No. of Recommendations: 8
It's always been my take/belief that WEB, much like the idea of paying a dividend, has never wanted to repurchase ANY shares and that he only did so when the valuation became so ridiculously low that he would be open to tremendous criticism from shareholders. And then initially his buyback policy was set at a ridiculously low valuation. Only when it became glaringly obvious that hardly any shares would be bought back the buyback price was bumped up 10% (1.1 book value).....and that price was as successful in buying back shares as the first one. So then they changed it again...price subject to WEB and Charlie's discretion. This is where it got interesting and I would argue that the amount of shares repurchased is what in WEB's opinion is the minimum amount needed to fend off criticism from shareholders. Numerous price opportunities and cash were available to "load the boat" with repurchases...didn't happen.
Going forward I think there is a different scenario than what is constantly being mentioned here. What if the price of BRK, with a decent amount of volatility, slowly but surely works its way up to 1.75-2.0 BV and stays in that range? In time the earnings will easily support it. Those waiting for the magical 1.4X BV to reappear may need a black swan event which is always possible. My question is why would anyone expect, especially in light of the recent earnings numbers, the stock to decline? The answer seems to be because that is what the chart is telling me and it's always been that way.
