Saturday, March 05, 2022

Berkshire Hathaway 2021 intrinsic value: 5 "groves" and corrected price earnings

For decades Berkshire Hathaway benchmarked Berkshire book value per share increase against the S&P 500 Total Return index. That changed in 2018: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2018ar/2018ar.pdf
Warren Buffett explained: 

"The fact is that the annual change in Berkshire’s book value – which makes its farewell appearance on page 2 – is a metric that has lost the relevance it once had. Three circumstances have made that so. First, Berkshire has gradually morphed from a company whose assets are concentrated in marketable stocks into one whose major value resides in operating businesses. Charlie and I expect that reshaping to continue in an irregular manner. Second, while our equity holdings are valued at market prices, accounting rules require our collection of operating companies to be included in book value at an amount far below their current value, a mismark that has grown in recent years. Third, it is likely that – over time – Berkshire will be a significant repurchaser of its shares, transactions that will take place at prices above book value but below our estimate of intrinsic value. The math of such purchases is simple: Each transaction makes per-share intrinsic value go up, while per-share book value goes down. That combination causes the book-value scorecard to become increasingly out of touch with economic reality."

An interesting side note from 2021:  "As it happens, repurchases automatically increase the amount of “float” per share. That figure has increased during the past two years by 25% – going from $79,387 per “A” share to $99,497, a meaningful gain that, as noted, owes some thanks to repurchases."

Whilst total float growth was "only" 14% (approximated $147 billion at December 31, 2021 and $129 billion at December 31, 2019).  

Insert > 5 groves < 

Grove Number 1: 2020 Berkshire controlled non-insurance businesses:
Earnings 2021 $16,5 billion x 15 (Peter Lynch) Multiple = $247 billion value

2021 Berkshire controlled non-insurance businesses:
Earnings 2021 $20,5 billion x 15 (Peter Lynch) Multiple = $307 billion value

Grove Number 2: 2020 Collection of public equities (stocks) = $281 billion value 
2021 Collection of public equities (stocks) = $351 billion value 

Grove Number 3: Shared control companies: Kraft Heinz, Berkadia, Electric Transmission Texas, and Pilot Flying J:
After Tax Operating Earnings: $1 billion? x 15 multiple = $15 billion

Grove Number 4: 2020 US Treasury bills, cash equivalents and bonds:
$135 billion + $20 billion = $155 billion

2021 US Treasury bills, cash equivalents and bonds:
$146 billion + $16 billion = $162 billion

Grove Number 5: A collection of insurance companies that generate "float", a source of (cost free) financing for the first four groves. The float in 2021 was $147 billion. Float exists because insurers are paid premiums upfront, but only pay claims later. See "Unpaid losses" in the balance sheet. Unpaid losses are booked as debt, but represent "other people's money" that Berkshire can use and invest temporarily. This grove is not added or subtracted to get to intrinsic value.

Sum of Grove 1,2,3 and 4 = $307b controlled business + $351b equities + $15b Shared control + $162b Cash equivalents = $835b - $55b Deferred capital gains taxes =

Berkshire Hathaway intrinsic value -> $ 780 billion

A shares outstanding December 31st 2021: 1,485,452 = Intrinsic value per A share: $525 000,- not including $99 000 float per A share. Price per A share March 10th 2022: $488 000,-  (8% "korting" rebate). 

Per B share including float: A 525000+99000 = $624000/1500 = $416 (B share stock price= $325)

A share is on track to hit $1 000 000 per A share by 2030:

Corrected price / earnings: Hendrik Oude Nijhuis ValueLetter 5 maart 2022

Zelf bezitten we aandelen Berkshire Hathaway, het investeringsvehikel van Warren Buffett. Ondanks dat dit aandeel afgelopen week weer een recordstand heeft bereikt is het nog steeds goedkoop.

Buffett zelf denkt er vermoedelijk ook zo over, afgaande op de zeer forse bedragen aangewend voor de inkoop van eigen aandelen. Daar heeft Buffett afgelopen jaar namelijk US $ 27,1 miljard aan besteed en dat is vrijwel gelijk aan de totale jaarwinst van de volledige collectie dochterbedrijven.*


Rekent u mee

Berkshire Hathaway bezit 5,6% van de aandelen van Apple. Dat leverde Berkshire afgelopen jaar US $ 786 miljoen aan dividend op. Maar goed beschouwd impliceert dit belang dat 5,6% van de totale winst van Apple aan Berkshire toe komt, en dat is US $ 5,6 miljard (Buffett noemt dit 'look-through earnings').

Kijken we op dezelfde wijze naar de gehele aandelenportefeuille van Berkshire Hathaway dan laten deze zogeheten look-through earnings zich becijferen op ten minste US $ 15 miljard.

Naast aandelenbeleggingen bezit Berkshire ook een heel aantal volledige dochterbedrijven, waaronder batterijenfabrikant Duracell. Deze dochterbedrijven samen waren afgelopen jaar goed voor een winst (na belasting) van US $ 27,5 miljard. Opgeteld is de onderliggende winst bij Berkshire daarmee te becijferen op circa US $ 42,5 miljard.

De beurswaarde van Berkshire Hathaway bedraagt momenteel ongeveer US $ 730 miljard. Maar opgemerkt hierbij is dat nog sprake is van een overtollige cashpositie van zo'n $ 100 miljard. Daarvoor gecorrigeerd komt de beurswaarde uit op US $ 630 miljard.

Deel de gecorrigeerde beurswaarde van US $ 630 miljard door de onderliggende winst van US $ 42,5 miljard en de koers/winst-verhouding van Berkshire Hathaway laat zich becijferen op slechts 14,8.

Voor de S&P 500 betalen beleggers 23,8 keer de winst van afgelopen jaar. Daarmee vergeleken is Berkshire een koopje, temeer omdat de collectie dochterbedrijven - door Buffett en Munger persoonlijk geselecteerd - van een beduidend hogere dan gemiddelde kwaliteit is...

Goed weekend!

Vriendelijke groet,
Hendrik Oude Nijhuis

https://www.beterinbeleggen.nl

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