Categories
Warren Buffett

Buffett Unperturbed by Berkshire’s Q1 Earnings

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

While much of the media focused on Berkshire Hathaway’s lower first quarter earnings, which fell 27 percent, Warren Buffett reminded shareholders at the conglomerate’s annual meeting that Berkshire has over $90 billion in unrealized capital gains.

Berkshire reported that its net income was $4.06 billion, which translates to $2,469 per Class A share. This was down from $5.59 billion, or $3,401, for the first quarter of 2016.

As of March 31, 2017, Berkshire’s book value had increased by 3.5% since yearend 2016 to $178,073 per Class A equivalent share.

Weather related losses in its insurance businesses were one of the reasons for the earnings shortfall.

Buffett noted that taking some of those capital gains at any time would change the company’s quarterly earnings, and Buffett has always emphasized Berkshire’s intrinsic value, which is harder to quantify.

Buffett did note that Berkshire’s float, which comes from its numerous insurance operations, is up $14 billion.

There’s no doubt that the company is swimming in cash, which is now at a company record $90 billion, and Buffett appeared itchy to put some of that cash to work while keeping Berkshire safe in case of unforeseen hard times.

He noted that the $20 billion he often mentions as held as reserves is in his mind a bare minimum, and that he’s more likely to maintain a reserve closer to $24 billion.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

Commentary: Berkshire Made the Right Bet on BYD

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

While investors cross their fingers and hope that Tesla’s anticipated Model 3 profits will come in time to bail out the company’s cash burn rate, another electric car and battery maker, China’s BYD, is celebrating its record profits in 2016.

Wondering which company Berkshire Hathaway invested in? If you said BYD, you are right.

The good news for Berkshire, which owns just under ten percent of BYD, is that BYD achieved a record five billion RMB profit in 2016, as the company continues to debut its pure electric buses and cars in markets around the world.

BYD recently unveiled the ‘Dynasty’ prototype vehicle created by its new Design Director Wolfgang Egger.

BYD is preparing to make an even greater push internationally by investing in world class technology and expertise that advances its vision of creating an eco-system of quality new energy products. The five billion RMB SkyRail monorail that was launched last October, the appointment of actor Leonardo DiCaprio as brand ambassador in China for new energy vehicles, along with the recent hiring of two European automobile heavyweights underscores the company’s strategic global expansion.

“Joining BYD provides an opportunity to help a young brand develop its design DNA as it looks to expand its global footprint,” said BYD Design Director Wolfgang Egger. “This concept vehicle will take BYD’s consumer vehicles in an exciting new direction, with design cues like its dragon-inspired exterior drawing inspiration from China’s rich cultural heritage.”

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million is now worth roughly $1.77 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Brooks

Brooks Running Company Heads to China and Brazil

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway’s Brooks Running Company is expanding its global footprint in July 2017 with entry into China and Brazil, two of the largest running markets in the world. Entry into China and Brazil is a significant opportunity for Brooks to introduce its innovative products and run happy spirit to the many people who run in the two countries.

“Brooks is 100% focused on the run, and it’s important that our brand is part of the running community across the globe,” said Brooks CEO Jim Weber. “Following success in Europe, Japan and Canada, entry into China and Brazil represents the next step in our global expansion strategy. I’m excited about the opportunity to inspire more people around the world to run and be active.”

Brooks will enter China on July 1 via online and brick-and-mortar distribution. At launch, Brooks’ products will be available online through T-Mall and Amazon as well as in-store at key sporting goods retailers in major markets such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In addition to the company’s industry-leading footwear and accessories, runners in China will be able to experience Brooks Run Signature at select retail locations.

Brooks Run Signature is an innovative fitting method that utilizes cutting-edge technology to assess the way a runner’s body wants to run and recommends the right shoe to fit their run.

In 2018, Brooks will continue to expand its presence in China, adding apparel and sports bras to its product assortment.

In partnership with Centauro, the premier sporting goods retailer in Brazil, Brooks will enter the Brazilian market this July. With Brazil home to the largest running population in Latin America, presence in the country will help Brooks create a brand foothold in the region. Runners in Brazil will be able to experience the company’s entire footwear line including the all-new Glycerin 15, an award-winning shoe in the company’s Cushion category.

Global expansion remains a key priority for Brooks. In the near term, the company plans to strengthen its existing presence in Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. In 2018 and beyond, Brooks will explore opportunities to enter new countries with dedicated runner populations.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD’s Electric EcoTaxis Hit the Streets in Ecuador

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Thirty BYD pure electric e5 taxis are now in service in Loja, Ecuador. The project was initiated by the local community and backed by the Ecuadorian government with a tax free incentive.

“The strong support from the government and the development bank Corporación Financiera Nacional shows united effort to create a sustainable living environment,” said Jorge Burbano, Business Manager of BYD E-Motors Ecuador. “We are impressed by their conviction and perseverance to make EcoTaxis a reality.”

