Warren Buffett will speak and meet with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ahead of their annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2024.
David A. Grogan
When Warren Buffett kicks off Berkshire HathawayAt Saturday’s annual shareholder meeting, Charlie Munger’s absence will be on everyone’s minds.
About 30,000 enthusiastic shareholders come to Omaha for what’s called “Woodstock for Capitalists.” Aside from the pandemic, it will be the first without Munger, Buffett’s longtime partner who died in November, about a month before his 100th birthday.
“There will only be one comedian this year,” said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland and a Berkshire shareholder who has attended more than 20 annual meetings. “There will be, shall we say, a more serious, less humorous background.”
The annual meeting will be broadcast exclusively on CNBC and streamed live on CNBC.com. Our special coverage begins Saturday at 9:30 a.m. ET. For the first time, Berkshire will air its annual meeting film, which previously was reserved only for those attending in Omaha. Many speculate that this year will be a tearjerker tribute to Munger.
Vice Chairman of Non-Insurance Operations Greg Abel, Buffett’s designated successor, will take Munger’s seat during the afternoon session and help answer shareholder questions. Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain will be present during the morning session along with Buffett, the CEO, and Abel. Buffett has said he will answer about 40 to 60 questions on Saturday.
“The tone of the meeting will certainly be very different without Charlie,” said Steve Check, CEO of Check Capital Management and a longtime Berkshire shareholder. “He was the one who made it really funny. The transition is getting closer, so it’s good to see Ajit and Greg on stage.”
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger during a press conference during the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting, April 30, 2022.
CNBC
Munger’s investment philosophy rubbed off on Buffett early on, creating the sprawling $860 billion conglomerate that Berkshire is today. Generations of investors also appreciated Munger’s signature bluntness and humor, rarely found on Wall Street.
The sea of Buffett admirers will cherish his folk wisdom even more now that the “Oracle of Omaha” turns 94 in less than four months.
Here are some of the big topics shareholders want Buffett to discuss:
- Inflation: Price pressure has proven to be persistent recently. How does inflation impact Berkshire’s businesses? Which companies are most affected (and helped)?
- Apple: Why did Berkshire cut its stake in Apple in the fourth quarter? Investors will be watching for Buffett’s outlook for the tech stocks, given the challenges in China and the recent news of a massive $110 billion stock buyback.
- Secret Stock Picks: Berkshire has been buying financial stocks for two quarters in a row. What is it?
- Withdrawing cash: Does Buffett plan to put his record levels of cash to work?
- A slowdown in buybacks: With Berkshire stock outperforming this year, will Buffett continue to put the brakes on his own buyback program?
- Life after Buffett: More details on Berkshire’s succession plan.
Macro commentary
The annual meeting comes at a difficult time for markets as a rebound in inflation puts the brakes on the Federal Reserve’s plan to cut interest rates this year. Although Berkshire’s CEO doesn’t make investment decisions based on daily headlines, investors still enjoy listening to market commentary and advice from the protégé of the father of value investing, Ben Graham.
“They don’t time their investments,” Kass said of Berkshire. “The economy goes through cycles. They ignore cycles completely. They invest for the long term, and they basically ignore what the Federal Reserve does. I believe that will be its answer.”
Apple
Shareholders might be looking for an explanation as to why Berkshire sold about 10 million Apple shares (1% of its massive stake) in the fourth quarter. At the end of 2023, Berkshire owned 905,560,000 shares of the iPhone maker, worth more than $174 billion and more than 40% of the portfolio.
The move came as a surprise to many, as Apple has been Buffett’s favorite stock for years and he even called the tech giant his second most important company after Berkshire’s cluster of insurers. Furthermore, the last time he scrapped this bet, Buffett admitted it was “probably a mistake.”
The iPhone maker’s shares got a big boost Friday after the company announced that its board had authorized $110 billion in stock buybacks, the largest in the company’s history. However, Apple posted a decline in overall sales and iPhone sales.
Secret holding
There’s a slim chance that Buffett will reveal the identity of the mysterious bank stocks that Berkshire has been buying for two quarters in a row.
In the third and fourth quarters of 2023, Berkshire requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission keep the details of one or more of its stock holdings confidential. Many speculated that the secret purchase could be a bank stock, as the conglomerate’s cost base for its “banking, insurance and finance” stock positions rose by about $2.37 billion.
“He’ll comment as late as possible…Charlie would be the only one who would let it slide at times. That won’t happen with Warren,” Check said.
Succession
Berkshire’s succession could be the focus of this meeting after Munger’s death. Abel became known as Buffett’s heir apparent in 2021 after Munger accidentally made the revelation.
Abel has overseen much of Berkshire’s sprawling empire, including energy, railroads and retail. Buffett previously revealed that Abel has taken on most of the responsibilities at Berkshire.
Still, some questions remain about who will help allocate capital at Berkshire, and about the role of Buffett’s investment managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who is also Geico’s CEO.