Louis Simpson, "one of the investment greats," dies at age 85

Louis Simpson, GEICO's longtime stock picker based in Chicago, has died at the age of 85 after "a prolonged illness."

Warren Buffett repeatedly praised Simpson's investment skills, both before and after Berkshire Hathaway took complete control of the insurer in 1996.

When Simpson retired from GEICO in 2010 after more than 30 years there, Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders, "Lou has never been one to advertise his talents. But I will: Simply put, Lou is one of the investment greats."

He also joked that he didn't provide regular updates on Simpson's investing results "because his performance made mine look bad. Who needs that?"

In Buffett's 2004 letter, however, he did detail Simpson's record from 1980 through that year, showing that his average annual gain was 20.3%, compared to just 13.5% for the benchmark S&P 500 stock index.

Buffett added that he usually didn't know what Simpson was buying or selling until ten days after the end of each month. "Sometimes, it should be added, I silently disagree with his decision." And then, in tiny type, "But he's usually right."

In its obituary, the Chicago Tribune noted that Simpson's investment strategy was similar to Buffett's. "Both tended to favor buying and holding firms that are considered value stocks."

Simpson did very few interviews. But in 2010, he told the Tribune "that he followed an 'eclectic' research process that included reading everything he could get his hands on, meeting with people more knowledgeable about a business than he was, and largely eschewing Wall Street-generated research."

And like Buffett, he didn't talk publicly about what stocks he liked or didn't like. In that 2010 interview he said, "So many people broadcast what they buy or sell and it works against them. I’m in favor of people not knowing what we’re doing until the last possible time."

Simpson, however, was not shy about his support of Northwestern University, where he served as a trustee for many years.

According to the school, he and his wife, Kimberly Querrey, "made widespread contributions totaling more than $250 million" to Northwestern, including a $92 million gift in 2015 for biomedical research. The Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center in downtown Chicago, which opened in 2019, is named in their honor.

Berkshire rally again brings stocks to all-time highs

The rally that pushed Berkshire Hathaway's market value above $700 billion last week is still going.

Today, it's around $723 billion with both classes of the company's stock closing at new all-time highs.

The Class B shares closed at $324.13, up 1.3% this week.

The Class A shares ended at $485,379, a gain of 1.1% for the week.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

Some links may require a subscription

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Jan 14, 2022

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

Holdings are as of September 30, 2021 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on November 15, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of September 30, 2021 as disclosed in New England Asset Management’s 13F filing on August 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.)

If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch