Something new: Shareholders at Berkshire's shareholders meeting

After two pandemic years of holding the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting without an audience, Warren Buffett's annual 'Woodstock for Capitalists' is back to something approaching normal this year.

But not entirely normal. Reuters quotes Berkshire as saying it expects this year's attendance to be "considerably less" than the 40,000 who have come to meetings in recent years. Those who do make it will need to provide proof they are vaccinated against COVID.

One investor from Pittsburgh tells the news service he's breaking a 25-year streak because he's "not doing much flying yet."

The most important aspect of the meeting, however, is back to normal.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger will be answering all kinds of questions from shareholders for around five hours, with a break for lunch. Vice-chairmen Greg Abel and Ajit Jain will join them for the morning session.

CNBC's Becky Quick will be asking some of the questions submitted by email.

Along with Mike Santoli, she will also be hosting our exclusive CNBC.com live stream of the meeting, with coverage starting at 9:45 AM ET (8:45 Central/Omaha time).

In its extensive preview article, CNBC.com notes the meeting will be held on a "high note," with Buffett "back in the deal-making game" (Occidental Petroleum, HP, Alleghany) and the Class A shares crossing above $500,000 last month for the first time ever.

According to Berkshire's posted schedule and information document, doors at the 18,975 seat CHI Health Center Omaha arena open at 8 AM ET (7 CT), with Q&A beginning at 10:15 AM ET (9:15 CT) and concluding at 4:30 PM ET (3:30 CT). The lunch break is not listed, but will probably come sometime around 12:45 PM ET (11:45 CT).

The business meeting portion of the event, which will include voting for the board of directors and several shareholder proposals, is scheduled to start at 4:45 PM ET (3:45 CT) and run for around 45 minutes.

CalPERS, the big state pension fund, generated some headlines when it said it would vote for a proposal that would prohibit the same person from being both chairman and CEO of Berkshire. That would effectively require Buffett to give up one of the two roles that he now occupies. It is almost certain, however, the proposal will be defeated by a large margin.

And as the doors are opening at the arena around 8AM ET (7 CT), Berkshire will post its first quarter financial results on its website.

The last lunch

As the Berkshire meeting was taking a two-year break for the pandemic, another annual tradition was also put on hold: the online auction for charity of a lunch with Buffett.

It's back this year, but it will be what organizers are calling "the grand finale" of one of eBay's "most legendary auctions."

Online bidding begins on June 12 and ends on June 17. The winner, along with up to seven guests, will share lunch with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York.

Bidding starts at $25,000 and participants need to be pre-qualified.

The winning bid in the most recent auction, held in 2019, was almost $4.6 million.  Since the auction moved to eBay in 2003, it has raised more than $34 million.

Proceeds go to San Francisco's Glide, which describes itself as "is a nationally recognized center for social justice, dedicated to fighting systemic injustices, creating pathways out of poverty and crisis, and transforming lives."

No word on why Buffett is ending the tradition after this year.

Squawk Box's live interviews from Omaha

This morning, CNBC's "Squawk Box" featured several live interviews as part of its coverage of the Berkshire meeting this weekend:

• Berkshire director Sue Decker: Rising rates ‘not a good recipe’ for inflation and growth stocks
  
  
• Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber: Consumer demand is sticky but growth has moderated
  
  
• Fund manager Mario Gabelli: The market is fairly valued, bigger concern is the Fed
  
  
• Ariel Investments' John Rogers: High flying stocks will continue to come back down to Earth
  
  
• Wedgewood Partners' David Rolfe: We have become ‘less enamored’ with Berkshire’s capital allocation
  
  
• Morningstar's Mark Cash and Evercore ISI's Steve Richardson: Two experts break down Berkshire’s newest holdings in HP, Occidental Petroleum

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

Some links may require a subscription

• CNBC.com: Here’s what it’s like to attend Warren Buffett’s shopping carnival for shareholders

• CNBC.com: Bank stocks, once a Buffett favorite, take a back seat at Berkshire Hathaway amid recession worries

• CNBC Fast Money Halftime Report (video): Josh Brown discusses what he expects from Berkshire annual meeting

• MarketWatch on MSN: A final hurrah for Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger? Why this year’s Berkshire Hathaway meeting is so special

• CNN Business: Warren Buffett fans have plenty to cheer this weekend

• Barron's (subscription): Berkshire Hathaway Stock Could Drop 99% and Buffett Would Still Beat the S&P 500

• MarketWatch Opinion on MSN: Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are once again outperforming the stock market. Apple is one big reason but these other 10 stocks also helped

• Yahoo Finance: Berkshire Hathaway 2022 meeting: What to expect as Warren Buffett takes the stage

• Wall Street Journal (subscription): Warren Buffett Is Still Setting Berkshire’s Direction. For How Much Longer?

• Barron's (subscription): Buffett Should Get Ready for Buyback Questions at Berkshire’s Annual Meeting

• Reuters podcast: How Brooks ran into Warren Buffett’s arms

• Reuters on Yahoo: Berkshire investors nudge for better governance, social issues as meeting looms

• MarketWatch Opinion on MSN: Dump Buffett as Berkshire’s chairman? That’s exactly what’s wrong with so many shareholder proposals this year

• Bloomberg (subscription): Buffett’s Annual Meeting Set to Be Crashed by Railroad Workers

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Apr 29, 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 December 31, 2021 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on February 14, 2022, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of December 31, 2021 as disclosed in New England Asset Management’s 13F filing on February 14, 2022, and except for Occidental Petroleum, which is as of March 16, 2022.

In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2021 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2021 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, 2021 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