Buffet Bashes His Own Company Renowned Investor Says Shares In Berkshire Hathaway Are Overpriced

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares tumbled as much as $2,350, or 6.4 percent, Monday as investors took to heart billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s remarks that he wouldn’t buy the stock at current prices.

In his annual letter to shareholders, mailed over the weekend, Buffett said he and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger no longer felt the shares in their company were undervalued.

“Let me also put our thoughts about valuation more baldly: Berkshire is selling at a price at which Charlie and I would not consider buying it,” said Buffett, who wrote the letter March 1, when the stock was $36,000 a share, almost $2,000 more than Monday’s price.

Of late, Berkshire’s shares have grown faster than the underlying businesses it owns or invests in, Buffett said.

Berkshire’s annual report is closely analyzed because of Buffett’s prominence as the nation’s most famous stock picker.

In addition to his comments about the price of Berkshire’s shares, Buffet said that he would like to make an acquisition in the $3 billion to $5 billion range. In 1993 and 1994, the desired range was $2 billion to $3 billion.

Buffett has aggressively bought shares in some of the best-known U.S. companies over the past three decades.