Editor’s Note: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU), The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO), Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG), Daily Journal Corporation (NASDAQ:DJCO)
Buffett’s Firm Adds Real Estate Brokers in 7 U.S. States (Bloomberg)
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, a venture formed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., added nine real estate broker affiliates in seven states to its network as it seeks to benefit from the U.S. housing rebound. The network signed affiliate agreements with two brokerages each in Texas and California, according to a statement released today. It also added brokerages in Delaware, New York, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Berkshire owns HomeServices of America Inc., the second-largest residential broker in the U.S. The business has made acquisitions in states including Pennsylvania, Missouri, Oregon and Washington.
Buffett and his team had 40 million shares of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) in their portfolio at the end of the second quarter of the year, and 17 billionaires in our database liked the automaker as well. In fact, among all the filers we track GM was the fourth most popular stock. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) trades at 13 times trailing earnings, but recent U.S. auto sales numbers have been up and some bulls have suggested that the industry is poised for recovery as consumers are forced to replace their aging current vehicles.
The Warren Buffett formula: How you can get smarter (The Week Magazine)
Read. A lot. Warren Buffett says, “I just sit in my office and read all day.” What does that mean? He estimates that he spends 80 percent of his working day reading and thinking. “You could hardly find a partnership in which two people settle on reading more hours of the day than in ours,” Charlie Munger commented. When asked how to get smarter, Buffett once held up stacks of paper and said he “read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge builds up, like compound interest.”
Buffett Called the End of the Baby Bust (Wall Street Journal)
Warren Buffett isn’t called the Oracle for nothing. Two years ago, he said in his annual letter to shareholders that he was bullish on housing because U.S. household formation was growing, which meant “eventually hormones would take over” and newly-formed families would feed demand for homes. Now comes evidence that those hormones were really at work. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that America’s “baby bust” has started to ease after several years of declining fertility rates. Citing CDC data, the story says that birth rates fell significantly during the economic downturn, but as the U.S. shakes of the effects of the recession, consumer spending is up.
Billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC the economy has ‘fallen off a cliff’ (New York Daily News)
Berkshire Hathaway CEO and billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC that the economy had “fallen off a cliff” in the past six months, according to published reports. He also said that consumers had changed their habits in new and unusual ways. “It’s fallen off a cliff,” Buffett told CNBC. “Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven’t seen.” Buffett predicted that unemployment would rise.
The next Warren Buffett (CNBC.com)
Should You Follow Buffett Into This Energy Play? (Motley Fool)
Buffett’s most recent addition in the energy sector is a case in point. Berkshire-Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A ) reported just shy of 17.8 million shares of Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) purchased in the second quarter of 2013 for about $524 million dollars . All in all, the purchase averaged out to $29.49 per share. Current buyers are paying roughly $34 a share; a 15% higher price. Buffett bought on the dip, and you’re not getting his deal unless you take his risk.
Berkshire ‘A’ Shares, Soon Available In Pennies (Wall Street Journal)
Berkshire HathawayBRKB -0.44%’s stock picker-in-chief Warren Buffett is one of the world’s great bargain hunters. Investors soon may be able to get an ever-so-slightly better deal on Berkshire’s famously pricey ”A” shares. Starting Sept. 16, the New York Stock Exchange plans to begin trading and quoting Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in pennies, according to a Thursday notice from the exchange. That means that the stock’s mammoth price – $168,180 on Thursday afternoon – will move in one-cent increments, rather than the current ten cents.
Will Buffett And Munger’s Media Investments Make You Rich? (DailyFinance)
Warren Buffett has always loved newsprint. One of his most famous and successful investments was in The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO). While many people are aware of Jeff Bezos’ decision to purchase the company’s flagship newspaper for $250 million, fewer people know about Buffett’s successful investment in the paper’s former parent company. Investors should watch what moves Buffett, and his right-hand man Charlie Munger, have made in the news distribution field. In 2012 Buffett bought Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG)’s newspaper assets for $142 million. Meanwhile, Charlie Munger has taken up the role of chairman at the Daily Journal Corporation (NASDAQ:DJCO). It would appear that the two men most responsible for the meteoric rise of Berkshire Hathaway are investing in media, so should we follow their lead?
