# Buying shares in BNSF is a wee bit pricey



## CHamilton (Aug 15, 2014)

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Crosses Milestone




> The most expensive stock on the New York Stock Exchange just got a little more expensive. A Class A share of Berkshire Hathaway is now worth more than $200,000.
> 
> On Thursday, shares closed up $3,500 at $202,850. The Omaha, Neb.-based company has a market value of more than $333 billion.
> 
> ...


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 15, 2014)

If I'd just given up my eating habit I could probably own One Share!!!


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## Devil's Advocate (Aug 15, 2014)

jimhudson said:


> If I'd just given up my eating habit I could probably own One Share!!!


According to what I've read retiring comfortably in the US costs roughly as much as five shares of Berkshire Hathaway. So I guess we'd need to give up our eating habits along with our clean water sources and silly fascination with shelter. I wonder if Mr. 47% was referring to American retirees when he was talking about self-deportation. Because so far as I can tell my options are retire in another country or just keep working until I die.


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## William W. (Aug 15, 2014)

I used to own shares in American Railcar Industries. I made a lot of money when BNSF announced that they were going to seek bids for 5000 new tank cars.


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## trainman74 (Aug 15, 2014)

A few years ago, I interviewed for a job at a company that was owned by Berkshire Hathaway -- I forgot to ask if they gave out Berkshire Hathaway stock as an employee benefit.


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 16, 2014)

Personally I think that buying into a company for the value of the financial prowess of its 81 year old antique of a leader is a risky proposition at best. I don't question his track record, and having heard some of what he's been saying of late I don't think he's lost much. But he is old, and that stock ain't worth a thing without him.


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## afigg (Aug 16, 2014)

jimhudson said:


> If I'd just given up my eating habit I could probably own One Share!!!


You can buy Berkshire Hathaway class B stock which is currently trading at $134/share. It was issued by Berkshire Hathaway to provide some liquidity in trading BRK without having to split the Class A stock.
In 1971 when Amtrak was born, Berkshire Hathaway ended the year trading at $71/share. In 1974, it fell to $40/share. So a lousy $400 in 1974 could have brought 10 shares of Berkshire Hathaway which is now the class A stock listed at $201,277/share. If I could only send a message back in time...


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## railiner (Aug 16, 2014)

Speaking of Berkshire Hathaway, and its holding's.....

I think it's about time that they named their GEICO commercial mascot and spokesman gecko....how about 'Warren'? To me that name seems to fit him,

and coincidentally be a humorous 'nod' toward principal shareholder Warren Buffet....

So spread it around, if you agree...."Warren Gecko".....


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 17, 2014)

I want to open a self service all you can eat restaurant in Omaha called the Warren Buffet.


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## Railroad Bill (Aug 17, 2014)

CHamilton said:


> Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Crosses Milestone
> 
> 
> 
> ...


But hey, if I can get BNSF with a lizard (gecco) and a Blizzard, it is a pretty good deal..


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## the_traveler (Aug 17, 2014)

Well, BNSF (and the EB) go thru blizzards up on the Hi-Line every winter!


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## The Davy Crockett (Aug 17, 2014)

With all the tentacles to BH, one could get very creative about what Warren Gecko is doing while riding the EB in a blizzard enjoying a Blizzard. Does the Blizzard have pieces of See's Candy in it? Is he wearing bling from Ben Bridge Jeweler or Helzberg Diamonds? Would Warren Gecko be allowed to board without clothes? If not, is he dressed for comfort in Fruit of the Loom garments? Is he reading the Buffalo News? Is he taking the EB to his Clayton manufactured home? Is he being picked up at the station in a Forest River RV? Etc, etc.

Who knows, maybe he even was supplied with Heinz Ketchup by McLane... (to put on the famous Amtrak Fries he will have for lunch.  )


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## railiner (Aug 17, 2014)

The Davy Crockett said:


> With all the tentacles to BH, one could get very creative about what Warren Gecko is doing while riding the EB in a blizzard enjoying a Blizzard. Does the Blizzard have pieces of See's Candy in it? Is he wearing bling from Ben Bridge Jeweler or Helzberg Diamonds? Would Warren Gecko be allowed to board without clothes? If not, is he dressed for comfort in Fruit of the Loom garments? Is he reading the Buffalo News? Is he taking the EB to his Clayton manufactured home? Is he being picked up at the station in a Forest River RV? Etc, etc.
> 
> Who knows, maybe he even was supplied with Heinz Ketchup by McLane... (to put on the famous Amtrak Fries he will have for lunch.  )


Hey! You left out one of Buffet's first investments, the Nebraska Furniture Mart.....I bought a Zenith black and white 19" "portable", with "Space Command" (ultrasonic) remote control, plus a wheeled cart for it there, in 1972....


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## The Davy Crockett (Aug 18, 2014)

railiner said:


> Hey! You left out one of Buffet's first investments, the Nebraska Furniture Mart.....I bought a Zenith black and white 19" "portable", with "Space Command" (ultrasonic) remote control, plus a wheeled cart for it there, in 1972....


I hate it when that happens! hboy: :lol:

Ummm... Maybe his manufactured home is furnished with things bought at Nebraska Furniture Mart?


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 18, 2014)

You know, I do think Berkshire Hathaway is a bit pricey, and not because of its price. If you want we could all buy into it. I could set up a Corporation for the purpose of buying a few shares of Berkshire Hathaway and you could all own proportional shares and voting rights for that corporation and therefore own a percentage of the few shares. It would cost a few thousand a year in corporate fees and filing plus a nominal fee for me doing all the set up work. We could get ten people to all invest ~$20k in it and we'd each own effectively a tenth of a share.

