PARADOX: Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK)

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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I am back from what has become over the past two decades an annual pilgrimage to Omaha. 

What’s fascinating about this trip is that it has everything and nothing to do with Warren Buffett. The main event that draws everyone to Omaha – the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) annual meeting – is actually the least important part. I could have watched the shareholder meeting livestreamed on YouTube from the comfort of my living room couch.

The emergence of the Berkshire phenomenon reminds me of China’s manufacturing evolution. China initially attracted capital because of its cheap labor. But over time, China took this capital and plowed it into infrastructure. Factories were built next to each other, each specializing in certain areas. A specialized ecosystem emerged. 

Today, Chinese labor is no longer cheap. It’s been replaced by automation, and now China is a powerhouse for manufacturing anything and everything.

The transformation that the BRK weekend has undergone followed a similar progression. Initially, the only way to absorb Buffett and Munger’s wisdom was to come to Omaha, as the event was not streamed. But then something interesting happened. The BRK weekend attracted people who shared the same value system, and friendships were formed. A variety of smaller events began to be scheduled throughout the same weekend across Omaha, and an equally specialized ecosystem emerged.

The shareholder meeting began to be streamed about ten years ago, but that has had no impact on attendance. This is one reason why I think Buffett is at peace with the idea of no longer presiding at the meeting – people will still come to Omaha the weekend before Mother’s Day.
The BRK weekend now features dozens of excellent events. 

I spoke at several, including an investing panel at Creighton University, alongside the wonderful Bob Robotti, a die-hard value investor who runs Robotti & Co. I’ve known Bob for years – at 72, he exhibits the same enthusiasm for stocks as someone decades younger – and this panel was an excellent example of what the BRK Omaha ecosystem has produced.

Bob and I have very different approaches to value investing. He loves cyclical businesses, while I generally shun them. Bob mentioned that he’d buy a very cheap business run by a mediocre manager, while I would not touch it with a ten-foot pole. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with either approach; indeed, there is an important lesson in it. Your investment philosophy and process have to fit your personality and your EQ. In my case, I get nervous (and thus irrational) when I own companies run by imbeciles who don’t have either skin or soul in the game. But the great thing about the BRK weekend is that I learn from Bob every time I spend time with him. He’s a thoughtful and genuinely kind human being. 

From the outside, the BRK weekend may seem like a place where people simply want to learn how to get and stay rich. But this gathering transcends value investing and capitalism and genuinely celebrates human values. People (like me) bring their kids to this event. And just like at the main event, at the Q&A breakfast I hosted for my readers, many questions centered on life rather than investing.

My first Omaha reader meetup fit around a small restaurant table. This year, to my surprise, 450 people packed into a venue with standing-room only. I answered questions on every imaginable topic for just over two hours, and by the end I was exhausted. 

This gave me even greater admiration for Buffett, who is four decades my senior, yet still fielded questions for four solid hours. I was delighted to hear Warren give a similar answer to one I had given the day before when asked what advice he’d give to graduating students: 
“Don’t worry too much about starting salaries and be very careful who you work for because you will take on the habits of the people around you.” 

(Incidentally, we are going to host our next Q&A Breakfast on May 1, 2026. You can sign up for it here. It’s free, but I suggest you sign up early, as it fills up fast.)

I also participated (as I have for over a decade) in an investing panel at YPO (Young President Organization) in the beautiful Holland Performance Art Center with Tom Gaynor, CEO of Markel (often described as a baby Berkshire Hathaway) and Lawrence Cunningham. Lawrence authored perhaps the most important book about Buffett, The Essays of Warren Buffett, masterfully editing Warren’s annual letters into a cohesive volume. This year’s panel was one of those occasions where I found myself listening intently to my fellow panelists instead of speaking more.

Lawrence has met Greg Abel – Buffett’s designated successor – and feels optimistic about him. He’s probably right – this was one of Buffett’s most crucial decisions, which he did not make lightly. Yet I can’t imagine sitting for four hours listening to Greg Abel. I am sure he is a brilliant CEO, but he’s neither Buffett nor Munger – few individuals possess so much worldly wisdom and communicate it with such clarity and humor.

This brings me to the point of this note: the dramatic (yet not unexpected) announcement that Buffett is stepping down as CEO of BRK at the end of the year.

Before I comment on this, let me tell you a story. Imagine you have been watching a soap opera for 17 years. You arrive dutifully every year to watch every episode in person. And then you miss the last five minutes of the explosive finale before it goes off the air. This is what happened to me when Buffett announced his retirement as CEO.

A few minutes before noon, while Buffett was answering a question I’d heard before and appeared to be winding down, I suggested we slip out early for lunch to avoid the crowds. When we came back, I discovered that the meeting had gone on until 1 pm, and just before it ended, Buffett announced that he would step down at the end of the year. Seventeen years of watching Warren speak and I missed the most dramatic moment of all, followed by a five-minute standing ovation.

I think Buffett has engineered his exit brilliantly. He will still remain chairman, and even before the announcement he was not managing BRK’s day-to-day operations. As a collection of hundreds of companies that often have absolutely nothing in common with each other, BRK is already highly decentralized. Buffett’s main contribution has been capital allocation.

Giving up the CEO title while he’s still alive means Buffett has brought in his replacement in an orderly way and created a smooth transition. But I have a feeling that on January 1, 2026, when Greg Abel officially becomes CEO, nothing will really change, and Warren will continue doing what he’s been doing for as long as he can. If Buffett is able – he’ll be 95 – he’ll still drive to the office and stop by McDonald’s for a breakfast sandwich (there’s a lot of wisdom in finding pleasure in little things). His son Howard Buffett will become chairman after Warren, with his only job being to preserve the culture.
I’ve been asked what I think of BRK stock. We bought the stock during the pandemic. It has done better than I expected, in part because of the strong performance of Apple, which was BRK’s largest holding. But BRK today is an unexciting investment at its current price. In all honesty, it is a conglomerate with some good and some merely okay businesses.

