Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
So far in our search for the next Warren Buffett we’ve looked at Justin Uyehara, a swing trader, and Kai Petainen, a quant. This time we are going to look at Mike Koza, a civil engineer in California who has an investment style similar to Buffett’s. Over the past 10 years, Mike’s Marketocracy track record shows an annualized return of 17%. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) and the S&P 500 both show annualized total returns just short of 9% during the same period. Like Justin and Kai, Mike is having a great year, up 34% so far, and he is also profiled in the book “The Warren Buffetts Next Door” by Forbes Investment Editor Matt Schifrin. Could Mike Koza be the next Warren Buffett?
The Crucial Advice From Buffett You’re Probably Ignoring (Nasdaq)
The latest rankings of the world’s richest people show that telecom magnate Carlos Slim of Mexico is again on the top of the heap, followed by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates. Both of these men amassed dizzying fortunes primarily with one investment: Gates with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Slim with America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX), one of the largest telecom companies in the world. Fourth on the list is Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha also made his fortune with one company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), but there’s a twist. While Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is focused on software and America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX) on cellphones, Berkshire is a holding company. Its business is to own other businesses.
Warren Buffett’s Simple Advice About Apple Stock (DailyFinance)
Last month, Fortune magazine published its annual “Fortune 500” list, with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ranking sixth, making a big jump from last year’s spot in 17th place. Fortune offered a closer look at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in that issue, centering on what the company might do with its massive pile of cash. One of the biggest takeaways for investors in the article might have gone unnoticed by many, though: Why Warren Buffett recommended that the company repurchase Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock. As veteran financial journalist Carol Loomis recounted, around early 2010, Steve Jobs picked Buffett’s brain about what Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) might do with its pile of cash. Regarding the option of repurchasing Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock, Buffett offered a simple guideline:
Carl Icahn Joins Warren Buffett on Twitter (TheStreet)
Billionaire activist investor Carl C. Icahn has joined Twitter, following in the social media footsteps of Warren Buffett, the 82-year old head of investing conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), who joined in early May. Icahn has joined the social network under @Carl_C_Icahn and made a $14 a share tender offer for Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) the subject of his first Tweet. “Twitter is great. I like it almost as much as I like Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL),” Icahn wrote on Thursday. In a telephone interview, Susan Gordon of Icahn Enterprises confirmed the account, however, Icahn couldn’t immediately be reached for additional comment on his Twitter plans. Warren Buffett joined over a month ago, but so far the Oracle of Omaha’s social media presence has been underwhelming.
Why John Malone is Warren Buffett’s Equal (MorningStar)
Hardly anyone can be Warren Buffett. If you owned Buffett’s stock, you did pretty well. But too few investors know that following another finance genius brought great gains, too – and is likely to keep delivering in the future. That’s John Malone, the cable and media pioneer. Last month, more than 40,000 people showed up to Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) annual meeting to hear him and sidekick Charlie Munger answer questions for the day. Last year, a charity-benefit auction on eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) to have lunch with Buffett ended up with a price tag of nearly $3.5 million. Obviously, time is precious for chief executives who created a lot of wealth for shareholders. Very rarely do you find excellence sustained over a long period. Even more unique is to find a leader who repeatedly battled back from situations where he had to start over. That’s why the investment world should view John Malone on a par with Buffett.
Buffett tells GEICO: ‘It ain’t over yet, fellas’ (BuffaloNews)
Even with the 2,500th worker on board at GEICO’s Amherst customer service center, the insurance giant is keeping the “Now Hiring” sign turned on. “It ain’t over yet, fellas. We’re going on from here,” said Warren E. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), which owns GEICO and The Buffalo News. “People go where they’re welcome, and Western New York has its arms out.” GEICO still has room to expand at the $40 million customer service center it opened in the CrossPoint Business Park in Amherst in September 2005, but company executives declined to set a long-term growth target for the facility.
BYD Says Electric-Car Charger Melts in Hong Kong Parking Lot (BusinessWeek)
BYD Co. (1211), the Chinese electric carmaker partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), said a charger at a Hong Kong parking lot partially melted because of a faulty connection to the electricity grid. The incident at the Oi Man Plaza parking lot on June 18 didn’t cause other damage and won’t affect BYD’s electric-vehicle operations in Hong Kong, the Shenzhen, China-based automaker said in a statement posted on its official microblog. The company is targeting a fleet of 1,000 electric taxis in operation in Hong Kong in 2014 and more than 3,000 in 2015. Link Real Estate Investment Trust (823), which manages the parking lot, said it would suspend the use of the taxi chargers until the cause of the incident was determined.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Jumps Over Allstate as No. 2 Insurer (PropertyCasualty360)
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), led by the group’s auto-insurance subsidiary Geico, leapt over Allstate in 2012 to become the second-largest P&C insurance group based on net premiums written, according to data from SNL Financial. Lists of the Top 100 insurance groups and insurance companies, based on total net premiums written, will be published in the July edition of PropertyCasualty360-National Underwriter magazine. The Berkshire group saw a 2012 increase in NPW of 12.1 percent—the largest such growth in the Top 20 P&C insurance groups. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A)’s NPW was about $27.25 billion.