(I'm not really proposing to do it, just setting up the theory)

The issue, as I said, is that the main reason for its value is the financial prowess of an increasingly old Warren Buffett. If he gets I'll, dies, or is determined to be getting less capable, the stock plummets.

Some of BH's companies are very good well run machines. Others have terrible flaws, like Scott Feltzer (Encyclopedia Britannica, Kirby vacuums). Both products made by SF are superb. The Britannica is the best printed encyclopedia you can buy, and as a person who owns four Kirby's (3 Legends and a G3) I can tell you that nobody builds a better vacuum- it's a good value for ~$2000 and a better value used.

But there sales tactics, and the way they conduct business is dishonest, awful, off putting... And entirely unnecessary. I bought all my Kirby's used simply because I don't want to deal with their idiotic door to door salesmen. And you can't buy it any other way. That is symptomatic of terrible management.


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## jis (Aug 18, 2014)

Or you could simply go and find a Mutual Fund or a ETF that has significant investment in BH and there are several. Downside is you get to buy into a bunch of other stuff, which may or may not be a good thing, depending. Though they will probably charge more management fee than GML will charge for being member of his corporation  which is more or less like a BH buyers mutual fund anyway.


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## afigg (Aug 18, 2014)

Green Maned Lion said:


> You know, I do think Berkshire Hathaway is a bit pricey, and not because of its price. If you want we could all buy into it. I could set up a Corporation for the purpose of buying a few shares of Berkshire Hathaway and you could all own proportional shares and voting rights for that corporation and therefore own a percentage of the few shares. It would cost a few thousand a year in corporate fees and filing plus a nominal fee for me doing all the set up work. We could get ten people to all invest ~$20k in it and we'd each own effectively a tenth of a share.
> 
> (I'm not really proposing to do it, just setting up the theory)
> 
> The issue, as I said, is that the main reason for its value is the financial prowess of an increasingly old Warren Buffett. If he gets I'll, dies, or is determined to be getting less capable, the stock plummets.


I expect there will be a short price decline when Warren Buffett passes or gets seriously ill, but his age is not exactly a secret, so the market should have that factored in the stock price. The company stock price could go up a few days after Buffett is no longer in charge, because there could be speculators advocating BRK sell off some holdings for the cash to push the stock price up. Or even a move to take over the company to break it up for the assets. Given the market cap of BRK, speculators, ok vultures, are not likely to succeed, but I would expect some will try.

Again, if someone can't afford to buy a $202K/share stock and let's face it, not many can, there is the Class B stock currently selling for $135/share. Cheaper than paying GML to run a holding company.


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 18, 2014)

The class B, from what I've seen, doesn't actually have the same ROI. Which is actually normal.


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## neroden (Aug 19, 2014)

Well, to some extent Buffett has already lost his touch; he's throwing money at Wells Fargo, which is an appallingly terrible investment in the long term because it's a fraud shop which is routinely ignoring court orders; that sort of thing does tend to catch up with companies. His utility investments are also about to get slammed, because he's far too invested in fossil fuels.

But Berkshire Hathaway is actually basically a very large insurance company. The investments and the businesses are really kind of a sideshow; the real money is made off of high-premium reinsurance policies sold to other insurance companies. And they're *very very good* at that business. It's run by Ajit Jain, and he's the one whose brilliance is actually driving the profits of Berkshire Hathaway. Even if there's a big failure in the investing, the insurance operations are run conservatively (keeping a billion dollars in cash on hand at any given time), and as long as they continue to run an underwriting profit (which they have for *decades*) on these massive reinsurance deals, they'll continue to be very profitable. The insurance side has been very alert to all manner of risks, including being one of the first companies to reprice all their policies due to global warming risk. I think Ajit Jain is really the key man at BH.


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 19, 2014)

A companies health is a small part of its stock price. Investor perception much more so. And many investors have no business imvesting.


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## William W. (Aug 19, 2014)

^ This.

So many companies these days have high stock prices, due to investor sentiment, but in reality have little revenue, and are unsustainable. Many a bubble has been caused by such situations. I tend to like large-cap stocks, due to their high dividends, and stability. That being said, you can make a lot of money off of small-cap growth stocks. They are definitely more risky though. I guess that since I'm young, I can afford to take more risks, since I still have time to recover from potential losses.

"The riskier the road, the great the profit." -Rule of Acquisition 62.

(I hope that someone here gets that reference).


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 20, 2014)

I get it. I'm a Trekkie and Jewish.


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## CHamilton (May 19, 2015)

William W. said:


> I made a lot of money when BNSF announced that they were going to seek bids for 5000 new tank cars.


Customer concerns prompt BNSF to withdraw plan to buy tank cars



> BNSF Railway Co. has dropped an earlier announced plan to acquire up to 5,000 next-generation crude-oil tank cars, the Class I said in a recent letter to customers.
> 
> 
> Last year, the Class I indicated it would purchase new tank cars to help settle marketplace concerns over crude-by-rail safety. But conversations with customers in recent months convinced BNSF executives to change direction....
> ...


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## caravanman (May 27, 2015)

Still, $215,700 yesterday, even after a drop of $1,300 'aint too shabby... Although, as a communist myself I don't participate in the running dog capitalist economic fiasco! 

Ed


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## NW cannonball (May 27, 2015)

Hehe -- saw the Gordon Gekko movie on the Empire Builder back in 1988. Wall Street? Hi Line? The mind boggles. Veh.


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