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FRI, MAR 01, 2024
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Berkshire's stock rally eases despite strong earnings report |
The A shares fell 2.4% on the week and dropped 5.1% from their all-time intraday high of $647,039 early Monday. The B shares were also down 2.4% this week and fell 5.3% from their Monday intraday high of $430.00 per share. |
CNBC.com quoted Edward Jones analyst James Shanahan as saying Berkshire's stock "significantly outperformed financial peers" last year, and he continues to expect "solid" earnings from the company, but "the current share price reflects these positives." He has a "hold" rating. |
Berkshire's breather this week hasn't put much of a dent into speculation the company will be joining the six U.S. companies with market values of $1 trillion or more. (Microsoft, Apple. Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta.)
It stands at approximately $885 billion tonight. |
UBS analyst Brian Meredith raised his 12-month price target on the A shares to $715,000 from $655,000. His B share target is $477, up from $435.
The new targets would push Berkshire just over the $1 trillion mark.
Bloomberg notes that another non-tech name is in the race for a trillion.
Eli Lilly is in eighth place, after Berkshire, on the U.S. market cap list with $743 billion. |
Enthusiasm for its Zepbound weight loss drug, which won FDA approval in November, has helped send that stock nearly 150% higher over the past year. |
Berkshire fortune fuels 'free tuition' donation to medical school |
An early Berkshire Hathaway investor's fortune will make it possible for a Bronx medical school to provide a tuition-free education to all its students "in perpetuity." Sandy Gottesman, a longtime friend and business partner of Warren Buffett who served on Berkshire's board, died at the age of 96 in September 2022. His widow, Ruth Gottesman, tells The New York Times that "he left me, unbeknownst to me, a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock,” with simple instructions: “Do whatever you think is right with it.”
She decided the right thing is to eliminate tuition at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx borough of New York City, where she had been for many years a professor studying learning disabilities. She is currently the chair of its board of trustees. Students enthusiastically greeted her announcement of the gift: |
Albert Einstein College of Medicine YouTube video |
The $1 billion donation is being called the largest to any medical school in the U.S.
The school says the "transformational gift is intended to attract a talented and diverse pool of individuals who may not otherwise have the means to pursue a medical education."
The Times calls the donation "notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough, [with] a high rate of premature deaths." A columnist at the newspaper writes that the gift is also "remarkable for the absence of any apparent vanity surrounding it." Gottesman is insisting the school keep its current name, saying it can't be beat. "We’ve got the gosh darn name — we’ve got Albert Einstein." |
BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE |
Buffett on the importance of insurance 'float' (1996) |
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BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Mar. 1, 2024 |
Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, by market value, based on today's closing prices.
Holdings are as of December 31, 2023 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on February 14, 2024, except for: The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker. |
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.
Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly-recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website. -- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch |
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