Berkshire Hathaway Just Held Its 2022 Annual Meeting. 7 Things to Know.

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Shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A, NYSE:BRK-B) are in full focus after Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger hosted the company’s 2022 annual shareholder’s meeting. The meeting was the company’s first in-person shareholder meeting since 2019. Shares of BRK-A and BRK-B stock are up about 7% year-to-date (YTD), massively outperforming the S&P 500’s YTD loss of 13%.

A Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) sign sits out front of an office in Lafayette, Indiana.
Source: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com

At the meeting, Buffett disclosed that Berkshire had invested $41.5 billion of cash into stocks during Q1. That’s the most cash the conglomerate has invested in a single quarter since 2008. Buffett also announced additional purchases in existing positions, such as Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX).

Additionally, Buffett remains adamant about his dislike for cryptocurrency. He remarked, “Now if you told me you own all of the Bitcoin (BTC-USD) in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another.”

Instead, Buffett would rather invest in assets that produce value, such as apartments or farmland. Meanwhile, Munger characterized cryptocurrency as a “noxious poison,” as well as “stupid and evil.”

On top of that, the Berkshire CEO announced that his company had repurchased $3.2 billion of its own stock during Q1. That figure represents the lowest buyback amount since Q1 of 2021. With that in mind, let’s jump into the details of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

Berkshire Hathaway Hosts 2022 Annual Meeting: 7 Things to Know

  1. At the end of 2021, Berkshire had invested about $4.5 billion into Chevron. By the end of Q1, its stake had increased to $25.9 billion.
  2. Berkshire also disclosed a 9.5% stake in ATVI stock. Buffett stated that the investment was an arbitrage bet that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) acquisition of Activision would complete successfully.
  3. Berkshire has also invested $11.6 billion to acquire Alleghany (NYSE:Y), more than $7 billion into Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) and $4.2 billion into HP (NYSE:HPQ).
  4. Buffett believes that Wall Street has turned the stock market into a “gambling parlor.” He suggested that American companies have become “poker chips” for speculative investors.
  5. For now, Greg Abel is expected to succeed Buffett upon his retirement. Buffett did not speak on when he plans on retiring. However, Bloomberg reported that “his appearance on stage reassured some investors about his ability to keep pace with the job.”
  6. Furthermore, a proposal for Berkshire to have an independent chairman was struck down by shareholders. Buffett is currently both the chairman and CEO of Berkshire.
  7. Finally, Munger added that Bitcoin is “still likely to go to zero.”

On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2022/05/berkshire-hathaway-just-held-its-2022-annual-meeting-7-things-to-know/.

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