As we conclude this short „Closing Gong“ series in honor of Charlie Munger’s 100th birthday, which would have taken place on Monday of this week, we take a look at the recent developments of the investment holding company Berkshire Hathaway, which Munger successfully co-led with Warren Buffett for many decades until his death in November 2023.

Berkshire Hathaway: The Most Expensive Stock in the World The success story began in 1965 when Warren Buffett acquired the small textile company Berkshire Hathaway. He gradually transformed this company into a holding company with a focus on the insurance business.

Four years later, he offered his investors, for whom he had already successfully managed an investment pool, shares in Berkshire. Shareholders from the very beginning were able to enter at a price of $43 per share.

Currently, the Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway, the most expensive stock in the world, are trading at around $550,000, making it too expensive for most individual investors. But don’t worry, there is also the Class B share, which is affordable for individual investors.

And because Buffett and Munger have been so incredibly successful over the past decades, tens of thousands of investors make a pilgrimage to the annual general meeting of their investment holding company Berkshire Hathaway every year.

I have also attended this general meeting almost every year for the past 20 years (except for the two meetings that were cancelled during the Corona phase) and will be there again this year when the „Woodstock of Capitalists“ takes place in Omaha, Nebraska. This will be the first time without Charlie Munger since the 1970s.

The Three Largest Berkshire Positions Now let’s take a look at the three largest positions in Berkshire’s stock portfolio. I’m sure you are familiar with the largest position, Apple, which Buffett has held for many years. He has only been invested in the manufacturer of the iPhone, iPad, and other products for a relatively short time. In general, he even avoided technology stocks until a few years ago.

Nevertheless, the Apple position is currently the largest in Berkshire’s portfolio with a volume of $156.75 billion. Overall, Berkshire Hathaway recently held nearly 916 million Apple shares, which made up exactly 50% of its portfolio.

The second largest position is Bank of America. The position in Buffett’s portfolio was recently worth nearly $28.3 billion and accounted for a solid 9% of his portfolio.

The third largest position is the credit card provider American Express, which had a total value of approximately $22.6 billion in Berkshire’s stock portfolio. This accounted for 7.2% of the total portfolio.

It is worth noting the high weighting of Apple at 50%. However, you must keep in mind that this percentage only refers to the weight in Berkshire’s stock portfolio. The investment company also owns several dozen non-publicly traded companies. Therefore, the percentage of Apple’s total assets is significantly less than 50%.

Conclusion: Due to the excellent management of the company (the succession of Buffett and Munger has long been settled), I believe that the Berkshire Class B stock remains an ideal value investment for long-term investors who do not have the capital to purchase a Class A share for over $556,000.