Does Warren Buffett know something that we don’t?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When the world’s most-followed investor doesn’t feel comfortable investing, should the rest of us be worried? Warren Buffett, who has quipped that his favorite holding period for a stock is “forever," continues to have substantial money at work in American companies. But he has never taken this much off the table either—a whopping $325 billion in cash and equivalents, mostly in the form of Treasury bills.
To appreciate the immensity of that hoard, consider that it would allow Berkshire to write a check, with change left over, for all but the 25 or so most-valuable listed U.S. corporations—iconic ones such as Walt Disney, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, General Electric or AT&T. In addition to letting the dividends and interest pile up on its balance sheet, the conglomerate has aggressively sold down two of its largest shareholdings, Apple and Bank of America, in the past several months.
And, for the first time in six years, it has stopped buying more of the stock it knows best—Berkshire Hathaway. Does that mean mere investing mortals should be cautious about the market? Maybe, but it tells us even more about Berkshire. Buffett and his late business partner Charlie Munger didn’t outperform the stock market 140-fold by being market-timers.
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