As a consumer, I get a (small) glimpse into how BRK businesses are being run by visiting Dairy Queen. BRK owns DQ, and I love their soft-serve ice cream (though I only eat it when I travel). My favorite part of research!

DQ has (or maybe had) a strong brand and operates on a capital-light model as a franchisor. But most stores I have visited looked like they have been neglected and need fresh paint. To be sure, I understand the limitations of this “analysis,” and DQ overall amounts to a rounding error on BRK’s financials. But little things often reveal much about big things.

BRK’s big businesses, from what I can glean through their financials, are not particularly well managed – GEICO and BNSF (railroad) have definitely been undermanaged lately. BNSF is not nearly as efficient as its competitors that embraced precision railroading, and until recently GEICO was losing market share to Progressive. 

BRK’s reinsurance business, a significant source of BRK’s profitability, is run by the extraordinary Ajit Jain. Ajit is in his 70s and unfortunately it seems he is not in great health. Is his replacement going to shoot the lights out, like he did? We don’t know. But Ajit is probably more important to BRK today than Buffett.

BRK is not going to melt into oblivion after Buffett is gone, but its best days are behind it. As Buffett has acknowledged, just its size alone makes it very difficult for BRK to grow. Truth be told, even if Buffett were thirty years younger and continued to run BRK, I am not sure the results would be much different than what I think the future holds with Abel at the helm. 

Buffett and Charlie Munger had a tremendous impact on me as an investor and human being. I am incredibly thankful to both. I hope Warren is there next year, but, in either case, I will be.

As value investors say, “next year in Omaha”.

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BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: Warren Buffett to Retire

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BREAKING NEWS

By Staff Reporters

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According to the Washington Post, legendary investor Warren Buffett said Saturday that he plans to step down from his role leading Berkshire Hathaway. Warren, 94, serves as the conglomerate’s chairman and chief executive. He said Saturday that he will recommend to the Berkshire Hathaway board that Greg Abel become CEO at the end of 2025.

“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Omaha.

Abel is chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Buffett has previously signaled that Abel would be in line to succeed him as CEO.

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UPDATE: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) on Saturday reported its worst drop in quarterly operating earnings since 2020, and noted “considerable uncertainty” around international trade policies and tariffs. 

The sprawling conglomerate’s Q1 operating earnings slipped 14.1% Y/Y to $9.64B. This was the steepest fall in operating earnings since a 32.1% decrease logged in the third quarter of 2020

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RELIGION STOCKS: Hidden Risks

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson; CFA

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The Hidden Risk in “Religion” Stocks
You can also listen to a professional narration of this article on iTunes & online.
ENCORE: March 22, 2004

A basic property of religion is that the believer takes a leap of faith: to believe without expecting proof. Often you find this property of religion in other, unexpected places – for example, in the stock market. It takes a while for a company to develop a “religious” following: only a few high-quality, well-respected companies with long track records ever become worshipped by millions of investors. My partner, Michael Conn, calls these “religion stocks.” The stock has to make a lot of shareholders happy for a long period of time to form this psychological link.

The stories (which are often true) of relatives or friends buying few hundred shares of the company and becoming millionaires have to fester a while for a stock to become a religion. Little by little, the past success of the company turns into an absolute – and eternal – truth. Investors’ belief becomes set: the past success paints a clear picture of the future.

Gradually, investors turn from cautious shareholders into loud cheerleaders. Management is praised as visionary. The stock becomes a one-decision stock: buy. This euphoria is not created overnight. It takes a long time to build it, and a lot of healthy pessimists have to become converted into believers before a stock becomes a “religion.” 

Once a stock is lifted up to “religion” status, beware: Logic is out the window. Analysts start using T-bills to discount the company’s cash flows in order to justify extraordinary valuations. Why, they ask, would you use any other discount rate if there is no risk? When a T-bill doesn’t do the trick, suddenly new and “more appropriate” valuation metrics are discovered.

Other investors don’t even try to justify the valuation – the stock did well for me in the past, why would it stop working in the future? Faith has taken over the stock. Fundamentals became a casualty of “stock religion.” These stocks are widely held. The common perception is that they are not risky. 

The general public loves these companies because they can relate to the companies’ brands. A dying husband would tell his wife, “Never sell _______ (fill in the blank with the company name).” Whenever a problem surfaces at a “religion stock,” it is brushed away with the comment that “it’s not like the company is going to go out of business.” True, a “religion stock” company is a solid leader in almost every market segment where it competes and the company’s products carry a strong brand name. However, one should always remember to distinguish between good companies and good stocks.

Coca-Cola is a classic example of a “religion stock.” There are very few companies that have delivered such consistent performance for so long and have such a strong international brand name as Coca-Cola. It is hard not to admire the company.

But admiration of Coca-Cola achieved an unbelievable level in the late nineties. In the ten years leading up to 1999, Coca-Cola grew earnings at 14.5% a year, very impressive for a 103-year-old company. It had very little debt, great cash flow and a top-tier management. This admiration came at a steep price: Coca-Cola commanded a P/E of 47.5. That P/E was 2.7 times the market P/E. Even after T-bills could no longer justify Coke’s valuation, analysts started to price “hidden” assets – Coke’s worldwide brand. No money manager ever got fired for owning Coca-Cola.

