At the meeting, Buffett and Munger fielded dozens of questions from shareholders, analysts and journalists, primarily about Berkshire companies and investments.
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Buffett told shareholders that two of the keys to successful investing are avoiding envy and avoiding costly fees. The annual event’s main attraction is, of course, the 85-year-old Buffett.
Still, Buffett said the shareholders who showed up in his hometown opened their wallets.
“Railroad carloading throughout the industry – all of the major railroads – were down significantly in the first quarter, and probably nearly certainly will continue to be down for the balance of the year”, Mr Buffett said.
“No presidential candidate or president is going to end that”, he said.
Berkshire sold its 10 percent interest in Munich Reinsurance and 3 percent interest in Swiss Reinsurance because of that outlook, Buffett said, but Berkshire’s own reinsurance division should do well. Berkshire encourages its companies to focus on building their long-term strength even if their quarterly performance may be uneven.
Berkshire also completed its $32 billion acquisition Precision Castparts during the quarter.
Warren Buffett on Saturday defended several of Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s larger or struggling investments, including Coca-Cola Co and the BNSF railroad. “The culture is so long-range”.
University of Arkansas student Fabio Rivera says he and some friends drove up to attend the meeting to hear Buffett talk.
He said some Valeant shareholders urged him to look at investing in Valeant in recent years, but he decided not to after examining the company.
Shareholders instead overwhelmingly rejected a resolution calling for the company to write that report. “It’s one of the great protest votes of all time”, Buffett said. Rinne hoped anyway that his group could persuade Buffett to speak out about climate change.
Because the meeting fell early this year, Berkshire also released only preliminary first quarter results rather than full results, which will come out on May 6.
“It’s a fascinating movie to watch”, said Buffett, referring to central bank monetary policy worldwide.
Buffett, whose Berkshire held an 8.59 percent stake in IBM as of the end of a year ago and who has caught some flak for his stake, said his cost basis in IBM was around $170 a share and that he had still never sold a share.
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Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Noah Buhayar and Katherine Chiglinsky of Bloomberg News.
