What is Warren Buffett thinking? Well, Who doesn’t know Warren Buffett? He is often called the “Oracle of Omaha”, or shall I call him “The unbeaten Gladiator of Wall Street”.
He bought his first share at the age of 11 and at the time of writing this article his net worth is about $135 billion. He has made this fortune through investments in businesses and stocks.
Today he is known as one of the “best investors” in the world but Benjamin Graham would call him “The Intelligent Investor” who taught him well.
Buffett has been the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970 and has repeatedly said in his interviews that they do not like keeping cash and would rather have it invested, but now holding about $297 billion in cash.
Now this is puzzling to many people in the financial world. Why is Warren Buffett holding on too much cash? In Fact the highest cash retained in the history of Berkshire Hathaway.
So what is on Warren Buffett’s mind?
One might say that he is either making the pitch ready for his next-in-line, or it has something to do with the US presidential election 2024, or are we heading for a big storm in the Stock Market, and then he will buy great stock for a good price, only time knows.
Berkshire Hathaway recently sold about 50% of Apple shares held, worth about 90 billion and about 25% of Bank of America shares. His top 6 companies in his portfolio are Apple 30.09%, American Express 12.54%, Bank of America Corp 11.82%, Coca-Cola 9.09%, Chevron Corp 6.63% and Occidental Petroleum 5.75% of the portfolio.
What else is on Warren Buffett’s mind?
Warren Buffett has been vocal on so many other issues too, not just politics.
Warren Buffett is a long-term supporter of family planning. He has shown some concern about the growing population. The Buffett Foundation has given over US$1.5 billion to abortion research which of course has drawn some criticism from certain quarters.
He has been an advocate of inheritance tax and a critic of legalizing casinos by the government and calls it “Tax on ignorance”.
Warren Buffett has been a Democrat historically. In 2015, he endorsed Hilary Clinton for the presidency. In August 2016, Warren Buffett challenged Donald Trump to release his tax returns, and in response to that, Donald Trump said that he was unable to release his tax returns as they are under audit, to which Warren Buffett replied that he is currently being audited by IRS too and has no problem in releasing his tax information.
Warren Buffett is not a fan of investments in gold. In his 1998 address, at Howard Buffet said,
“It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace, then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head”.
Yeah, this is life on earth! I would say to whoever is watching from Mars.
Something I wonder.
Thanks for reading this article, written by Jordan Zaman.
Disclaimer: This article does not promote or advise any financial instrument and encourages everyone to seek independent financial advice for all of their financial matters.