No. of Recommendations: 1
From an old friend and longtime brkb owner who responded to my post.
"$1/B share would amount to a little more than a $8B annual dividend for Berkshire, less than a quarter of normalized net operating earnings, so this would be almost a symbolic move and wouldn’t even make a dent in annual cash inflows much less the massive accumulated cash pile. At current prices, I’d rather see a big increase in repurchases. If you’re right about a $1 dividend increasing demand for the stock, that would likely halt repurchases. If Buffett agrees to do it, I don’t see why Berkshire can’t deploy $20-30 billion toward repurchases this year. Arguably a better move than a small dividend right now, at current prices, imo."
To be VERY CLEAR, I never said initiate a small div and stop the buybacks, brk can do both like 100s of other public companies, like apple.
IF, IF, Buffett had shown a serious interest in buying back brkb in size since 2006 I wouldn't be pounding the table to initiate the small div.
So, brkb can afford to pay out 8 billion a year in a div AND do 20 billion in buybacks price permitting annually.
IF, the markets believed this would be the minimum cap allocation plan going forward ,brkb rises 5 % or so, today.
To be clear, brkb will not pay a div in Buffett's lifetime imo, this requires patience.
Before I forget, brkb has around 70 wholly owned subs. Greg should do a deep dive with a forensic accountant into everyone the next two years.
Due to easy access to gaming sites, drugs, drinking, improper relationships etc, I would love to bet uncle warren a million dollar's Greg finds, serious misconduct in at least 5 % of the companies, and I'm being very conservative to make sure I win the bet.
Marc make this happen, a friendly wager between me and my American Idol! I'll even agree to give 10 % of my win to Buffett's favorite charity! Thank you.