The company may not have had a lot of business risk. But in 1999, the high valuation was pricing in expectations that were impossible for any mature company to meet. “The future ain’t what it used to be” – Yogi Berra never lets us down. Success over a prolonged period of time brings a problem to any company – the law of large numbers. 

Enormous domestic and international market share, combined with maturity of the soft drink market, has made it very difficult for Coca-Cola to grow earnings and sales at rates comparable to the pre-1999 years. In the past five years, earnings and sales have grown 2.5% and 1.5% respectively. After Roberto C. Goizueta’s death, Coke struggled to find a good replacement – which it acutely needed.

Old age and arthritis eventually catch up with “religion stocks.” No company can grow at a fast pace forever. Growth in earnings and sales eventually decelerates. That leads to a gradual deflation of the “religion” premium. For Coke, the descent from its “religious” status resulted in a drop of nearly 20% in the share price – versus an increase of 65% in the broad market over the same time. And at current prices, the stock still is not cheap by any means. It trades at 25 times December 2004 earnings, despite expectations for sales growth in the mid single digits and EPS growth in the low double digits. 

It takes a while for the religion premium to be totally deflated because faith is a very strong emotion. A lot of frustration with sub-par performance has to come to the surface.

Disappointment chips away at faith one day at a time. “Religion” stocks are not safe stocks. The leap of faith and perception of safety come at a large cost: the hidden risk of reduction in the “religion premium.” The risk is hidden because it never showed itself in the past. “Religion” stocks by definition have had an incredibly consistent track record. Risk was rarely observed. 

However, this hidden risk is unique because it is not a question of if it will show up but a question of when. It is very hard to predict how far the premium will inflate before it deflates – but it will deflate eventually. When it does, the damage to the portfolio can be huge.

Religion stocks generally have a disproportionate weight in portfolios because they are never sold – exposing the trying-to-be-cautious investor to even greater risks. Coca-Cola is not alone in this exclusive club. General Electric, Gillette, Berkshire Hathaway are all proud members of the “religion stock” club as well. Past members would include: Polaroid – bankrupt; Eastman Kodak – in a major restructuring; AT&T – struggling to keep its head above water. That stock is down from over $80 in 1999 to $18 today.

Emotions have no place in investing. Faith, love, hate, and disgust should be left for other aspects of our life. More often than not, emotions guide us to do the opposite of what we need to do to be successful. Investors need to be agnostic towards “religion stocks.” The comfort and false sense of certainty that those stocks bring to the portfolio come at a huge cost: prolonged under performance.

My thoughts today (20+ years later)

This is one of the first investment articles I ever wrote. I had just started writing for TheStreet.com. It’s interesting to read this article more than 20 years later. I am surprised my writing was not as bad as I had feared (though in many cases it was worse than I feared when I read my other early articles).

So much has happened since then – I am a different person today than I was back then. I have two more kids; I have written three more books and a thousand articles. The last two decades were my formative years as an investor and adult.

The goal of the article was not to make predictions but to warn readers that the long-term success of certain companies creates a cult-like following and deforms thinking. In fact, my original article – the one I submitted to TheStreet.com – did not mention any companies other than Coke. The editors wanted me to include more names so that the article would show up on more pages of Yahoo! Finance.

With the exception of Berkshire Hathaway, all of these companies have produced mediocre or horrible returns. In the best case, their fundamental returns in their old age were only a fraction of what they were when these companies were younger and the world was their oyster.

To my surprise, Coke’s stock is still trading at a high valuation. Its business has performed like the old-timer it is, with revenue and earnings growing by only 3–4% a year. The days of double-digit revenue and earnings growth were left in the 80s and 90s, though the high valuation remained. 

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MACRO-FORECASTING: The True Value

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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The True Value of Macro Forecasting
While in Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting one year, I participated in an investment panel hosted by a local chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. I had the privilege of sharing the stage with such industry giants as Tom Russo, a partner of Gardner Russo & Gardner (famous for knowing more about consumer stocks than the management that runs them), and Tom Gayner, president and CIO of Markel Corp., a specialty insurance company that on many levels resembles the Berkshire of 30 years ago.

We were asked how much time a value investor should spend on macro forecasting. Usually macro forecasting is frowned upon in the value investing community, and Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett has everything to do with that. He is famous for saying (and I am paraphrasing), “My decision making would not change even if I knew what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates next month.” There is sound logic behind this: Forecasting the economy is incredibly difficult in the short run. The economy is not unlike a black box with hundreds of gauges on it that in the near term give you conflicting readings about what’s inside it.

For this reason macro forecasting was disapproved of by value investors, and for 20 years this attitude paid off. The economic climate was favorable, the stock market was in overdrive, price-earnings ratios were expanding. Macro did not matter — until the housing bubble and financial crisis. Value investors who had had their heads in the sand got annihilated.

Things in life often swing, pendulum-like, from one extreme to another. Right after a crisis every investor is a macro expert. It’s kind of hilarious: Investors who just a few years earlier didn’t even know the names of most economic indicators are now spitting them out in conversations as though they had absorbed them with their mother’s milk. So what should investors do — become macro experts or economic ignoramuses?

Believe it or not, there is a logical and, more important, a practical answer to this question. As an investor you want to spend very little time on forecasting the weather (that is, what the Fed will do with interest rates next month or the rate of growth of the economy). Weather forecasting, first of all, is not always accurate, but it will certainly consume a lot of time and energy, and the forecasts have a very finite shelf life. Yesterday’s weather is irrelevant today. As long as you own companies that can survive rain without catching pneumonia — even a few weeks of rain — weather forecasting is a waste of time. This is what Buffett was implying by saying he didn’t want to be a macro forecaster.

