Buffett nears a milestone he doesn't want: $100 billion in cash

[TexasTowelie]

It’s a milestone Warren Buffett probably wishes he weren’t approaching.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate he’s run for more than five decades, reported Friday that it held just shy of $100 billion in cash at the end of the second quarter.

While that figure highlights the staggering money-making ability of the businesses he’s collected over the years, it’s also a burden. Because Berkshire doesn’t pay a dividend and rarely buys back its own stock, Buffett is on the hook to find ways to invest those funds.

“To put that money to work would be great,” said David Rolfe, chief investment officer at Wedgewood Partners, a money manager overseeing about $6 billion including Berkshire stock. But the “list of companies that he would like to own is very, very small.”

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article165907907.html

[itsrobert]

1. Hes waiting for the market to crash.

Sell high, buy low.

[DFW]

2. Oh, just go ahead and pay a dividend

I have no clue how much that works out to per share, but I'll bet it would pay for a nice dinner for two even for those peons who own only one share

[dawg]

3. I wish I owned one share of BRK-A.

It'd be worth more than the rest of my portfolio combined.

[DFW]

5. Twenty years ago

A rich friend begged and pleaded with me to pour all I had into it. I said are you nuts? Whoever heard of a share of stock being worth $33,000? He pleaded and swore, and he WAS really well off. So I went ahead and did it, which is REALLY against my usually cautious nature. That's why he's rich and I'm not, I guess.

[dawg]

6. I'm cautious, too, but Berkshire's like a diversified mutual fund unto itself.

The fact that Buffet is raising so much cash right now is a testimony to just how prudent he is with management of shareholder assets.

[DFW]

7. I need no convincing

But I have little time and less understanding. Because of the way my time is structured, I don't have have much of a chance to study the mechanics of how these things work. When my friend first started telling me about brk.a he might as well have spoken Hungarian for all I understood.

[dawg]

8. I'm surprised you don't speak Hungarian.

[DFW]

11. That one is more than I'd be able to handle

Linguistically speaking, Hungarian isn't even a European language. No matter what else you might speak, with Hungarian you have to start from scratch.

[shraby]

4. I could use $175,000 of that, and it wouldn't even make a dent in his assets.

[lame54]

9. And I thought I had problems...

Poor guy

[WinkyDink]

10. I don't see the problem here. GIVE IT THE &*($ AWAY! BUILD A HOSPITAL! Establish a million college

scholarships!

[HeartachesNhangovers]

12. That would be a big problem. The money isn't

Warren Buffet's to give away, since he "only" owns about 20% of the company.

[tammywammy]

13. Warren Buffet has already pledged to give away 99% of his personal fortune.

This is the company's money though and he only owns about 20% of it.