Warren Buffett is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.REUTERS/Rick Wilking
Warren Buffett paid tribute to Charlie Munger and pared his Apple and Bank of America bets in 2024.
Berkshire Hathaway hit a $1 trillion market value and its money pile ballooned to greater than $300 billion.
Buffett donated some $6 billion to good causes and updated his plan for post-mortem giving.
Warren Buffett had a 12 months to recollect in 2024 as he sold two of his favorite stocks, built his money pile to greater than $300 billion, and led Berkshire Hathaway to a $1 trillion market value for the primary time.
The 94-year-old Berkshire CEO and legendary investor also paid credit to his late right-hand man, gifted greater than $6 billion to good causes, and updated his plan to offer away his fortune following his death.
1. Paying respects
Warren Buffett writes a letter to Berkshire shareholders every February.Getty Images / Matthew Peyton
In his annual letter in February, Buffett paid tribute to Charlie Munger, his business partner and Berkshire’s vice chairman for greater than 4 a long time, who died aged 99 in November 2023.
“Though I even have long been in control of the development crew; Charlie should endlessly be credited with being the architect,” Buffett wrote, calling himself the “general contractor” who carried out Munger’s vision for Berkshire.
Buffett also dashed hopes for a transformative acquisition anytime soon. Berkshire’s vast scale means only a couple of firms within the country could move the needle, he said, and all of them have been “endlessly picked over by us and others.”
“All in all, we now have no possibility of eye-popping performance.”
The investor also called out an increase in “casino-like behavior” in markets and appeared to take aim at trading apps like Robinhood once more. “The casino now resides in lots of homes and every day tempts the occupants.”
2. Pilgrimage to Omaha
Warren Buffett’s annual meeting serves as a showcase for Berkshire-owned brands like See’s Candies.Facebook/See’s Candies
Tens of 1000’s of Berkshire shareholders descended on Buffett’s hometown in May to attend the corporate’s annual meeting and watch the “Oracle of Omaha” hold court for several hours.
Buffett told the gang he’d sold a bit of his massive Apple stake within the first quarter. He also compared artificial intelligence to nuclear weapons, and took responsibility for a losing wager on Paramount.
The Berkshire boss said he regretted not listening to Munger and betting big on Costco a long time ago. He also raised the alarm on the national debt and budget deficit, dismissed foreign threats to the dollar, and declared he could earn a 50% annual return on $1 million.
3. Stocks, money, and buybacks
Berkshire Hathaway built a money pile price greater than $300 billion in 2024.REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus
Buffett and his team sold $133 billion of stocks in the primary nine months of 2024, and purchased lower than $6 billion price. Compared, they sold a net $24 billion of stocks in 2023, and purchased a net $34 billion of stocks in 2022.
They spent lower than $3 billion on buybacks between January and September last 12 months, with none within the third quarter, after spending nearly $70 billion on repurchases over the previous 4 years (almost $52 billion of that was in 2020 and 2021.)
Ramping up stock sales and curbing buybacks helped to just about double Berkshire’s money pile in nine months from $168 billion to a record $325 billion (or $310 billion after subtracting almost $15 billion of payables for Treasury bill purchases within the third quarter).
Berkshire’s money pile now exceeds the whole value of the corporate just over a decade ago, and accounted for a hefty 27% of its $1.15 trillion of assets at the tip of September.
Buffett and his colleagues have said they’re stacking money because they’re struggling to search out bargains with valuations at historic highs, they usually don’t mind keeping money out of an ebullient stock market.
4. Selling sacred cows
Warren Buffett and his team pared core holdings equivalent to Apple and Bank of America in 2024.AP Images
Buffett and his investment managers, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, made several striking changes to Berkshire’s stock portfolio last 12 months.
They pared Apple, their largest position, by 67% in nine months, reducing its value from $174 billion to below $70 billion. The sharp reduction shocked many as Buffett had showered praise on the iPhone maker for years, hailing it as “probably one of the best business I do know on the planet” and considered one of Berkshire’s “4 giants.”
Buffett and his deputies also cut Bank of America, their no. 2 position, by about 26% between mid-July and mid-October, collecting greater than $10 billion of proceeds. The sales lowered their stake from above 13% to below 10%, freeing them from having to reveal changes to the holding inside a pair days. Their stake only dropped in value from $35 billion to $32 billion between January and September since the bank’s stock price rose by around a fifth during that period.
Berkshire also revealed a near-$7 billion stake in insurer Chubb in its first-quarter portfolio update, trimmed holdings equivalent to Capital One within the second quarter, and purchased nearly 4% of Domino’s Pizza within the third quarter while cutting several smaller holdings.
5. Giving billions
Warren Buffett had donated greater than $55 billion of stock to 5 foundations since 2006.Carlos Barria / Reuters
Buffett donated Berkshire shares price $5.3 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 4 of his family’s foundations in June.
He said those gifts meant he’d now given $55 billion to the quintet over the previous 18 years, based on how much the Berkshire shares were price on the time of giving.
Buffett divvied up an extra $1.2 billion stock donation among the many 4 family foundations in late November, continuing a Thanksgiving tradition he began in 2022.
The newest donations reduced his variety of A shares to a bit of greater than 206,000, meaning he’s given away almost 57% of his shares since pledging 99% of them to good causes in 2006.
6. Estate planning
Warren Buffett published a mini letter to Berkshire shareholders in November.University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Buffett unexpectedly published a near-1,500 word letter to shareholders alongside the news of his Thanksgiving gift.
In it, he reiterated his desire to pass along his incredible wealth to “others who got a really short straw at birth.”
Buffett revealed earlier within the 12 months that he planned to place almost his entire fortune in a trust, and task his three children with distributing it to worthy causes after he dies. But in his mini letter in November, he acknowledged that his kids are of their late 60s and early 70s and might die before they’ll fulfill his vision.
The investor said that risk had led him to designate three potential successor trustees to be “on the waitlist” just in case.
Buffett also took stock of the astounding scale of wealth in America, where greater than a dozen people including him are personally price in excess of $100 billion.
“It has been mind-blowing — beyond the imaginations of Ford, Carnegie, Morgan and even Rockefeller,” he wrote. “Billions became the brand new tens of millions.”
