Buffett's investment time frame is 100 years

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, who agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. in his biggest takeover, said the railroad’s results in the next 100 years will justify a $26 billion bid that’s “not a bargain.”

“It’s a good asset for Berkshire to own over the next century,” Buffett said in an interview with Charlie Rose broadcast yesterday on PBS. “You don’t get bargains on things like that. It’s not cheap.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arwqyNBGLRG8&pos=4

 

I already know what buffets plan is with this and its sinister. He taking a page out of the playbook of Rockefeller and tweaking it a little. Buffet is waiting for the economy to collapse and oil to get to expensive for the average Joe and trucking companies will not be able to compete with railroads. Buffet is then going to ship items for dirt cheap to his other companies so he can undercut competitors, put them out of business and he gets a monopoly.

 

If he wouldn't be dead by then, it would be a good plan.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEb7e45xV9HE&pos=6

Buffett’s Berkshire Discloses Exxon, Nestle Stakes
By Andrew Frye

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed stakes in oil producer Exxon Mobil Corp., candy maker Nestle SA, trash hauler Republic Services Inc. and insurer Travelers Cos.

Buffett’s company had about 1.28 million shares of Exxon, the world’s largest oil company, as of Sept. 30, Berkshire said today in a regulatory filing disclosing U.S. equity investments. The stake in Irving, Texas-based Exxon was valued at about $87.6 million at the end of the third quarter. Berkshire increased its stake in Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest retailer, by 90 percent to 37.8 million shares from 19.9 million as of June 30.

“The demand for oil’s going to be there certainly as the economy improves,” said Paul Howard, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s Langen McAlenney division in Hartford, Connecticut. “This is not a next-quarter trade that he’s trying to do. This is a next 10, 20 or 30 years play” on the oil business and Exxon’s market position.

Stock picks by Buffett, the second-richest American, are watched by mutual funds and individuals looking for clues about his investment strategy. Berkshire bought about $2.23 billion of stocks in the third quarter, according to a separate filing, the most in a year, and agreed this month to pay $26 billion for the 77.4 percent of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. his firm doesn’t already own.

Candy, Garbage

Buffett’s firm held 3.4 million American depositary receipts of Nestle, the world’s largest food producer, 3.63 million shares of Republic and about 27,000 shares of New York- based Travelers as of Sept. 30.

“A terrible market or a terrible economy is your friend,” Buffett said at a forum in New York last week, when asked whether the stock market rally was unwarranted, given the recession. “It’s a terrible mistake to look at what’s going on in the economy today and decide whether to buy or sell stocks.” The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high in October.

The filing omits information about some transactions because Buffett was granted permission to keep them confidential for now. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sometimes allows companies to withhold data from the public to limit copycat investing while a firm is building or cutting a position. Berkshire disclosed today that it had a stake in Exxon as of June 30, a holding not disclosed on the second-quarter report in August.

ConocoPhillips

Berkshire continued to cut its holdings in No. 2 U.S. oil refiner ConocoPhillips, trimming its stake about 11 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30. A decline in the value of the stake contributed to Berkshire’s worst quarterly loss in at least two decades in the first three months of 2009. Buffett called the investment a “major mistake” after building the shares with oil prices near their peak last year.

Berkshire, already the largest shareholder in Wells Fargo & Co., increased holdings of the bank by 3.6 percent to 313.4 million shares in the third quarter. The San Francisco-based lender has more than tripled from lows in March. Buffett has said he told students that month that if he had to put all his net worth into one stock, Wells Fargo “would be the stock.”

Berkshire’s largest holdings, including Coca-Cola Co. and American Express Co., advanced in the biggest back-to-back quarterly rally in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 34 years. The value of stocks held by Berkshire insurance units jumped 20 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 to about $55 billion. Berkshire’s own shares rose 12 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, the best quarterly performance since 2007.

Fuel Pumps

Berkshire showed no stake in Eaton Corp., the Cleveland- based maker of circuit breakers and fuel pumps. Buffett’s company held 2 million shares three months earlier.

Investors mimic Berkshire’s stock picks to duplicate Buffett’s investing success, and an academic study in 2007 found that using the strategy for 31 years would have delivered annualized returns of about 25 percent, double the S&P’s return.

Buffett, 79, makes most of the investment decisions at Berkshire, while Lou Simpson, 72, manages the portfolio for car insurance unit Geico Corp. Buffett has cautioned investors against assuming all changes in the equity portfolio are his.

The U.S. economy returned to growth after its worst performance in seven decades, expanding at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, according to Commerce Department figures released last month. Government incentives spurred consumers to spend more on homes and cars.

Berkshire is making what Buffett called an “all-in wager” on the U.S. economy with the deal to purchase Fort Worth, Texas- based Burlington. It is Buffett’s biggest acquisition in more than four decades as Berkshire’s chairman.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in New York at afrye@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 16, 2009 17:39 EST

 

It's still a good plan. Who doesn't want a legacy?

 

100Y? he's a zombie?