However, instead of being a weatherman (or weatherwoman), as an investor you want to pay serious attention to “climate change” — significant shifts in the global economy that can impact your portfolio. This is exactly what Buffett did over the past few decades — he was warning about the weak dollar because of trade-deficit imbalances (he even put on a trade that bet against the dollar). He also warned about derivatives — “weapons of mass destruction” — and tried to cleanse them from the portfolio of General Re (an insurance company Berkshire acquired) as fast as he could.

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PRESIDENTS DAY 2025: US Stock Markets, BoA, Citigroup and Twitter [X]

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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U.S. Stock Markets will be closed for Presidents Day. But crypto trading takes no days off.

The Presidents Day holiday was originally intended to celebrate the birthday of the first President George Washington on February 22nd, according to the Library of Congress. The holiday is still formally designated as Washington’s Birthday by the Office of Personnel Management. Washington’s birthday was an informal holiday during the country’s early existence and President Rutherford B. Hayes formalized the holiday in 1879, according to History.com. The holiday’s proximity to the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln on February 12th caused the general public to link the two and later expand the celebration to all presidents.

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Berkshire Hathaway, the investment conglomerate led by Warren Buffett, reduced its holdings in two US banks. Bank of America (BoA) and Citigroup shares were sold in the final quarter of 2024. The move, disclosed in a regulatory filing last Friday, comes as Buffett continues to trim Berkshire’s stock portfolio, favoring safer investments such as US Treasury bills.

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Wall Street just dumped nearly every dollar of the $12.5 billion in loans that helped Elon Musk buy Twitter—now called X—in 2022. A group of seven major banks, led by Morgan Stanley, offloaded $4.74 billion of the debt last Friday, selling more than their planned $3 billion as investors flooded in with $12 billion in orders, according to a report from the Financial Times.

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DAILY UPDATE: DaVita Down and NASDAQ Up

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Although Berkshire-Hathaway sold 203,091 shares on Friday, it still owns 45 percent of DaVita, Inc.  The stake, valued at $6.4 billion, has been part of Berkshire’s portfolio since 2011. The sell-off Friday was after the sale was disclosed to Wall Street after markers closed on Thursday. When Wall Street shut at 4pm in New York, DaVita was down 11.1 percent –  the stock’s biggest one-day selloff in almost two years for the kidney dialysis provider company.

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The S&P 500 barely budged and slipped by less than 0.1%, a day after rallying within 0.1% of its record set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 165 points, or 0.4%, while the NASDAQ composite rose 0.4%.

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Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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DAILY UPDATE: State Farm & Berkshire Hathaway as ESG Retreats and Markets Rise

Posted on September 27, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Stat: Over 90%. That’s the percentage of the insurance industry’s uptick in fossil fuel securities investment coming from just two firms, State Farm and Berkshire Hathaway. (The Wall Street Journal)

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Stocks up

  • Southwest Airlines ascended 5.42% after the company laid out its growth plans in an attempt to fend off an activist investor attack.
  • Starbucks climbed 1.93% thanks to an upgrade from Bernstein analysts who foresee a “grande comeback” for the coffee chain.
  • CarMax revved 5% higher after posting strong second-quarter earnings, beating both top and bottom line forecasts.
  • Jabil jumped 11.65% after the electronics parts manufacturer announced impressive earnings and revealed plans to cut costs.
  • Bilibili, which sounds like you’re trying to get your friend William’s attention, popped 15.44% after Goldman Sachs analysts upgraded the Chinese internet company.

Stocks down

  • Super Micro Computer plunged 12.17% on the news that the Department of Justice is launching a probe into the tech company, a few weeks after note short seller Hindenburg Research published a report alleging “accounting manipulation.”
  • Sonos, makers of your favorite subwoofer, sank 4.45% after a rare “double downgrade” by Morgan Stanley analysts, who demoted the stock from a positive “overweight” all the way to a negative “underweight.”
  • Oil stocks took a big hit today after Saudi Arabia announced it will increase its oil production next month. Diamondback Energy fell 6.46%, Shell dropped 3.91%, and ConocoPhillips lost 3.23%.

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Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The S&P 500® index (SPX) rose 23.11 points (0.40%) to 5,745.37; the Dow Jones Industrial Average® ($DJI) added 260.36 points (0.62%) to 42,175.11; the NASDAQ Composite® ($COMP) increased 108.08 points (0.60%) to 18,190.29.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) climbed one basis point to 3.79%.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX) was steady at 15.57.

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A retreat from ESG is due to backlash from conservatives who are critical of the idea that fund managers should be considering any other factor but a company’s shareholders in their investment decisions. Accusations of “greenwashing” have also plagued many ESG funds, which is when an asset management firm charges higher fees for a specific thematic fund without actually delivering a unique investment strategy.

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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DAILY UPDATE: Berkshire Hathaway & the “September Effect” Stock Market Collapse

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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The September Effect refers to the historically weak stock market returns observed during the month of September. In fact, September has been the worst performing month, on average, going back nearly a century.

Stat: $1 trillion. That’s how much Berkshire Hathaway is now worth. The Warren Buffet-led company is the first outside of tech to join the trillion-dollar club, joining behemoths like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. (the Washington Post)

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What’s up

What’s down

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Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The S&P 500® index (SPX)dropped 119.47points (–2.12%) to 5,528.93; the Dow Jones Industrial Average® ($DJI) fell 626.15 points (–1.51%) to 40,936.93; the $COMP plummeted 577.32 points (–3.26%) to 17, 136.30.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield gave back seven basis points to 3.84%.
  • The VIX soared to 20.72, the highest since August 13.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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OMAHA: Breakfast Meeting 2024

Posted on May 31, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Kensenelson CFA

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Breakfast in Omaha Meeting 2024 – Session One
While I was in Omaha attending the BRK annual meeting, I hosted Q&A sessions for my readers. Due to high reader interest, what started out as a simple breakfast get-together turned into two breakfast sessions and an afternoon session. We had so much interest that we were still unable to accommodate all of our readers – we had 200 folks on the waiting list.

