Berkshire Hathaway earnings - Just a bit outside

As in $164 per share below estimates.

http://www.businessinsider.com/berkshire-earnings-just-missed-estimates-by-164share-2012-5

Given the stratospheric valuation, it isn't the complete catastrophe it looks like at first glance. But it is still a big, big miss and sets up an ugly Monday for the markets.

 

I will be be very curious to see what the Facebook IPO comes off at.

Saw a thing this morning where it is valued at 96 BILLION.

 

Buffet is pissed about the extra tax so he rigged the results to hurt Obama.

 

Shares were trading at $121,950 at close of market Friday. Should be a good buying opportunity if it gets down to $119,000.

 

Maybe things are not so bad in Omaha

(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway more than doubled its profit in the first quarter, as the conglomerate's insurance business was spared from the devastating natural disaster losses that hit the company a year earlier.

The company also benefited from much higher gains in its derivatives portfolio, offset in part by a substantial write-down on one of its bond holdings.ha:

 

More American innumeracy in action. What percentage of $121,000 is $164? About 1.33.

 

There are earnings and then there are earnings. we'll see what the markets decide on Monday. Headline from CNN:

Buffett's Berkshire doubles earnings
By James O'Toole @CNNMoneyInvest May 4, 2012: 6:32 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway posted first-quarter earnings Friday that doubled versus last year, buoyed by gains in its insurance businesses and derivatives holdings.

The company posted $3.25 billion in earnings, translating to $1,966 per Class A share, compared with $1.51 billion in the first quarter of last year.

Operating earnings, which exclude some investment and derivative gains, were $1,615 a share, coming up short of the $1,780 prediction from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

 

Move the decimal point if you like. A stock trading at $121 would still raise eyebrows with an earnings miss of 16 cents a share. And Berkshire is just as much a religion as a holding company. Anything it does will create oversized reactions.

 

16 cents a share really isn't all that much of a miss. Certainly not a blood-in-the-streets kind of number. Investors seem focused more on the fact that their earnings doubled from last year. The estimate is just that, an estimate.

Class B shares were down 0.5 percent in after-hours trading, FWIW. I would be very surprised if this makes a ripple at all on Wall Street.

 

Actually, it's only .133%

 

BRK.A up $430 early in day. Europe elections seem to weigh down US market currently

 

Yeah, real ugly day for BRK.A

Berkshire Hathaway's shares UP $1,726.00 (+1.42%) at the end of Monday's trading to close at $123,676.00 a share.