(v) the subject of a dividend came up.

You mean this?

"Berkshire does not currently pay dividends, and its share repurchases are 100%
discretionary. Annual debt maturities are never material."

That's the only mention in the letter of Berkshire paying a dividend.


Yes. OK, he didn't say there would be a dividend, but he did suggest that it was going to be hard to know what to do with all that capital - hard to find a big enough purchase, not interested in looking abroad, and not wishing to knowingly throw good money after bad. (That 'knowingly' word made me shudder, too.)

And he repeats the phrase that is in every annual report, for many years, that "Berkshire has not declared a cash dividend since 1967."

But in the letter part of the annual report, he has not usually mentioned the possibility of paying a dividend at all. In fact, he has always said, in his public communications, that that would be a last resort. And now, when referring to uses of cash, he doesn't just say that Berkshire pays no dividends, he says they don't "currently" pay dividends. Admittedly, one can read too much into that single word, "currently", but it is getting harder to rule out the possibility that that policy might change soon.

dtb