He warned shareholders not to listen to advisors who urge them to trade often.
OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett credited his longtime partner — the late Charlie Munger — with being the architect of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate he has received the credit for leading and warned shareholders in his annual letter Saturday not to listen to Wall Street pundits or financial advisers who urge them to trade often.
Buffett said he always writes his letter with smart, long-term investors like his sister Bertie in mind and tries to tell them what he thinks they would like to know about Berkshire.
“She is sensible – very sensible – instinctively knowing that pundits should always be ignored,” Buffett wrote about Bertie. “After all, if she could reliably predict tomorrow’s winners, would she freely share her valuable insights and thereby increase competitive buying? That would be like finding gold and then handing a map to the neighbors showing its location.”
Buffett told investors that Berkshire is a safe place to park their cash as long as they don't expect the “eye-popping performance” of its past because there are no attractively priced acquisition targets out there big enough to make a meaningful difference in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company's results. But he said Berkshire will be ready to swoop in with its $167.6 billion whenever the casino-like stock market seizes up.
Investor Cole Smead of Smead Capital Management said Buffett is reassuring investors that “we'll be ready to buy things when things finally get rational” while warning about the dangers of Wall Street that “is like a denizen of thieves, and they'll sell you what they can sell you.”
Munger, Buffett’s longtime investing partner, died in November at age 99 —
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