The Investment Blog

Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) Stock Portfolio – Update 2012 Q1

The Investment Blogger — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:28:00 +0000

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway stock holdings for Q4 2011 was filed on 5/15/2012. There was a lot of activity during the quarter of the 2012, with new stakes in General Motors and Viacom, and increases to Bank of New York Mellon, DaVita Inc, DIRECTIV, IBM, Liberty Media Corp, Walmart, and Wells Fargo. Holdings of Intel, Dollar General, Proctor & Gamble, Verisk Analytics, and US Bancorp were reduced. Kraft was reduced again this quarter, while the stake Comdisco Holding Co was eliminated. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway [BRK.A /BRK.B] stock updates for the first quarter of 2012 (End of 3/31/2012): Berkshire’s New Stock Holdings: General Motors Company [GM] - A new stake was initiated in the Detroit based global automotive giant. - A total of 10,000,000 shares of GM...

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Highlights From Liz Claman’s Interview With Buffett, Munger, Gates

The Investment Blogger — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:27:38 +0000

On Monday, May 7 2012, FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Liz Claman spoke with Berkshire Hathway’s CEO & chairman, Warren Buffett, vice-chairman, Charles Munger, and Microsoft chairman & Berkshire director, Bill Gates. For those of you who don’t know, Bill Gates is a long time friend of Buffett, and also a long time investor in Berkshire Hathaway. During the interview Buffett answered questions regarding his cancer diagnosis, Berkshire’ succession, Buffett rule/tax, dividend, and even Facebook’s IPO. Excerpts from the FOX Business Network interview: CREDIT: FOX Business Network On his statement that he will not miss a day of work as a result of his cancer diagnosis: “Maybe 15 minutes a day.” On whether he has begun to apprentice his successor: “My successor...

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FBN’s Liz Claman Interviews Warren Buffett, Charles Munger, Bill Gates on Monday!

The Investment Blogger — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:51:34 +0000

**UPDATE 5/9/2012: Highlights from the interview FOX BUSINESS NETWORK EXCLUSIVE SIT-DOWN WITH WARREN BUFFETT, CHARLES MUNGER AND BILL GATES FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Liz Claman will interview Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in an exclusive sit-down following the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. The interview will take place live, and air commercial-free on Monday, May 7th at 9:30 AM/ET. Thank you to FOX Business Network for sharing this info with The Investment Blog! Thanks & Happy Investing!

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Successful Investing Series [Issue #02] – Read Quarterly & Annual Reports

The Investment Blogger — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:10:30 +0000

Now that March has passed, companies have finished reporting annual results for last year and are busy preparing to release Q1 results in the April-June time frame. Its a good opportunity to catch up on reading the reports that are related to your investment holdings and potential investment candidates. Reading quarterly & annual reports help investors to gain more information & accumulate knowledge. Other benefits include insights and details that are not usually mentioned in press releases. Such information will help investors to make better & safer investment decisions. I consider this activity to be one of the keys to successful investing and will highlight exactly how it benefits your investments profits. Important But Often Ignored By Individual Investors :...

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China Slowdown And Credit & Real Estate Bubble

The Investment Blogger — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:12:48 +0000

For the past few years I’ve mentioned in memos to investors and briefly in my more recent 2010 currency review / 2011 outlook article about the world’s over-dependence on China’s fast growing economy, and apprehension about their growing credit & real estate bubble. However, it seems that many investors have been ostriches, ignoring that the Chinese economy will likely experience an inevitable slowdown, as well as face the real risk of a serious domestic financial crisis or “hard landing”. It is no secret that the loose lending policies of the Chinese government in the past few years have allowed banks to lend like drunken sailors to states, municipalities, and the private & commercial sectors, in order to maintain stellar economic growth. The...

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Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) Stock Portfolio – Update 2011 Q4

The Investment Blogger — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:56:03 +0000

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway stock holdings for Q4 2011 was filed on 2/14/2012. There was a lot of activity this quarter as well, with new stakes in DaVita Inc and Liberty Media Corp, and increases to CVS Caremark, DIRECTV, General Dynamics, Intel, IBM, Visa, and Wells Fargo. Holdings of Johnson & Johnson and Kraft were reduced again, while the stake in Exxon Mobil was eliminated. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway [BRK.A /BRK.B] stock updates for the fourth quarter of 2011 (End of 12/31/2011): Berkshire’s New Stock Holdings: DaVita Inc [DVA] - A new stake was initiated in DaVita Inc, a dialysis services company in the United States, specializing in administrative services to outpatient dialysis centers, as well as providing acute inpatient dialysis and related...

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Workforce Reduction Announcements – A Useful Unemployment Indicator

The Investment Blogger — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:06:21 +0000

Job cut announcements made by large corporations are a useful and perhaps better indicator of unemployment than government released labour data. While official unemployment data provided by Statscan in Canada and the BLS in the U.S. give more precise numbers, they look at historical data. The numbers then make up the most current unemployment rate. Similarly, unofficial payroll and jobs data provided by companies such as ADP also look at historical data. However, the data only provides a historical snapshot without giving investors a glimpse into what may be coming. Trying to predict future unemployment by trending historical data may not be very useful, nor does it give a realistic picture of what may come. Rather than looking at current unemployment numbers (which are historical), in...

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10 Book Ideas As Gifts For Investors [2011]

The Investment Blogger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:36:52 +0000

Here are 10 gift ideas for an investor, or someone who likes to invest. Gifts for investors are often inexpensive and all investors can use more knowledge. Below, is an updated version of last year’s list of books that would be suitable as gifts, for a range of investors from beginners, stock investors, real estate investors, etc. Please note that the books are in no particular order. Some books that were mentioned last year do not appear on the list of 10 this year but are still great choices. 1. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel Benjamin Graham (Author), Jason Zweig (Author), Warren E. Buffett (Collaborator) The classic text by Warren Buffett’s mentor at Columbia University, Benjamin Graham, is still relevant...

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Have You Prepared For A Market Crash? Be Ready, Not Worried

The Investment Blogger — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:02:03 +0000

Unfortunately, we’ve finally come to a point where given the pace of things, the conditions have deteriorated to a point where a major global economic crisis may no longer be containable and a severe stock market downturn like what was experienced in 2007 is highly likely to occur. If you’ve been following my tweets, I’ve been hinting at the increasing probability of another 2007-2008 type large scale financial crisis for a long time now. Those who have had conversations with me on the global economy, also know that we’ve been expecting this since Greece was bailed out the first time. Its quite disappointing to see that nothing has really been done to resolve what can be summed up as debt problems around the world years after the last financial crisis. It is...

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Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) Stock Portfolio – Update 2011 Q3

The Investment Blogger — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:30:29 +0000

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway stock holdings for Q3 2011 was filed on 11/14/2011 (and amended 11/15/2011). There was a lot of activity this quarter with new stakes in CVS Caremark, DIRECTV, General Dynamics, Intel, Visa, and a very large stake in IBM. Holdings of ConocoPhillips, Johnson & Johnson, and Kraft were reduced. Stakes in Dollar General, M&T Bank Corp, and Wells Fargo were increased. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway [BRK.A /BRK.B] stock updates for the third quarter of 2011 (End of 9/30/2011): Berkshire’s New Stock Holdings: International Business Machines [IBM] - A new stake was initiated in International Business Machines Corporation. IBM is an information technology (IT) company that provides IT services, hardware, software, financing, and is also...

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