Chairmen Letters to Shareholders

Its that time of year again --the close of fiscal years means an overload of annual reports including Letters to Shareholders. Two annual letters that I read each year are those from Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) and Fairfax Financial (Prem Wasta). Both of these annual letter to shareholders have been posted in the past couple weeks for 2013.

Some highlights from Warren Buffet's Letter to Shareholders:

Berkshire spent $18 billion on 2 large investments in NV Energy and Heinz and continues to look for more elphapents.
Charlie and Warren have always considered a “bet” on ever-rising U.S. prosperity to be very close to a sure thing.
The letter seemed overall upbeat with the primary economic concern being the timebomb associated public pension obligations.

Some highlights from Prem Wasta's Letter to Shareholders:

Fairfax remains convinced that 2008 was a 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 year event that hasn't fully played out.
Prem remains very concerned over the potentially devastating effects of a hard landing in China (as am I). He cites several stats including home ownership rates in China estimated to be over 100% versus 65% in the U.S.
Inflation in the U.S. and Europe, after five years of huge fiscal stimulus, is still in the 1% area – and falling.
Prem continues a very conservative posture to protect capital. He cites a Ben Graham warning in the letter - "Only 1 in 100 survived the 1929-1932 debacle if one was not bearish in 1925.’’ Prem indicates he continues to be early – and bearish!

Regardless of your economic persuasion, both these highly respected investors should be a must read.

Related in Stocks:

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Comments (2)

Interesting thoughts - there is always so much to learn from the letters to shareholders, and none more so than from Buffett's.

Posted by moneystepper | March 10, 2014 2:12 AM

As much money as Buffet has, he was a slow and steady investor. No rocket returns, like some dot com investors. Just solid companies, and holding the line steady.

Posted by No Nonsense Landlord | March 14, 2014 8:12 AM