Pearls of wisdom from Warren Buffett's 2019 letter to shareholders

Here are some of the highlight quotes from Warren Buffett's 2019 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-A, BRK-B) shareholders is out, and it’s rich with insights from the greatest investor of all time. In it, Buffett warns of the overpriced market for acquisitions and why he’s opting to increase the size of Berkshire’s equity portfolio; he defends stock buybacks; he acknowledges the massive write-down from Kraft Heinz; and he addresses government debt and deficits while also taking a jab at gold-touting doomsayers. But to kick things off, Buffett points to a big change he’s made in the format of his letter. “Long-time readers of our annual reports will have spotted the different way in which I opened this letter,’ he said at the top. “For nearly three decades, the initial paragraph featured the percentage change in Berkshire’s per-share book value. It’s now time to abandon that practice.” Buffett said that reporting that metric “has lost the relevance it once had.” He pointed to three reasons why: 1) “Berkshire has gradually morphed from a company whose assets are concentrated in marketable stocks into one whose major value resides in operating businesses”; 2) “while our equity holdings are valued at market prices, accounting rules require our collection of operating companies to be included in book value at an amount far below their current value, a mismark that has grown in recent years”; and 3) “it is likely that – over time – Berkshire will be a significant repurchaser of its shares, transactions that will take place at prices above book value but below our estimate of intrinsic value.” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren... Subscribe to Yahoo Finance: https://yhoo.it/2fGu5Bb About Yahoo Finance: At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, up-to-date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates that help you manage your financial life. Connect with Yahoo Finance: Get the latest news: https://yhoo.it/2fGu5Bb Find Yahoo Finance on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2A9u5Zq Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2LMgloP Follow Yahoo Finance on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2LOpNYz