What's Warren up to?

In commenting on the Berkshire Hathaway share buyback, David Merkel at Aleph Blog extrapolated the buyback to a more general assessment of the stock market [emphasis added]:

As far as buybacks go, this is a good one, but the question remains, how good is it? If Buffett had better uses for cash, he would not be buying back stock, and this is at a time when all equity valuations are depressed.

To me this indicates that Buffett does not have any large places to deploy cash superior to the cost of capital of Berkshire Hathaway, which is pretty low, aside from investments with an inadequate margin of safety.

That doesn’t mean the whole market is overvalued, but it does mean that a bright guy like Buffett anticipates no more large productive places in the near future to put large amounts money to work than by shrinking his own balance sheet. Not a good sign for the economy.

This makes sense to me. Until I remembered that Buffett was quoted in August as saying that the stock market is cheap compared to bonds and he is buying:

In the meantime, Buffett is looking to buy stocks -- oh, and apparently to sell Berkshire bonds too. Berkshire is reportedly taking advantage of record low rates and issuing bonds to raise dirt-cheap capital. For Buffett right now at least, this is not a time for fear. This is a time for action.

Warren Buffett will be the first one to tell you that he is good at spotting value but terrible at market timing. 

So has he changed his mind? What's going on at BRK?



Cam Hui is a portfolio manager at Qwest Investment Fund Management Ltd. ("Qwest"). This article is prepared by Mr. Hui as an outside business activity. As such, Qwest does not review or approve materials presented herein. The opinions and any recommendations expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or recommendations of Qwest.

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