94-year-old Warren Buffett, born during the Great Depression, has a net worth of $147 billion, which has risen by just over $4 billion this year. Most is because of the success of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B). That is the flagship of his wealth, which he created in 1970. A proof of the magnitude of his success is that $10,000 put into Berkshire 30 years ago would be worth $682,000 today. The stock is up 3% this year. Its current market cap is just above $1 trillion.
24/7 Wall St. Key Points:
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Warren Buffett’s net worth rose by $4 billion so far this year.
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He is among the greatest investors of all time and has a wide range of holdings.
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Buffett Investments
Buffett’s investment policy is not complex. He primarily buys public companies with strong brands that he thinks are undervalued. He has been a long-term holder of Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) and, until recently, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). Occasionally, for reasons he rarely discloses, he does not hold for decades. One example is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). He first bought the stock in 2016, and he soured on the stock recently.
Buffett will sometimes buy public companies and take them private. He bought railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2010. He did the same with insurance company Geico in 1995. When the Geico deal closed, he commented, “It’s the low-cost operator in a field that is very big, and the low-cost operator tends to win over time.”
Buffett has also bought some oddball companies. He bought Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983 for $60 million. He bought the TV station WPLG in 2014. The station is based in Miami.
Buffett favors insurance companies. He owns Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, National Indemnity Company, and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, which focuses on business and commercial insurance. Describing these investments he said, “It’s so much fun because you get the money at the start, you know, and then you find out whether you’ve done something stupid later on.”
What Buffett observers cannot figure out is why Berkshire is holding $325 billion in cash. A Bloomberg reporter wrote that it means he is worried about a large market downturn. Or maybe he is just looking for something to buy.
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