Warren Buffett’s love of Cherry Coke is well-documented. So, you would think that the Oracle of Omaha would be able to correctly identify his beverage of choice in a blind taste test, right? Wrong. In a video posted earlier this week, Bloomberg TV asked Buffett to taste four different cherry-flavored sodas and pick which one was Cherry Coke. We won’t tell you which one he picked, but it wasn’t the one he’s believed to adore.
Buffett Has Success with Walmart (WealthDaily)
The Oracle is at it again. Back in 2009, Warren Buffett bought 17,892,342 shares of Walmart (NYSE: WMT) stock at around $50 per share. That was in the third quarter. In the fourth, he bought another 1,200,500 for around $52.50. Finally, he bought 7,671,000 shares for $61 in early 2012, almost precisely before Walmart stock jumped to $72.31. This year alone, Walmart’s stock has risen by 21 percent so far, making Buffett look, as usual, eerily prescient.
Buffett empowers deputies as stock pickers (JournalGazette)
Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is entrusting more of his company’s investments to deputy stock pickers as he prepares the firm for his eventual departure. Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, former hedge-fund managers hired in the past two years, will probably oversee about $4 billion apiece for Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire, Buffett said in an interview with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” Each oversaw about $2.75 billion at the beginning of the year, he said. “They have terrific talent,” Buffett said. “I feel very, very, very good about where we are now versus a few years ago in terms of successor investment management.”
Why France’s Warren Buffett Is Worth a Bet (Barrons)
An investment in Bolloré is a bet on France’s Warren Buffett—and his company is making a lot of things happen. The stock could soar at least 20% in the next 12 months as more of the company’s investments produce results. Vincent Bolloré, chief executive of the family-controlled conglomerate, for years has been shaking up boardrooms to unlock value for shareholders. Earlier this month, Bolloré (ticker: BOL.France) revealed a capital gain of 450 million euros ($547 million) from its 26% stake in media outfit Aegis (AGS.UK), which agreed to be acquired by Japan’s Dentsu (4324.Japan).
Oversold Conditions For Chesapeake Gold (Forbes)
Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. One way we can try to measure the level of fear in a given stock is through a technical analysis indicator called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30. In trading on Monday, shares of Chesapeake Gold Corp (Toronto: CKG) entered into oversold territory, hitting an RSI reading of 29.4, after changing hands as low as $8.42 per share.
Warren Buffet is all the proof John Kay needs that long-term investing makes sense (Telegraph)
John Kay must be an optimist. He’s just produced a 113-page report into short-termism in UK equity markets. Who does he think’s got the concentration span to read that? Three pages would be a stretch for most of the people it’s aimed at. And that’s allowing for page 2 being intentionally blank – like the mind of any top City trader. …As one of the richest men on the planet, Warren Buffett kind of makes Kay’s case for him.
‘Canada’s Warren Buffett’ ups stake in struggling BlackBerry maker (NDTV)
India-born Prem Watsa, dubbed the “Warren Buffett of the North,” nearly doubled his stake in embattled BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd to just below 10 per cent, according to a regulatory filing. The move makes Canadian value investor Watsa, the CEO of Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd and a RIM board member since January, the largest known shareholder of the Canadian company whose value has tumbled nearly 80 per cent as its share of the smartphone market tumbled over the past year.
Bonds Are Not Safer Than Blue-Chip Stocks (SeekingAlpha)
One of the most important lessons that I have learned from Warren Buffett is that bonds should not automatically be associated with the words “risk-free” when incorporated as part of an income investing strategy. The perceived safety that comes with principal preservation (when bonds are held to maturity) and a predictable payout can lull investors into the belief that a steady and guaranteed payout implies “risk-free.”
A case for the 6,000-year-old gold bubble (FT)
“Gold 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.” That is the downbeat verdict of the great investor Warren Buffett on the yellow metal. I have some sympathy with his point of view. Gold is, after all, a wholly speculative investment which yields no income. Over-exposure to it can wreck a portfolio, witness the fact that between 1980 and 2000 it lost around four-fifths of its purchasing power. Yet some of the most risk averse investors in the world – official reserve managers in central banks – have recently been taking a positive view.
