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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: rayvt 🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 21944 
Subject: Re: brk, disclosure, transparency, not much
Date: 08/16/24 5:00 PM
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It's a CEF that sells for a 22% discount to NAV, so you're effectively buying Berkshire for $350 a share. And nearly 40% of the entire fund is BRKA or BRKB.

Oh, wait, this is BIF that changed to STEW a few years ago.

I fell for that, too. The story about "getting BRK at a discount". Back when BIF was still BIF.

The discount doesn't matter if it never narrows. STEW (née BIF) has been at a discount between -15% and -22% for the last 5 years. According to the graph at cefconnect, the discount has bobbled around -17% +/- 3% from 2009 to 2024.

Buying BRK at a 20% discount doesn't matter if you also wind up selling it at a 20% discount.
All the while getting clobbered with that high E/R.

IIRC, it is essentially a family held & run fund which they graciously allow the general public to also buy.
According to their web page, the average annual return AND cumulative return has underperformed the S&P500 Total Return Index. Also the market price return has underperformed the NAV return.
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Members reply directly to rayvt here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
This community has written 21,448 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 57 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 54 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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