Buffett’s Cancer No Reason to Sell Berkshire: Tilson
By: Berkshire Hathaway is hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson’s largest position and Tilson tells us he has no plans to make any adjustments despite Warren Buffett's health scare.
“We believe there’s a good chance that Buffett will be running the company for the next 5 years and maybe even the next 10 years and today’s announcement doesn’t change that."
By today's announcement Tilson is referring to word that Buffett has been diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer and will begin a 2-month course of treatment of daily radiation.
Tilson has done some Internet research and tells us, “I’m relieved to tell you the 5 year survival rate for stage 1 prostate cancer is 99.9%."
With such an overwhelmingly positive survival rate Tilson says, "I breathe a sign of relief for him personally and as a shareholder."
In fact, Tilson added to his position recently and still believes it was a smart move. He has a rough price target on Berkshire of $180,000 per A-share and says, "we do not factor in one dollar of Warren Buffett premium. We simply take the investments per share and put a modest multiple on the operating earnings on the business."
And if this health care triggers a sharp decline in share price, Tilson tells us, he'll hit the buy button.
What do you think? We want to know!
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Trader disclosure: On April 17, 2012 , the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders; Karen Finerman owns HPQ; Joe Terranova owns IBM; Guy Adami owns INTC
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