Warren Buffett sticks to business, avoids politics in letter
OMAHA, Neb. – Billionaire investor Warren Buffett reiterated his rosy long-term outlook for the U.S. economy and his distaste for high Wall Street fees in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that always draws a big audience.
The letter released Saturday also describes the performance of the more than 90 companies that Berkshire owns. But aside from that, Buffett largely emphasized points he’s made in the past.
The 86-year-old chairman and CEO will likely address other topics during a three-hour television appearance Monday on CNBC, but he still may leave some people wanting more.
While reiterating his long-term outlook for a prosperous America, Buffett mostly steered clear of politics this year.
“I’ll repeat what I’ve both said in the past and expect to say in future years: Babies born in America today are the luckiest crop in history,” wrote Buffett, who has said he thinks the economy will be OK under President Donald Trump. Buffett is a longtime Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in last year’s campaign.
Without mentioning Trump’s immigration policies, Buffett did note that “a tide of talented and ambitious immigrants” played a significant role in the country’s prosperity.
Buffett used the letter to again explain the advantages of low-cost index funds. He said he estimates that wealthy investors who use high-priced advisers have wasted more than $100 billion over the past decade.
“The bottom line: When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients,” Buffett wrote. “Both large and small investors should stick with low-cost index funds.”
And it can be extremely difficult for investors to determine whether a money manager has the rare ability to outperform the stock market. So Buffett said most investors are better off not trying.
“The problem simply is that the great majority of managers who attempt to over-perform will fail. The probability is also very high that the person soliciting your funds will not be the exception who does well,” Buffett wrote.
Investment manager Cole Smead said he felt that Buffett spent too much of the letter extolling Berkshire’s virtues instead of talking about how he’ll approach investing the company’s $86 billion cash or what went wrong with the failed $143 billion bid for Unilever that Berkshire took part in with 3G Capital.
Smead said Buffett and his investing partner, 93-year-old Charlie Munger, seem concerned about their legacies and how Berkshire is perceived.
“This letter was more about Warren and Charlie’s epitaph even more so than prior letters,” said Smead, who is with Seattle-based Smead Capital Management.
Smead said he wishes Buffett had devoted more of the letter to discussing the current investment environment. Even though Buffett won’t discuss what he might buy, Smead said he could have talked more about what he doesn’t like in the market today.
Buffett raised eyebrows last fall when he invested more than $9 billion in airline stocks after years of urging investors to stay away from the airline sector.
Berkshire is now one of the biggest shareholders in American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Continental and Southwest, but he has offered little explanation for his change of heart other than to say airlines are better businesses after all the consolidation in the industry.
But back in 2008, Buffett used his letter to label airlines as the worst kind of business because they grow rapidly and require significant investments to grow but earn little.
“Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers,” Buffett wrote. “Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.”
Buffett’s company says fourth-quarter profit improved 15 percent, but most of the gains came from the paper value of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s investments and derivatives contracts.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate released its latest results Saturday along with Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders.
Berkshire said it earned $6.29 billion, or $2.55 per Class B share. That’s up from $5.48 billion, or $3.65 per Class B share.
The analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings per Class B share of $1.82, although they generally exclude investments and derivatives from their estimates. Berkshire said those operating earnings totaled $1.78 per Class B share.
Berkshire generated $58.3 billion revenue in the quarter, up from $51.7 billion a year earlier.
Berkshire’s investments and derivatives were worth roughly $1.2 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $399 million. That overshadowed the 6 percent profit decline at Berkshire’s operating businesses.
Buffett has said operating earnings offer a better view of quarterly performance because they exclude investments and derivatives, which can vary widely.
Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said he didn’t see many surprises in Buffett’s letter. The lack of any additional details on Berkshire’s plan to eventually replace the 86-year-old Buffett as chairman and CEO suggests little has changed in the company’s plan to split Buffett’s job into three parts: chief executive officer, chairman and several investment managers.
“A little more visibility on succession might have been helpful,” Shanahan said.
Buffett has said that all the CEO candidates are managers who already work at Berkshire and understand the company’s culture well. Two investment managers, who each manage about $10 billion of Berkshire’s assets are in place already.
For the full year, Berkshire’s earnings were nearly flat at $24.07 billion, or $16.05 per Class B share.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns more than 90 companies, including railroad, clothing, furniture and jewelry firms. Its insurance and utility businesses typically account for more than half of the company’s net income. The company also has major investments in such companies as American Express, IBM and Wells Fargo & Co.