I was exhausted, but I really enjoyed answering questions and meeting readers. The upside of this is that we have three video recordings.

Over the next three weeks, I will share the videos from each session. For those who prefer to read, I will also include a lightly edited full transcript.

For those who don’t have the time to read 15 pages or watch an hour-long video, I’ll include my favorite excerpts from each session.

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DAILY UPDATE: FQHCs Down and Healthcare Bankruptcies Up as the Markets Extend Gains

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Low-income communities often struggle to access healthcare services, but a new analysis of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)—which provide quality care to patients regardless of ability to pay—has helped nail down one reason. When it comes to screening for certain cancers, these nonprofit community health centers have fallen far behind the national average, according to a study led by cancer center researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson and the University of New Mexico.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

Healthcare bankruptcies surged in 2023, and it turns out many of the companies that went under had one thing in common: private equity (PE) ownership. At least 21% of the 80 healthcare companies that filed for bankruptcy last year were PE-owned, according to a report from the nonprofit Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP).

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

Warren Buffett on contemplated his own mortality at Berkshire’s meeting. Succession was the topic du jour at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha last week. After his longtime business partner Charlie Munger died last year at 99, CEO Warren Buffett—who turns 94 in August—revealed his heir apparent, Greg Abel, will have the final say on investment decisions in his absence. Buffett ended his Q&A portion with the quip, “I not only hope you come next year. I hope I come next year.” Adding to the ominous vibes, Buffett said AI is a genie that “scares the hell out of me.”

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The S&P 500 index climbed 52.95 points (1.0%) to 5,180.74; the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 176.59 points (0.5%) to 38,852.27; the NASDAQ Composite advanced 192.92 points (1.2%) to 16,349.25.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) fell about 1 basis  point to 4.491%.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX) was little changed at 13.48.

Semiconductors were among the strongest performers Monday behind Micron Technology (MU), whose shares rallied 4.7% after Robert W. Baird upgraded the chipmaker to “outperform” from “neutral.” Micron Technology was the top gainer in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX), which advanced 2.2% to near a four-week high.

Small-cap stocks also got out of the gate strong this week. The Russell 2000® Index (RUT) gained 1.2% to end at a four-week high but is still up just 1.7% for the year, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.6%.

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DAILY UPDATE: Realtors Liable for $1.8-B as US Millionaires and Stock Markets Rise Anew

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.—A federal jury just found the National Association of Realtors and large residential brokerages liable for about $1.8 billion in damages after determining they conspired to keep commissions for home sales artificially high. The verdict could lead to industry wide upheaval by changing decades-old rules that have helped lock in commission rates even as home prices have skyrocketed—which has allowed real-estate agents to collect ever-larger sums. It comes in the first of two antitrust lawsuits arguing that unlawful industry practices have left consumers unable to lower their costs even though internet-era innovations have allowed many buyers to find homes themselves online.

Real Estate for Physicians: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2023/01/19/real-estate-for-physician-investors/

The Sitzer/Burnett class action lawsuit alleged that some of the nation’s largest real estate companies, including NAR, Keller Williams, Anywhere (formerly, Realogy), RE/MAX, Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeServices of America and two of its subsidiaries conspired to inflate commissions.

Commercial Real Estate for Physicians: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2022/05/03/on-doctors-investing-in-commercial-real-estate/

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  • Over 12% of American families, or over 16 million, are millionaires, per the WSJ.
  • Median net worth for the 80th-90th income percentile saw net worth gains of 69% from 2019 to 2022.
  • The upper-middle class is growing and becoming wealthier, particularly among those aged 55-74.

It’s not just the top 1% that’s getting richer — over 16 million American families now have a net worth over $1 million. That’s over 12% of American families, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances of over 4,600 American households. This compares to just 9.8 million families who were millionaires in 2019, the WSJ found.

Physician Finances: https://marcinkoassociates.com/financial-planning/

The analysis further noted how nearly eight million families have wealth over $2 million, compared to 4.7 million in 2019. This was particularly pronounced among families in the 55-74 age range. On the whole, median net worth — which measures household assets like houses and vehicles, minus debts like mortgages and student loans — rose an inflation-adjusted 37% between 2019 and 2022 up to around $193,000. Meanwhile, the average net worth rose to over $1 million, though this is skewed by extremely wealthy Americans.

Net worth has increased for all income percentiles even amid rising interest rates, though while the top 10% jumped from $1.84 million to $2.65 million, the bottom 20% rose from $10,780 to $16,900.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

Finally, here is where the major US stock market benchmarks ended:

Economists expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged today, allowing previous rate increases to take greater hold of the economy and granting the central bank time to assess whether another hike will be necessary. Investors and policymakers will closely scour comments made by Fed Chair Jerome Powell for clues about the central bank’s path over the remainder of the year.

  • The S&P 500 Index was up 26.98 points (0.7%) at 4,193.80, down 2.2% for the month; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 123.91 points (0.4%) at 33,052.87, down 1.4% for the month; the NASDAQ Composite was up 61.76 points (0.5%) at 12,851.24, down 2.8% for the month.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield was up about 3 basis points at 4.909%.
  • CBOE’s Volatility Index (VIX) was down 1.61 at 18.14.

