On Friday, Jan. 22, Berkshire Hathaway B stock had a 50-1 split. What was $3,500/share is now about $70/share. The split was made so that Burlington Northern Sant? Fe employees could easily move BNSF stock to BRK.B, but the split provides a great opportunity — it now means the stock is priced to be within the reach of practically anyone. Me? I use Berkshire stock like a value fund, one with very low expenses. Berkshire owns 60 or so companies outright, and pieces of others. It also loans money at good rates, and has positions in GE and Goldman Sachs.
Even if you think Mr. Buffett is the 4th best investor in the world, what would be wrong with investing alongside the 4th best? I think he's better than 4th, mind you, and suspect he's #1, but if you were holding off because you thought he was #4, how likely are you to find someone better?
A good friend of mine once said, touting the worthy Stock Trader's Almanac, that one would have accumulated roughly $518,000 by the end of 2007 with a 1965 $10,000 investment in the S & P. He continued by saying something like, "…had you used the convergence/divergence program, you would have had $1.3 million." I responded by saying that, had I waited two years from 1965, and then invested $10,000 with Berkshire, I would have had around $11 million at the end of 2007. Of course, he didn't and I didn't and it's all speculation, however this $70 price for the B seems like today's opportunity. The A stock was around $105,000 on the day of the B split. The A is not splitting. The B stock will now be 150th of the price of the A. Before Friday, it was 1/30th.
