Institutional investors are "turning up the heat"

In their previews of tomorrow's Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times focus on Buffett's rejection of shareholder proposals calling for reports on how the company is dealing with climate change and the diversity of its employees.

The Journal writes, "While many of the complaints aren’t new and none of the shareholder proposals are likely to pass, Berkshire’s lackluster returns in recent years have made it more vulnerable to criticism amid a growing wave of investor interest in corporate sustainability issues."

For Berkshire, it's institutional investors that are "turning up the heat."

The majority of Berkshire shares are held by individuals, many of them longtime holders, who will back Buffett. 

But as he reduces his holdings through his annual stock donations, more shares are winding up with institutions that are not as deferential.

The Times quotes law professor Lawrence Cunningham as saying, "Now you have more funds focused on those E.S.G. (environmental, social and corporate governance) topics than 10 years ago, and more of Berkshire’s base is comprised of those kinds of funds than 10 years ago."

As an official at Calpers, California's huge public pension fund, put it to The Times, "We are not going to shy away from holding Berkshire accountable just because it’s run by Warren Buffett."

While Berkshire agrees that diversity and climate change are important issues, it argues that the company's decentralized structure gives subsidiary managers responsibility for handling them.

Handing down mandates and trying to compile statistics from "dissimilar operations in different geographic locations," Berkshire says, is unnecessary, unreasonable and "inconsistent with Berkshire's culture."

More previews

With Yahoo Finance doing the live streaming of the meeting Saturday that starts at 1:30 PM ET, (pre-game show at 12:30 PM) they've been busy doing lots of previews and Berkshire/Buffett-related stories:

• Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 2021 Live Updates: Preview
• Here’s how Warren Buffett’s top investments fared during the pandemic
• How Warren Buffett's airline stocks have performed since Berkshire Hathaway sold them
• Warren Buffett (could) provide a visible clue on his succession strategy at annual meeting
• Warren Buffett’s 2010 advice on cash reserves is more relevant than ever
• Why Berkshire Hathaway's health care project Haven failed
• Warren Buffett’s investing success depends on these two traits: Portfolio manager
• Here's what Buffett should have done with Berkshire's airline stocks: Bill Smead
• What makes Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway ‘very distinctive in corporate America’: Management expert
• Why Warren Buffett invested in Coca-Cola and its lesson
• Warren Buffett's 25 best quotes about business, investing, and life
• 21 brilliant quotes from legendary investor and polymath Charlie Munger

And that's not all:

• CNBC.com: Berkshire’s annual meeting is Saturday with Buffett and Munger together again, shares at a record
• Reuters: Berkshire annual meeting to showcase Munger as he rejoins Buffett
• Bloomberg: Warren Buffett Poised to Weigh In on How Berkshire Fares Post-Pandemic
• Investor's Business Daily: We're About To Find Out What Warren Buffett Did With His New Favorite Stock
• CNN: Live from LA, it's Buffettpalooza. What to expect from Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting
• Kiplinger: Berkshire's Annual Meeting: What to Expect From Buffett & Co.

A reminder that CNBC's Becky Quick will be asking the questions during the 3 1/2 hour Q&A, with many coming from among those submitted by email to BerkshireQuestions@cnbc.com.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE

Flashback from our Buffett Archive: Highlights from the 2020 Berkshire meeting, including why he sold all of his company's airline stocks and why you should still "bet on America" despite the COVID-19 crisis, although "you should be careful how you bet."

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - April 30, 2021

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of December 31, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on February 16, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of December 31, 2020 as disclosed in New England Asset Management’s 13F filing on February 16, 2021.

In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch