Stock price when the opinion was issued
We all knew Buffett would retire, but the announcement itself was unexpected. His successor is very well known. AAPL is a very big position, so potential headwinds with tariffs. Well run, defensive. Market rally since April has been more on the super-growth areas. Still a solid, long-term hold.
Likes it. Smartest people in the room, as they were raising cash before the markets went down earlier this year. Buffett's leaving, but has built a pretty deep bench. If it never did another deal, its many legacy brands are really great producers. Doesn't pay a distribution, but owns a bunch of really-high-cashflowing businesses.
Investment portfolio consisting of public stocks and private companies. His firm really likes private equity. Stock dipped when handover to new CEO was announced, but nothing else has changed. That's why he likes the stock now. Greg Abel's been there since 2011 under Buffett's tutelage, so it should be smooth sailing. He sees a parallel with AAPL, when Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs.
Doesn't pay a dividend, but will generate a quarter billion dollars in dividends alone this year, which get reinvested back into the business. That's pretty decent growth right there.
Doesn't know why people are buying and selling daily. Gives you exposure to broad, global markets with significant overweight to the US. You're trusting them to invest your $$ better than you can. Over long periods of time, proven to be no different than buying a large-scale, low-cost index fund.
20, 30, 40 years ago, they were much smaller and made a difference. So big now that they can't make enough of a difference in buying good companies and have them be accretive. Well run, and the pedigree's there. Great holding if you're looking for something with a value tilt. No dividend.
Considered a growth company. Great job growing FCF per share over the last 50 years. Exceptionally well run. Buffett may be stepping back, but culture he's instilled for capital allocation and ethics will transfer to the next generation of leadership with Greg Abel.
Only concern is valuation, bit rich. Becomes increasingly difficult for large companies to allocate capital at high rates of return. Forward rate of return is probably high single-digit or low double. An 8-10% rate of return is strong in his view. High-quality and predictable business. Many have done poorly betting against it.