Real estate and financial shares were among the strongest performers Tuesday. Semiconductor companies were also higher. Energy shares lagged as crude oil futures extended their slide, dropping to near $81 a barrel to end at a two-month low. The U.S. dollar index (DXY) strengthened to near 11-month highs in the wake of a Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy shift.

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WOODSTOCK for Capitalists

Posted on May 6, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

ANNUAL MEETING TODAY

By Staff Reporters

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“Woodstock for Capitalists” is happening today

Warren Buffett will preside over Berkshire Hathaway’s 59th annual shareholders meeting today—an event expected to draw a large crowd to Omaha, Nebraska. Everyone will be watching to see what Buffett has to say about the economy, the state of the banking sector, his big bet on Apple, and his struggling “favorite child,”

Geico. Shareholders will also vote on six proposals on climate change, political advocacy, and the firm’s leadership, all of which Buffett opposes.

Agenda: https://www.good-investing.net/event/berkshire-hathaway-annual-shareholders-meeting-2023/#:~:text=The%20Berkshire%20Hathaway%20Annual%20Shareholders%20Meeting%202023%20takes,Shareholder%20Meeting%202023%2C%20including%20the%20Exhibition%20Hall%2C%20open.

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UPDATE: National Small Business Week 2022 and Warren Buffett

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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By Staff Reporters

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National Small Business Week, hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration, is an annual celebration of the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, small businesses nationwide have faced unprecedented challenges.

That’s why, this year, National Small Business Week will celebrate the tenacity and resiliency of America’s entrepreneurs who continue to do their part to power our nation’s historic economic comeback.

Celebrated from May 2-5, 2022, the week is a great opportunity for your business to get more media coverage and a chance to interact with new customers. With the added attention on small businesses, take advantage of these seven tips to help your business stand out this year.

LINK: https://www.sba.gov/national-small-business-week

WARREN BUFFETT: He’s certainly bullish on the energy sector. In Q1, Berkshire acquired a big stake in Occidental Petroleum and juiced its stake in Chevron (which is now the company’s fourth-largest holding). And, Berkshire Hathaway is now the largest shareholder of Activision Blizzard after amassing a 9.5% stake. Activision stock has jumped more than 15% after Microsoft agreed to acquire it in January.

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UPDATE: Markets, Berkshire Hathaway and the Ukraine

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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  • Markets: Stocks boomed on a day when, to no one’s surprise, the Federal Reserve [FOMC} said it would hike interest rates.
  • Berkshire Hathaway: Class A shares closed above a half-million dollars for the first time ever—a testament to Warren Buffett’s recent hot streak.
  • Ukraine: After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave an impassioned address to Congress asking for more help, the White House acted. President Biden pledged $800 million worth of military aid, including 100 drones, 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, and 2,000 anti-armor missiles, and also called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”
  • HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY

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#6: The Six Commandments of Value Investing

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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6. In the long run, stocks revert to their fair value

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Although it has been some time since speaking live with busy colleague Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA, I review his internet material frequently and appreciate this ME-P series contribution. I encourage all ME-P readers to do the same and consider his value investing insights carefully.

By Vitaliy Katsenelson, CFA

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6. In the long run, stocks revert to their fair value

Reversion to fair value is not a pie-in-the-sky concept. If a stock is significantly undervalued for a long time, then this undervaluation gets cured, eventually. That can happen through share buybacks – the company can basically buy all of its shares and take itself private.

Or it can happen by the company’s paying out its earnings in dividends, thus creating yields that the market will not be able to ignore. Or the company’s competitors will realize that it is cheaper for them to buy the company than to replicate its assets on their own. Either way, undervaluation gets cured.

This faith that undervaluation will not last forever is paramount to value investing. But this is not your regular faith, which requires belief without proof. This is evidence-supported faith with hundreds of years of data to back it. Just look at the US stock market: it has gone through cycles when it was incredibly cheap and others when it was incredibly expensive. At some points in its journey from one extreme to the other, it touched its fair value, even if it was transitory.

Historically, value investing (owning undervalued companies) has done significantly better than other strategies. Paradoxically, the reason it has done well in the long run is because it did not work consistently in the short run. If something works consistently (keyword), everybody piles into it and it stops working.

These aforementioned cycles of temporary brilliance and dumbness are not just common to us mere mortals. Even Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway goes through them. As just one example, in 1999, when the stock market went up 21%, Berkshire Hathaway stock declined 19%. In 1999, the financial press was writing obituaries for Buffett’s investment prowess.

Suddenly, in 1999, Buffett’s IQ was lagging the market by 40%. At the time, investors were infatuated with internet stocks that were not making money but that were supposed to have a bright future. Investors were selling unsexy “old economy” stocks that Buffett owned in order to buy the “new economy” ones.

If at the end of 1999, you were to sell Berkshire Hathaway and buy the S&P 500 instead, you would have done the easy thing, but it would have been a large (though very common) mistake. Over the next three years Berkshire Hathaway gained over 30% while the S&P declined over 40%. During the year 1999, Buffett’s IQ did not change much; in fact, the (book) value of businesses Berkshire Hathaway owned went up by 0.5% that year. But in 1999, the market’s attention was somewhere else and it chose to price Berkshire Hathaway 19% lower. 

As a value investor, if you do a reasonable job estimating what the business is worth, then at some point the stock market will price it accordingly. You need to have faith. I am acutely aware how wishful this statement sounds. But this faith, the belief in mean reversion, has to be deeply ingrained in our psyche. It will allow us to remain rational when people around us are not. 

