Warren Buffett’s 5 Worst Investments of All Time

1. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (Textile Business)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 111  

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) is a Nebraska-based holding company founded in 1839/ It is ranked first on our list of Warren Buffett’s worst investments of all time. The company’s shares have returned more than 57% to investors over the course of the past twelve months. Buffett first bought a stake in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) in 1962 when the firm was a textile company. In 1965, he took control of the whole firm. At the time, the company was valued at around $22 million. 

Buffett continued to try and work the core textile business of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) in the next two decades before finally giving up in 1985 and shutting it down. In 2010, in an interview with CNBC, Buffett admitted that he had bought control of the firm out of spite and the move had turned out to cost around $200 billion. 

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 111 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $19 billion in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), up from 110 in the preceding quarter worth $20 billion.

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, Vltava Fund, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Despite the considerable rise in stock markets over the past year, there are still many attractive opportunities. Human nature also is playing a bit into our hands. Investor crowds often chase popular stocks, hot IPOs, or mysterious SPACs and completely leave aside stocks they consider boring and not sexy enough. A typical example of this category is our long-term largest position in Berkshire Hathaway. Since we bought it for the first time, its price has nearly quadrupled and yet it remains just as undervalued today as it was at that time. Considering the current rate at which it is buying back its own shares and the amount of cash that Berkshire Hathaway has, my greatest wish as a shareholder is for the company’s share price to remain as low as possible for as long as possible.”

You can also take a peek at Billionaire Stan Druckenmiller’s Top 10 Stock Picks and Billionaire Julian Robertson On Interest Rates and His Top Stock Picks For 2021.

Follow Insider Monkey on Twitter