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Warren Buffett Has Enough Cash To Buy Every Share Of Stock Held By Black America
Warren Buffett was in the news this week for the only reason Warren Buffett's ever in the news: Money.
Specifically, this was the week when Buffett's hedge fund -- sorry, his "conglomerate" -- became the first non-tech company in the US to command a $1 trillion valuation.
Whether that matters to you depends on two things: If you're a Buffett fanatic and if you think money's the be-all, end-all. I check neither of those boxes, which is why I only dedicated a few short paragraphs to Berkshire's
I agree that market caps are essentially meaningless. They are not money available to the company and are not reflected on a company’s balance sheet. They are just the reflection of the collective madness of “Mr. Market.” It is interesting that BRK has hit a trillion in market cap because at about the time of the recent annual meaning, Mr. Buffet announced that “his” company boasts the highest book net worth of any company in the world, as reflected in its certified balance sheet. BRK’s net worth has reached, wait for it, a trillion dollars. It makes up ~7% of the book value of all the members of the S&P 500. So this means that BRK currently enjoys a 1:1 price to net worth ratio. Few other companies achieve exact parity between market cap and net book value. I suspect most investors would respond to this situation with a loud “meh.” To them that makes BRK just a giant “Dad” company. I suspect Buffett thinks this is way cool (me, too).