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The Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger Show

Posted on May 8, 2017 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

More on Value Investing

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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The Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger Show

Conclusion

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How Physicians and All Investors Should Deal With the Overwhelming Problem Of Understanding The World Economy

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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“What the —- do I do now?”

vitaly

By Vitaliy N. Katsenelson CFA

A SPECIAL ME-P REPORT

This was the actual subject line of an e-mail I received that really summed up most of the correspondence I got in response to an article I published last summer. To be fair, I painted a fairly negative macro picture of the world, throwing around a lot of fancy words, like “fragile” and “constrained system.” I guess I finally figured out the three keys to successful storytelling: One, never say more than is necessary; two, leave the audience wanting more; and three … Well, never mind No. 3, but here is more.

Before I go further, if you believe the global economy is doing great and stocks are cheap, stop reading now; this column is not for you. I promise to write one for you at some point when stocks are cheap and the global economy is breathing well on its own — I just don’t know when that will be. But if you believe that stocks are expensive — even after the recent sell-off — and that a global economic time bomb is ticking because of unprecedented intervention by governments and central banks, then keep reading.

Today

Today, after the stock market has gone straight up for five years, investors are faced with two extremes: Go into cash and wait for the market crash or a correction and then go all in at the bottom, or else ride this bull with both feet in the stirrups, but try to jump off before it rolls over on you, no matter how quickly that happens.

Of course, both options are really not options. Tops and bottoms are only obvious in the rearview mirror. You may feel you can time the market, but I honestly don’t know anyone who has done it more than once and turned it into a process. Psychology — those little gears spinning but not quite meshing in your so-called mind — will drive you insane. It is incredibly difficult to sit on cash while everyone around you is making money. After all, no one knows how much energy this steroid-maddened bull has left in him. This is not a naturally raised farm animal but a by-product of a Frankenstein-like experiment by the Fed. This cyclical market (note: not secular; short-term, not long-term) may end tomorrow or in five years. Riding this bull is difficult because if you believe the market is overvalued and if you own a lot of overpriced stocks, then you are just hoping that greater fools will keep hopping on the bull, driving stock prices higher.

More importantly, you have to believe that you are smarter than the other fools and will be able to hop off before them (very few manage this). Good luck with that — after all, the one looking for a greater fool will eventually find that fool by looking in the mirror.

Last Spring

As I wrote in an article last spring, “As an investor you want to pay serious attention to ‘climate change’ — significant shifts in the global economy that can impact your portfolio.” There are plenty of climate-changing risks around us — starting with the prospect of higher, maybe even much higher, interest rates — which might be triggered in any number of ways: the Fed withdrawing quantitative easing, the Fed losing control of interest rates and seeing them rise without its permission, Japanese debt blowing up. Then we have the mother of all bubbles: the Chinese overconsumption of natural and financial resources bubble. Of course, Europe is relatively calm right now, but its structural problems are far from fixed. One way or another, the confluence of these factors will likely lead to slower economic growth and lower stock prices. So “what the —-” is our strategy? Read on to find out. I’ll explain what we’re doing with our portfolio, but first let me tell you a story.

My Story

When I was a sophomore in college, I was taking five or six classes and had a full-time job and a full-time (more like overtime) girlfriend. I was approaching finals, I had to study for lots of tests and turn in assignments, and to make matters worse, I had procrastinated until the last minute. I felt overwhelmed and paralyzed. I whined to my father about my predicament. His answer was simple: Break up my big problems into smaller ones and then figure out how to tackle each of those separately. It worked. I listed every assignment and exam, prioritizing them by due date and importance. Suddenly, my problems, which together looked insurmountable, one by one started to look conquerable. I endured a few sleepless nights, but I turned in every assignment, studied for every test and got decent grades. Investors need to break up the seemingly overwhelming problem of understanding the global economy and markets into a series of small ones, and that is exactly what we do with our research. The appreciation or depreciation of any stock (or stock market) can be explained mathematically by two variables: earnings and price-earnings ratio. We take all the financial-climate-changing risks — rising interest rates, Japanese debt, the Chinese bubble, European structural problems — and analyze the impact they have on the Es and P/Es of every stock in our portfolio and any candidate we are considering.

Practical applications

Let me walk you through some practical applications of how we tackle climate-changing risks at my firm. When China eventually blows up, companies that have exposure to hard commodities, directly or indirectly (think Caterpillar), will see their sales, margins and earnings severely impaired. Their P/Es will deflate as well, as the commodity supercycle that started in the early 2000s comes to an end. Countries that export a lot of hard commodities to China will feel the aftershock of the Chinese bubble bursting. The obvious ones are the ABCs: Australia, Brazil and Canada.

However, if China takes oil prices down with it, then Russia and the Middle East petroleum-exporting mono-economies that have little to offer but oil will suffer. Local and foreign banks that have exposure to those countries and companies that derive significant profits from those markets will likely see their earnings pressured. (German automakers that sell lots of cars to China are a good example.)

Japan is the most indebted first-world nation, but it borrows at rates that would make you think it was the least indebted country. As this party ends, we’ll probably see skyrocketing interest rates in Japan, a depreciating yen, significant Japanese inflation and, most likely, higher interest rates globally. Japan may end up being a wake-up call for debt investors. The depreciating yen will further stress the Japan-China relationship as it undermines the Chinese low-cost advantage.

So paradoxically, on top of inflation, Japan brings a risk of deflation as well. If you own companies that make trinkets, their earnings will be under assault. Fixed-income investors running from Japanese bonds may find a temporary refuge in U.S. paper (driving our yields lower, at least at first) and in U.S. stocks. But it is hard to look at the future and not bet on significantly higher inflation and rising interest rates down the road.

untitled

[Moscow]

A side note:

Economic instability will likely lead to political instability. We are already seeing some manifestations of this in Russia. Waltzing into Ukraine is Vladimir Putin’s way of redirecting attention from the gradually faltering Russian economy to another shiny object — Ukraine. Just imagine how stable Russia and the Middle East will be if the recent decline in oil prices continues much further.

