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Warren Buffett Watch
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Warren Buffett Goes Shopping at Tiffany's
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In a filing with the SEC today, Tiffany [TIF
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As has been the case repeatedly in recent months, Buffett will get a good return for his money: 10 percent a year.
Half the loan is due to be paid back eight years from now. The other half is due ten years from now. Berkshire will get lump sum repayments when those notes reach maturity.
Tiffany may actually be getting off easy with a 10 percent payout. Buffett got 12 percent for his Swiss Re investment last week, and 15 percent from Harley-Davidson a few days before that.
His multi-billion dollar investments in General Electric and Goldman Sachs both pay 10 percent a year.
On Forbes.com today, Atalanta/Sosnoff Capital founder Martin Sosnoff writes glowingly about Buffett's Deadman's Hand:
"Although Buffett is on record that the stock market is in a fundamental buying range, over the past several months tens of billions got earmarked for defensive, fixed-income investments with equity kickers. In short, Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio seems headed closer to a balanced construct rather than pure equities.
Investors can learn a lot from this gambit. Obviously, we odd lotters can't negotiate privately issued convertible preferreds with 12% yields. But we can buy A-rated preferreds like those from JPMorgan Chase and Viacom yielding 9%."
We'll find out soon if Berkshire was also buying stocks as prices fell last fall.
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The company's end-of-fourth-quarter stock portfolio snapshot will be released late Tuesday, February 17.
Buffett went on record last October with the proud announcment he'd been buying U.S. stocks for his personal account, in anticipation of a long-term recovery.
The question is whether he was also willing to put Berkshire's investors into the shaky market as well.
Current Berkshire stock prices:
Class A: [US;BRK.A
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Class B: [US;BRK.B
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Swiss Re ADRs: [SWCEY
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Harley-Davidson: [HOG
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General Electric: [GE
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Goldman Sachs: [GS
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For more Buffett Watch updates follow alexcrippen on Twitter.
Questions? Comments? Email me at
- Warren Buffett Keeps Selling Consolation Prize From Constellation Crack-Up (February 10)
- Warren Buffett "Delighted" With New Swiss Re Investment Paying 12 Percent (February 5)
- Fortune's Loomis: Warren Buffett Metric Signals It's "Time to Buy" Stocks (February 4)
- Warren Buffett Cancels Annual Event Hosted By His Biographer (February 3)
- Warren Buffett Takes $300 Million Motorcycle Ride With Harley-Davidson, Revving Up the Stock (February 3)
- Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Stake Tops 22% With New Options-Related Stock Buy (February 3)
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