Introducing electric taxis into Loja’s public transport system is just one of many steps Ecuador is taking to mitigate climate change. It – along with every Latin American country – is one of the signatories to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. At 43.6 percent renewable energy also plays a growing role in Ecuador’s energy mix.

The Mayor of Loja, Bolivar Castillo, expressed his gratitude to the locals who first approached City Hall with a business case for the EcoTaxi. “This demonstrates that the people of Loja are not afraid to try new things. Cities like ours will pave the way for others to follow.”

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million is now worth roughly $1.77 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Insurance

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Innovates With New Products

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP), a leading provider of innovative travel insurance, has launched a new lineup of travel insurance products for the U.S. market.

Known for its market-leading innovation in U.S. travel insurance, BHTP is launching more comprehensive coverage than before with the debut of ExactCare® Value™ and ExactCare® Extra™, and enhancements to its existing ExactCare® product.

“BHTP is launching a good, better and different suite of plans in the U.S. market,” said Dean Sivley, president of Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. “Our top-tier offering is ‘different’ in that it not only provides the highest coverage limits from BHTP, it also integrates our innovative fixed benefits, making it the broadest travel insurance option in the U.S.”

ExactCare® Extra™: BHTP is the first travel insurance company to launch a revolutionary concept that combines the innovative and immediate fixed-benefit payments featured in its existing AirCare® product with traditional coverage, giving travelers the broadest travel and simplest protection possible.

ExactCare® Value™: Full-featured product offering savvy travelers what they want most from travel insurance.

ExactCare®: BHTP’s most popular product is now more hassle-free – particularly for families, with the addition of family-friendly pricing.

“Travel agents now have something different to offer their clients – something that includes what we’re calling ‘no receipts needed’ fixed benefits for several coverages in BHTP’s new ExactCare Extra® plan,” Sivley added. “Following the 2014 debut of AirCare® – the world’s first flight-protection product to feature claims that are automatically filed and paid as flight or baggage mishaps happen – BHTP has now combined these popular fixed benefits for travel disruption and baggage with traditional, comprehensive travel insurance.”

As travelers enter the busy and often weather-disrupted summer travel season, the new and enhanced ExactCare products will not only make quick travel assistance more accessible for any travel problem or disruption, but now travelers can receive “as it happens” claims payments for covered flight cancellations, tarmac delays or delayed and lost baggage.

Designed to dramatically reduce or eliminate claim filing and processing, all new BHTP ExactCare products include expedited claims reimbursement via BHTP Burst® – including direct e-payments to a PayPal account, or payment via debit card into a specified account. Plus, the new, innovative ExactCare Extra plan includes real-time flight tracking, the popular high-tech feature that was first introduced in 2014 with BHTP’s AirCare product.

All BHTP insureds have access to on-demand attention and responses through MyAssist, and BHTP’s 24/7/365 global concierge service.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Acquisitions Lubrizol Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett Wishes For Five More Lubrizols

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

If there is any one of Berkshire Hathaway’s companies that Warren Buffett would love to find another of it would have to be Lubrizol Corporation.

Berkshire acquired the specialty chemical manufacturer in 2011 for $9.7 billion, and it has played an important role in Berkshire’s profits.

“Lubrizol is the second largest in terms of earnings so it’s a very important asset to Berkshire,” Buffett noted during a recent visit to Lubrizol’s headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio. “Up until the acquisition of Precision Cast Parts [it was] the largest industrial operation we have.”

Lubrizol’s growth, which since being acquired by Berkshire has included the acquisition of Particle Science, the opening of a chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) compounding plant in Dahej, India, and assuming the Indian government’s stake in Lubrizol India Pvt Ltd., and more.

“It’s a terrific business and it’s big, and only gets bigger,” Buffet said.

With Berkshire size matters, as small acquisitions don’t make much difference in the profits of a company the size that Berkshire has grown to. Over the past decade, Berkshire has added not only Lubrizol, but also BNSF Railway, Precision Castparts, battery-maker Duracell, and a hefty chunk of Kraft Heinz to its portfolio.

While individual Berkshire companies can grow through smaller acquisitions in the millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, those size acquisitions don’t make sense for Berkshire if they are stand-alone entities. Berkshire has to add companies with billions in market cap in order to make a difference.

Companies of Lubrizol’s size are in the range that Buffett looks for with his famed “elephant gun.”

“It’s a huge advantage to be large too in terms of moving the needle on $400 billion of market cap.” Buffett noted, referring to Berkshire’s overall size.

Buffett’s a willing buyer, but companies such as Lubrizol are not on every corner.

“I wish we had five more and they’re hard, they are very hard to find,” Buffet said. “They take decades and decades to build.”

Buffett’s reputation as a long term owner of companies who keeps key management in place is one the things that makes becoming a Berkshire company attractive. The other is no longer having to be a slave to quarterly earnings reports. Just ask the folks at BNSF Railway how much easier it is to allocate capital now that they have been freed of that burden.

“We want Berkshire to be a wonderful collection of businesses over time, because we’re not going to sell them. It isn’t like we are going to keep culling the herd.”