1447968781847

[Defense Industry]

Inflation and higher interest rates

Defense industry stocks may prove to be a good hedge against future global economic weakness. Inflation and higher interest rates are two different risks, but both cause eventual deflation of P/Es. The impact on high-P/E stocks will be the most pronounced. I am generalizing, but high-P/E growth stocks are trading on expectations of future earnings that are years and years away. Those future earnings brought to the present (discounted) are a lot more valuable in a near-zero interest rate environment than when interest rates are high. Think of high-P/E stocks as long-duration bonds: They get slaughtered when interest rates rise (yes, long-term bonds are not a place to be either). If you are paying for growth, you want to be really sure it comes, because that earnings growth will have to overcome eventual P/E compression. Higher interest rates will have a significant linear impact on stocks that became bond substitutes. High-quality stocks that were bought indiscriminately for their dividend yield will go through substantial P/E compression.

These stocks are purchased today out of desperation. Desperate people are not rational, and the herd mentality runs away with itself. When the herd heads for the exits, you don’t want to be standing in the doorway. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and master limited partnerships (MLPs) have a double-linear relationship with interest rates: Their P/Es were inflated because of an insatiable thirst for yield, and their earnings were inflated by low borrowing costs. These companies’ balance sheets consume a lot of debt, and though many of them were able to lock in low borrowing costs for a while, they can’t do so forever. Their earnings will be at risk.

Charlie Munger speaks

As I write this, I keep thinking about Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger’s remark at the company’s annual meeting in 2013, commenting on the then-current state of the global economy: “If you’re not confused, you don’t understand things very well.” A year later the state of the world is no clearer. This confusion Munger talked about means that we have very little clarity about the future and that as an investor you should position your portfolio for very different future economies. Inflation? Deflation? Maybe both? Or maybe deflation first and inflation second?

I keep coming back to Japan because it is further along in this experiment than the rest of the world. The Japanese real estate bubble burst, the government leveraged up as the corporate sector deleveraged, interest rates fell to near zero, and the economy stagnated for two decades. Now debt servicing requires a quarter of Japan’s tax receipts, while its interest rates are likely a small fraction of what they are going to be in the future; thus Japan is on the brink of massive inflation. The U.S. could be on a similar trajectory.

Let me explain why

Government deleveraging follows one of three paths. The most blatant option is outright default, but because the U.S. borrows in its own currency, that will never happen here. (However, in Europe, where individual countries gave the keys to the printing press to the collective, the answer is less clear.) The second choice, austerity, is destimulating and deflationary to the economy in the short run and is unlikely to happen to any significant degree because cost-cutting will cost politicians their jobs. Last, we have the only true weapon government can and will use to deleverage: printing money. Money printing cheapens a currency — in other words, it brings on inflation. In case of either inflation or deflation, you want to own companies that have pricing power — it will protect their earnings. Those companies will be able to pass higher costs to their customers during a time of inflation and maintain their prices during deflation.

On the one hand, inflation benefits companies with leveraged balance sheets because they’ll be paying off debt with inflated (cheaper) dollars. However, that benefit is offset by the likely higher interest rates these companies will have to pay on newly issued debt. Leverage is extremely dangerous during deflation because debt creates another fixed cost. Costs don’t shrink as fast as nominal revenues, so earnings decline.

Crystal ball

Therefore, unless your crystal ball is very clear and you have 100 percent certainty that inflation lies ahead, I’d err on the side of owning underleveraged companies rather than ones with significant debt. A lot of growth that happened since 2000 has taken place at the expense of government balance sheets. It is borrowed, unsustainable growth that will have to be repaid through higher interest rates and rising tax rates, which in turn will work as growth decelerators. This will have several consequences:

  1. First, it’s another reason for P/Es to shrink.
  2. Second, a lot of companies that are making their forecasts with normal GDP growth as the base for their revenue and earnings projections will likely be disappointed.
  3. And last, investors will need to look for companies whose revenues march to their own drummers and are not significantly linked to the health of the global or local economy.

The definition of “dogma” by irrefutable Wikipedia is “a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.” On the surface this is the most dogmatic columns I have ever written, but that was not my intention. I just laid out an analytical framework, a checklist against which we stress test stocks in our portfolio. Despite my speaking ill of MLPs, we own an MLP. But unlike its comrades, it has a sustainable yield north of 10 percent and, more important, very little debt. Even if economic growth slows down or interest rates go up, the stock will still be undervalued — in other words, it has a significant margin of safety even if the future is less pleasant than the present.

Final bits

There are five final bits of advice with which I want to leave you:

  1. First, step out of your comfort zone and expand your fishing pool to include companies outside the U.S. That will allow you to increase the quality of your portfolio without sacrificing growth characteristics or valuation. It will also provide currency diversification as an added bonus.
  2. Second, disintermediate your buy and sell decisions. The difficulty of investing in an expensive market that is making new highs is that you’ll be selling stocks that hit your price targets. (If you don’t, you should.)

Of course, selling stocks comes with a gift — cash. As this gift keeps on giving, your cash balance starts building up and creates pressure to buy. As parents tell their teenage kids, you don’t want to be pressured into decisions.

Assessment

In an overvalued market you don’t want to be pressured to buy; if you do, you’ll be making compromises and end up owning stocks that you’ll eventually regret. Margin of safety, margin of safety, margin of safety — those are my last three bits of advice. In an environment in which the future of Es and P/Es is uncertain, you want to cure some of that uncertainty by demanding an extra margin of safety from stocks in your portfolio.

Conclusion

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