Berkshire reports a 96 percent drop in 4Q profit

[villager]

Source: AP

Berkshire reports a 96 percent drop in 4Q profit


OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported a 96 percent drop in its fourth quarter profit because of largely unrealized losses of $3.25 billion on investments and derivative contracts. The Omaha-based company released its results Saturday morning along with Buffett's annual letter to shareholders.

Berkshire reported net income of $117 million, or $76 per Class A share, in the quarter ending Dec. 31. That's down from net income of $2.95 billion, or $1,904 per share, in the same period a year ago. The two analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Berkshire to report fourth quarter net income of $1,486.50 per share on average. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Berkshire owns a diverse mix of more than 60 companies, including insurance, furniture, carpet, jewelry, restaurants and utility businesses. And it has major investments in such companies as Wells Fargo & Co. and Coca-Cola Co.

Buffett said the retail businesses, such as the furniture and jewelry stores, and those tied to residential construction, such as Shaw carpet and Acme Brick, were hit hard last year, and they will likely continue to perform below their potential in 2009.

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[Xipe Totec]

1. Sweet! Time to buy!

Huh, can anybody lend me $76,600.00 to buy one share of BRK-A?

[theoldman]

2. I have owned a few shares of the B stock for about 10 years.

I would not recommend this stock today. It was a good buy 20 to 30 years ago.

[AZ Criminal JD]

3. Buffet is and was very overrated.

He made money when everyone was making money. Now that era is over and he is tanking.

[No Elephants]

5. Who isn't "tanking" now? And "everybody" did not make money until now.

[AZ Criminal JD]

6. Most are tanking.

If Buffet is so smart he should be doing better than others. He is not. And yes, pretty much everybody who was not an idiot made money in the market up until mid-2008.

[No Elephants]

12. Sorry, but you seem to have some kind of issue about Buffet that causes you to be inaccurate.

[Frank Booth]

9. So you're saying you could do better than a compounded annual gain of 20.3% over

43 years? If so, you'd be the first person other than Buffet to do so.

[AZ Criminal JD]

11. And a loss of 50% of it in a years time

If someone had the access to the amounts of money Buffet has it becomes pretty easy to make money. That amount of money buys you all sorts of sweetheart investment deals from companies.

[Paulie]

4. Not bad!

Only a 96% drop in profit for the quarter, not over 100% loss (or 200% or 500%). In this market that's not bad at all. :) :) :)

[AZ Criminal JD]

7. You can only have an 100% loss. That is everything.

[w4rma]

8. He's breaking even. You can definitely have more loss than profit. (nt)

[AZ Criminal JD]

10. If you had invested your money in Berkshire a year ago

You would have lost 50% of it. That is not breaking even in anyone's world.