Copyright © BusinessAMBE 2023

This weekend, investment guru Warren Buffett, now 93, hosted the annual meeting of his investment group Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha. He had some notable things to say.

In the news: Buffett calls the iPhone "the most amazing product of all time," but holds fewer shares.

  • It didn't go unnoticed in Omaha: Berkshire retains $135.4 billion in Apple shares after this first quarter. At the end of last year, the group still held $174.3 billion in shares, down 13 percent. Buffett also already cut his holdings of the tech giant in 2023.
  • Still, he remains firmly convinced of Apple 's enormous potential. "Look how wedded consumers are to their iPhones. CEO Tim Cook is the suitable successor to Steve Jobs, in my opinion."
  • The sale of Buffett's Apple shares would therefore be purely tax-related, he seemed to hint at that. Buffett does not care about tougher iPhone sales in China or the cancellation of Apple's self-driving car. Apple remains Berkshire's largest investment.
  • It is also notable that Buffett continues to think American. He also remains a fan of American Express and Coca-Cola. And auto insurer Geico, which is wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway, delivered double the company's profit from last year.
  • Then again, Buffett sold his shares in Paramount Global, at a loss. That entertainment company is currently in dire straits, with a fired CEO and several takeover bids on the table.

Buffett is not buying a company for now

To follow: Buffett continues to sit on a pile of money that he is doing nothing with.

  • Thanks in part to Geico's strong performance, Berkshire Hathaway managed to post a huge profit. It reported revenue of $2.6 billion this quarter. In the same period last year, that was more than half as much: $911 million.
  • Berkshire has never had so much cash. In total, the company now owns $189 billion, or about 175 billion euros. Buffett himself is not bothered, making the case that his cash could reach $200 billion by the next quarter. The investor says he has a hard time finding companies to acquire. But in these times of geopolitical crisis and high inflation in the U.S., he prefers to sit on his money.
  • Analysts say you can extend that to Buffett's stock trading. Bill Smead, investor at Smead Capital Management is clear to news agency Bloomberg: "He is unlikely to tap that capital unless he has the opportunity to buy an entire company or when there is a big sale in the market, of 30 percent or more."

In the margin: A gripping tribute to Charlie Munger.

  • Charlie Munger, Buffett's business partner, died last November. Accordingly, the annual meeting opened with a tribute from Buffett to Munger. "We had a lot of fun with things that failed. Because then we had to work very hard, work to get ourselves out of trouble," he recounted.
  • The meeting was co-chaired by Greg Abel, Buffett's doomed successor. Buffett spoke remarkably often in his speech about his own mortality, clarifying that Abel will take over from him when he can no longer do so.
    • There was even a funny but tender moment: Warren Buffett inadvertently called Abel "Charlie" for a moment.

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