THERE'S NO QUIBBLING with Warren Buffett's extraordinary overall investment record, which has resulted in a $205 billion stock-market value for Berkshire Hathaway. But, in the past few years, Buffett has invested in some companies whose shares have been disappointing. Among them: ConocoPhillips, U.S. Bancorp, Kraft Foods, Sanofi-Aventis, Johnson & Johnson and even Wells Fargo.
All of these are strong, well-managed companies. Assuming Buffett hasn't erred, investors have the opportunity now to buy some of them for less than what Berkshire paid.
U.S. Bancorp, for instance, trades near 23, appreciably below Berkshire's average cost of $31. ConocoPhillips is at 61; Berkshire paid 73. French drug maker Sanofi's U.S.-listed shares, at 34, are below Berkshire's cost of $40 (Berkshire mainly owns the local shares). Kraft is at 32; Buffett paid 33. We based the cost figures on data in Buffett's annual shareholder letter.
BUFFETT WOULDN'T DISCUSS his equity investments with Barron's. But in a CNBC interview in March 2009, he said: 'I make plenty of mistakes That's part of the game. You just got to make sure that the right things overcome the wrong ones.' That's certainly true for Berkshire, whose Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble holdings, which date back to the 1980s, are about 10 times above the company's cost. The P&G stake came from an investment in Gillette, bought by P&G in 2005.
With Conoco, Buffett told CNBC, he erred because he bought it when oil was above $100 a barrel; the shares tanked when crude collapsed. Berkshire, which lost more than $1 billion on that investment, has cut its Conoco stake by more than half since late 2008.
Wells Fargo is a Berkshire holding dating back 20 years. While Buffett has a gain on the banking giant, it is mainly from early purchases of the stock at depressed prices. In recent years, Berkshire has added to its holding at an average price around 32; Wells Fargo now is around 26. J&J, at 64, is close to Berkshire's cost of $60.
Berkshire's losers trade at reasonable valuations. Sanofi is valued at just seven times projected 2010 profits; Wells Fargo, for less than 10 times next year's estimated profits and for a historically low 1.6 times tangible book value. Long viewed as one of the best-run financial companies, U.S. Bancorp fetches 11 times projected 2011 profits.
Not surprisingly, Buffett had some nice things to say about his stocks in the 2009 annual letter that March. He wrote that Berkshire's decision to pare its stakes in ConocoPhillips, Moody's, P&G and J&J last year was driven in part by a need to raise cash for what turned out to be lucrative investments in Swiss Re and Dow Chemical convertible preferred. Buffett wrote those four stocks 'likely will trade higher in the future.'
Based on what Buffett has done in the market, he's gotten more bullish on Johnson & Johnson, and less excited about Conoco, Kraft and P&G this year; he has bought more J&J and pared his holdings of the others.
Buffett was unhappy with Kraft's controversial purchase of British candy maker Cadbury this year, arguing Kraft was overpaying and using its own undervalued currency for the deal. He seems to be voting with his feet-the Kraft holding stood at 105 million shares on June 30, down from 130 million at year-end. Wall Street has been keener on the deal, however; Kraft is up 17% this year.
|