Buffett planning in-person shareholders meeting in Omaha

After two years of shareholders meetings without shareholders due to the COVID pandemic, Berkshire Hathaway said this week that "(a)t this time, we are planning for an in-person meeting."

A news release from the company said the meeting will be held on Saturday, April 30, and that, as it has been in recent years, it will be again be webcast.

The release didn't say where the meeting will be held, which generated "many" questions to the company about the location.

In a follow-up two days later, Berkshire said, "We now realize that we made an error in our earlier press release in not being clearer with respect to what we had taken for granted. We would never consider holding our shareholder meeting anyplace other than Omaha."

Berkshire Hathaway 2018 annual meeting spillover viewing room | REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Last year's meeting, with no shareholders present, was held in Los Angeles so that Charlie Munger could join Buffett and vice-chairmen Ajit Jain and Greg Abel on stage without having to leave his home city during the pandemic.

The year before, it was just Buffett and Abel answering questions in an empty Omaha arena.

The New York Times notes the "decision reflects evolving, and sometimes diverging, approaches to live events at this point in the pandemic." 

The Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas earlier this month, although some big-name companies like Amazon did not attend.

The World Economic Forum, on the other hand, postponed its annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland due to the Omicron outbreak.

Buffett catches up with Cathie Wood and Mark Zuckerberg

Just under a year ago, Cathie Wood's flagship ARK Innovation ETF hit an all-time high, fueled by big gains for its investments in high-flying stocks like Tesla and Zoom Video Communications.

Warren Buffett | CNBC and Cathie Wood | REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

This year, however, dynamic technology growth stocks are out of favor amid expectations the Federal Reserve is about to start a cycle of interest rate hikes. (Woods has been taking advantage of the lower prices to add to her core holdings, telling investors that "innovation is on sale."

As Bloomberg puts it, "the marketwide shift to cheaper and more defensive sectors" is in line with Buffett's "value-driven approach."

As a result, based solely on price, Berkshire Class B shares are now outperforming Ark Innovation over the past two years. (When dividends are taken into account, they are roughly even.)

The tech stock sell-off has also moved Buffett higher in the rankings of the world's richest people.

So far this year, Buffett is the only person in the top 10 to see his net wealth increase.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is up $4.5 billion year-to-date, with an estimated net worth of $113 billion.

That puts him in seventh place, slightly above Meta Platforms' Mark Zuckerberg. With the stock down more than 10% YTD, his net worth has dropped by an estimated $12.7 billion.

Zuckerberg had been ranked higher than Buffett since passing him back in 2018.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Jan. 28, 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.

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch