Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett’s option to buy shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., part of an agreement reached at the depths of the credit crisis, has earned a profit on paper of about $2 billion, a return of more than 40 percent.  Goldman Sachs today passed $162 in New York trading for the first time since rival Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September. Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has warrants to buy $5 billion of Goldman common stock for $115 a share any time in the next four years.
 

As debate grows about a possible second stimulus package for the flagging American economy, at least one legendary investor is giving the idea his guarded approval. "I think that a second one may well be called for," Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told "Good Morning America" today. But, he added, "you hope it doesn't get watered down in many ways."

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. doubled its municipal-bond holdings in nine months amid record swings in the value of the securities that the billionaire investor labeled “unthinkable.”

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To the unschooled ear, Warren Buffett’s reassuring words that 'America’s best days lie ahead' and that he’s buying U.S. stocks sound prescient, not preposterous. But fair warning -- he’s not as bullish as he sounds. As much as he loves money, Buffett loves his reputation a whole lot more. He never risks going on the record unless he is pretty sure he won’t be found wrong later. What makes him so certain? He has explained his ebullient view of the economy using historical analogies instead of economic data.

Some of the nation’s best and most famous investors -- Warren Buffett, David Dreman, Ken Heebner and William Miller -- had hideous years in the bear market of 2008.
 
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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. added to holdings of lenders Wells Fargo & Co and U.S. Bancorp in the first quarter as the shares traded at their lowest prices in more than a decade.  Berkshire spent $624 million on stocks in the quarter, and sold shares of companies including oil producer ConocoPhillips for $739 million, Buffett said in a separate filing last week.

Billionaire Warren Buffett, who entertained shareholders at past Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual meetings with musings on baseball and Paris Hilton, will focus investor attention this weekend on his efforts to turn around the company after its worst year in four decades. Buffett needs to reassure shareholders of his Omaha, Nebraska-based firm after a 36 percent stock decline since Dec. 31, 2007, an ill-timed investment in oil producer ConocoPhillips and downgrades by ratings firms.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders have a chance this year to do something that’s rare among the Sage of Omaha’s followers: count their losses.  Despite Berkshire’s reputation as a bear market bulwark, its stock has been walloped. The Class A shares are down 31 percent since September, to $90,000 as of yesterday, exceeding the 26 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Why the Buffett-inspired Fairholme Fund just ditched Berkshire Hathaway. It's not often you give one of your idols his walking papers. But that's what happened in late 2008 when Bruce Berkowitz of  Fairholme (FAIRX) eliminated his stake--once as high as 20% of assets--in  Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B). Berkowitz doesn't think Buffett is washed up. Far from it. But he's taking the Oracle of Omaha at his word. Buffett himself says Berkshire's size makes it unlikely the firm will return better than a percentage point or so more than the S&P 500 going forward.

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