway’s compounded annual gain was 19.8% from 1965 through the end of last year, compared with 9.9% for the S&P 500. That’s an overall total return of 3,787,464% vs. 24,708% for the benchmark.

To be sure, more recently Buffett’s track record has matched the S&P 500. Over the last 10 years, Berkshire has returned 11% annually, about even with the S&P 500.

Everyone can learn something from Warren Buffett — including Oakmark Funds’ Bill Nygren.

One practice that sticks out is the utilization of adjusted GAAP accounting for non-tangible assets, the value investor said during an interview with CNBC Friday.

“I think GAAP accounting was really intended for a tangible world,” he said. “You can touch and feel it, it goes on the balance sheet. If you can’t touch or feel it, expense it.”

But that setup isn’t “representative of the economics” that exist and the investments in the business world for things like research and development, and brand value.

“Those things are all on the balance sheet at zero,” Nygren said. “If you aren’t making adjustments for that as a value investor, you’re unnecessarily restricting your universe.”

Although Oakmark Funds does not own shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Nygren called it an attractive investment opportunity for many.

“Berkshire rarely exhibits the level of controversy that is required to create a really attractive value stock, but it’s a great business,” he said. “It’s extremely well run and that’s probably why it isn’t cheap enough to meet our criteria.”

— Samantha Subin

Berkshire’s auto insurer Geico experienced a big turnaround in the first quarter, after benefiting from higher average premiums and a reduction in advertising costs. Geico posted an underwriting profit of $703 million. The auto insurer suffered a $1.9 billion pretax underwriting loss last year as it lost market share to competitor Progressive.

Ajit Jain, Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance operations, previously said the biggest culprit for Geico’s underperformance was not keeping pace with rivals in telematics programs, which allow insurers to collect clients’ driving data, including their mileage and speed, to better price policies.

— Yun Li

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported a 12.6% jump in operating earnings for the first quarter, driven by a rebound in the conglomerate’s insurance business.

Profit from insurance underwriting came in at $911 million, up sharply from $167 million a year prior. Insurance investment income also jumped 68% to $1.969 billion from $1.170 billion.

Berkshire’s cash hoard also swelled to $130.616 billion from $128 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.

— Fred Imbert

Warren Buffett’s successor Greg Abel will be joining the Oracle of Omaha and Charlie Munger on stage Saturday, answering questions about non-insurance operations.

Abel has taken on many responsibilities at the massive conglomerate, while increasing his stake in the company, which has given shareholders hope that the culture at the company will continue.

“He does all the work, and I take the bows – it’s exactly what I wanted,” Buffett said in a CNBC interview in Japan on April 12. “He knows more about the individuals, the business, he’s seen them all. … They haven’t seen me at the BNSF Railroad for 10, 12 years or something like that.”

— Yun Li

A number of pilots from Berkshire’s private jet company NetJets lined up outside of CHI Health Center as shareholders waited to get into the arena. They held signs that read “overworked” and “underpaid,” saying they were looking to renegotiate their contract. NetJets became a Berkshire subsidiary in 1998.

— Yun Li

Some of the people lined up at the CHI Health Center in downtown Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting have been in the line since 2 a.m. for the event.

— Sarah Min

Berkshire Hathaway has a history of outperforming the S&P 500 during recessions, and performing especially well during bear markets, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group. Since 1980, Berkshire shares have beat the broader market over the course of six recessions by a median of 4.41 percentage points.

Even more impressive is the stock’s performance during bear markets. During the same time period, the conglomerate outpaced the S&P 500 each time it dropped 20%, beating the broader index by a median of 14.89 percentage points. 

″[One] stock that has gained a reputation for safety is Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A), and based on the last several decades, the distinction has been earned,” read a Bespoke note from earlier this week.

— Sarah Min