A Few Questions for Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Shareholders Meeting

I've brainstormed up a few questions that I would love to hear Warren Buffett answer at the annual meeting next month...

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Let’s face it: Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting will feel very different this year. The Warren & Charlie Show, a one-of-its-kind marathon Q&A session that stretches across Saturday morning and afternoon, is now a solo act.

The CHI Health Center Arena stage in Omaha won’t be the same without the late Charlie Munger sitting alongside Warren Buffett, munching on his peanut brittle and tossing in the occasional “I have nothing to add.”

(Of course, that was never true. Charlie always had plenty to add.)

But, as sad as Charlie’s absence will undoubtedly be, I hope that no one loses sight of what a unique opportunity Berkshire affords its shareholders through this event.

In an investment world dominated with staid press releases and mind-numbingly boring earnings calls full of anodyne questions, carefully-scripted answers, and a nauseating focus on the short term, Berkshire’s annual meeting is anything but.

Buffett remains refreshingly candid — happy to take questions from all corners.

So, for a bit of fun, I’ve brainstormed up a few questions that I would love to hear him answer at the annual meeting next month…

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(1) How will Berkshire Hathaway’s massive stock portfolio be handled in the post-Buffett future?

Yes, yes, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.

Got it.

But we’ve gotten precious few details about how this partnership — if it’s even going to be a partnership — will work in practice. Right now, Combs and Weschler run their own little independent fiefdoms within the larger Berkshire portfolio, with complete autonomy to make buy and sell decisions about their particular holdings.

That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t shed much light on how they will handle the lion’s share of the portfolio — Warren Buffett’s investments — when the time comes.

Will the two men work as a team and make decisions on these positions together?

Or will different holdings be assigned to each one for them to handle independently?

And what about Apple? Will any changes to this $150 billion position require approval from the CEO (Greg Abel) or will Ted and Todd have a free hand to reshape this massive investment as they see fit?

Speaking of Abel, will he be responsible for the sogo shosha holdings since he traveled over to Japan last year with Buffett and met personally with those CEOs?

Berkshire is much more than just its investment portfolio, but this corner of the kingdom remains a big question mark for the post-Buffett era.

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(2) What — if any — involvement does Greg Abel have in recent share repurchase decisions?

Since 2018, Warren Buffett’s favorite stock to buy has been his own.

That year, Berkshire loosened its share repurchase policy from a clear-cut, numerical formula (1.2x book value or less) to “any time … that the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, conservatively determined”.

A wise decision, especially considering Buffett’s struggles to bag an elephant with Berkshire’s mounting cash pile. Instead, he pivoted to deploying loads of capital into buying back Berkshire stock and shrinking the outstanding share count.

Unlike many companies out there, Berkshire does not simply announce a repurchase program and then plunge ahead with buybacks no matter the price. In fact, Buffett has long been a vocal critic of such a price-insensitive approach.

(Except, oddly enough, at Apple.)

But, since Berkshire only buys back its own shares when below intrinsic value, that begs the question of how similarly Buffett and his eventual successor calculate that number. Repurchases could remain a critical piece of Berkshire’s capital allocation strategy in the years ahead — so I’d love to know if there’s any daylight between Buffett and Abel on these decisions.

(Speaking of which, I’d also be interested in hearing more from Abel about his feelings on dividends, stock splits, retirement age, combating unnecessary shareholder proposals, etc. I suspect that he and Buffett are singing from the same hymn sheet on these subjects, but it would be nice to know for sure.)

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(3) Can we put the ProPublica allegations to bed — once and for all?

This probably seems like a distant memory nowadays, but it was only a few short months ago that ProPublica took aim at Warren Buffett and cast aspersions about his private stock portfolio. That story about Buffett allegedly front-running Berkshire Hathaway stock trades for personal gain never really added up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he came out swinging at ProPublica at the annual meeting.

(Or, more accurately, I really, really want that to happen.)

Charlie Munger did just that in his interview with Becky Quick last November. “I don’t think there’s the slightest chance that Warren Buffett is doing something that is deeply evil to make money for himself,” he said. “He cares more about what happens to Berkshire than he cares what happens to his own money.”

“It’s not a plausible argument,” he concluded. “It’s [just] one more ridiculous thing that is said about Berkshire.”

Needless to say, I completely agree with Charlie.

When the story first broke, I thought Buffett might post a letter on the Berkshire website like he did after the Activision Blizzard insinuations. Then, I thought maybe he was saving his response for his annual letter in February. Wrong on both counts.

But maybe it will be third time lucky at the annual meeting next month.

(Full disclosure: I don’t think Buffett needs to respond to these allegations. After all, they are pretty flimsy and don’t really make much sense once you dig into the details. But, selfishly, I’d love to see him unload on ProPublica and its penchant for using leaked IRS data to attack its targets.)

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(4) Can we get another never-before-told story from the annals of Berkshire Hathaway history?

Shareholders typically bombard Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger with questions about Berkshire Hathaway operations and other current events at the annual meeting.

But, the past two years, Warren and Charlie managed to carve out a little time to regale us with funny stories from the company’s past — from fairness opinions in the 1970s to Ben Rosner’s Chicago submarine.

Some people liked this.

Some didn’t.

(Count me among the former. I loved every second of those stories.)

While some saw these historical detours as a waste of time, I’m in the opposite camp. They were essential, unforgettable moments from the meetings — and, in some ways, the most urgent. We won’t have Buffett around forever and, when he goes, these stories will go with him.

As such, I really hope he digs into his memory bank for another story or two from yesteryear. In fact, I’ll take as many as I can get.

And, if I may suggest a topic, I would love to hear more about Buffett’s visit with Walt Disney in 1966. According to the snippets that we’ve gotten before, Buffett toured the Disney studio with Walt — and snapped up 5% of the company for his partnership.

It feels like a crime that so little is known about this meeting between two of the most impressive business leaders in American history. I will take every last scrap of information on it that I can get.

Or, if that’s not in the cards, maybe something about Charlie Munger that we’ve never heard before. The possibilities are endless.