If you can find Buffett another Lubrizol he’s certainly ready to thank you.

“Find me another Lubrizol, I’ll send flowers to your wife on her birthday,” Buffett adds. And he means it.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
IMC

ISCAR to Benefit from Robust Growth in Boring Tools Market

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

ISCAR, the largest of the 15 companies comprising Berkshire Hathaway’s IMC (International Metalworking Companies) will benefit from a projected robust market for boring tools over the next five years.

IMC’s companies produce a wide range of carbide inserts, carbide endmills and cutting tools, covering most metal cutting applications.

In a new TechNavio report, “Global Boring Tools Market 2017-2021,” Technavio’s analysts forecast the global boring tools market to grow at a CAGR of 7.27% during the period 2017-2021.

The report notes that a key driver of the demand for boring tools is the demand for fabricated metal in the automotive sector.

The report notes that “the major growth in the boring tools will be seen in key APAC countries such as China and India. South Korea and other emerging economies are growing at a higher rate when compared with the matured markets in the Americas and EMEA.”

The total metal cutting tools market, which includes boring tools, was valued at $36.04 billion in 2016.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
BNSF

BNSF Continues Layoffs Due to Soft Coal and Oil Demand

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BNSF Railway continues to trim its workforce, which continues a process that was particularly heavy in 2016.

In 2016, BNSF furloughed about 4,600 workers.

The most recent to face layoffs were 55 workers at the Glendive diesel shop in Glendive, Montana. The layoffs are classified as permanent, and the shop will continue to employ roughly 60 workers.

A spokesman for BNSF cited lower demand for coal and oil shipments as the reason for the layoffs.

System-wide, BNSF’s 2016 carloads were down significantly from 2015 levels. There were a total of 480,000 fewer unit trains than in the prior year.

Things have been looking up in 2017, with total carloads including intermodal up a robust 7.25% system-wide. However, the freight hauler has been working actively on making itself more efficient, which enables it to do the same work with fewer employees.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Nebraska Furniture Mart

Grandscape to Add 100-Acre Lifestyle Center

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Grandscape, Berkshire Hathaway’s giant mixed-use real estate development in The Colony, Texas, has broken ground on 1.5 million square feet of residential and office space that is billed as the lifestyle center for the development.

The lifestyle center will feature a luxury high-rise apartment tower that will also have retail and office space.

Located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Grandscape is being developed by Berkshire’s Nebraska Furniture Mart, and is home to its 1.86 million square foot store, which opened in 2015.

Berkshire is on a ten-year-plan to fill out the Grandscape property, with anchor retail and entertainment all on a Texas-sized scale.

In January, Galaxy Theatres agreed to build and operate an 85,000+ sf, 16-screen movie venue in the lifestyle center. The opening is scheduled for 2019.

Another anchor retailer that is already signed is Scheels All Sports, which is certainly familiar with the mega-sized nature of Grandscape.

Scheels currently operates the “World’s Largest All Sports Store,” which is located in Reno/Sparks, Nevada. No word yet whether the Grandscape store will eclipse it.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen Goes Inter-Galactic with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Movie Tie-In

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

The Dairy Queen® brand is teaming up with Marvel Studios’ highly anticipated movie release, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, to launch the Guardians Awesome Mix Blizzard Treat and #MissionMixtape, a Fan journey to claim an exclusive mixtape.

The promotion then has fans search the galaxy for a cassette player to hear their celestial reward.

“The Marvel collaboration allows us to bring our Fan Food philosophy to life in our new summer blockbuster Guardians Awesome Mix Blizzard treat,” says Barry Westrum, executive vice president of Marketing for American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ). “In the movie, the Guardians are stronger as a team. Likewise, we teamed up with Marvel to create a Fan favorite summer Blizzard treat flavor, mixing brownie and cookie pieces to create ‘Brookie’ pieces and combining them with caramel, choco chunks and DQ vanilla soft-serve.”

Starting April 26 at 12 p.m. CDT, Fans can claim one of 1,000 Mission Mixtapes at MissionMixtape.com. Once claimed, Fans must search the galaxy for a cassette player to play the tape and get a special code for prizes ranging from limited edition, cast-signed Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie posters to DQ gift cards. Each cassette tape also includes original, unofficial ‘bonus’ tracks. Fans can share their missions or follow along with #MissionMixtape.

Additionally, customers can upgrade the small sundae in the $5 Buck Lunch meal to a small Blizzard treat for an additional $1.

Dairy Queen also has a TV commercial tie-in.

The promotion is only the second time that Dairy Queen has done a movie tie-in in the past twenty years. In 2015, Dairy Queen tied-in with Jurassic World, which went on to be the biggest film of the summer and the second highest grossing film of the year.

At the time, Dairy Queen’s CEO, John Gainor, noted that he was delighted to see how the branding tie-in boosted sales across the board, and especially for their Blizzard dessert that came in a Jurassic World-themed cup.

Hopefully, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will have a similar effect.

For more information on Dairy Queen’s world-wide plans, read a Mazor’sEdge special report on Dairy Queen.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.