tyb's
wimpy, wampy, womply
Berkshire Overtakes Apple In Record Cash Holdings Despite Unexpected Profit Drop
There is a new cash king in town.
Just a few days after we reported that Apple's once gargantuan cash hoard (net of debt) has tumbled from a record high of $163BN at the end of 2017 to just $102 billion at Q2, after aggressively funding tens of billions in buybacks and dividends, so much so that in the second quarter Google's net cash of $107 billion surpassed AAPL for the first time ever…..reflecting Buffett’s nearly 4-year drought in finding major acquisition opportunities since buying Precision Castparts. As Bloomberg notes, Buffett has been struggling to find enough well-priced opportunities to keep up the growth that allowed him to beat broader markets for decades.
And speaking of Berkshire's lack of growth which has resulted in its Class B stock declining 0.7% this year , significantly under-performing the market and 10% below their peak last October, it was on full display in the just completed second quarter, in which Berkshire's operating profit fell more than expected, declining 11% to $6.14 billion, or roughly $3,757 per Class A share, from $6.89 billion, or roughly $4,190 per Class A share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting an operating profit of $3,851.28 per share.
Operating earnings declined as Berkshire’s auto insurer Geico suffered a larger number of accident claims, while competition from foreign producers, lower imports and “trade policy” dampened cargo volumes for consumer and agricultural products at its BNSF railroad, Reuters noted. Earnings also barely budged at Berkshire’s manufacturing businesses, where U.S. tariffs hurt sales of gas turbine and pipe products at its Precision Castparts unit, and its service and retailing businesses.
Meanwhile, in lieu of pursuing full-blown acquisitions in companies with "sky high valuations", Berkshire has had to make do with equity purchases in public companies: he has built a $50.5 billion stake in Apple and controversially committed $10 billion in April to help Occidental buy rival Anardako. However, even when it comes to what upside is left in stocks Buffett appears to be having second thoughts as he was a net seller of stocks in the quarter. Nowhere was the billionaire's market skepticism more visible than in the company's buybacks of its own stock: Berkshire repurchased only $400 million in shares, down sharply from $1.7 billion in the first three months of the year.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-03/berkshire-overtakes-apple-record-cash-holdings-despite-unexpected-profit-drop
sounds like "warren" is being made to acquire many things, along with his 'dosh so they can be taken over via EO's
Put the already out-of-control mortgage backed security market on another level.
Cerebrus Capital Mgmt
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm, specializing in "distressed investing".The firm is based in New York City, and run by Steve Feinberg, who co-founded Cerberus in 1992 with William L. Richter, who currently serves as a senior managing director. The firm has affiliate and/or advisory offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Cerberus has more than US$40 billion under management in funds and accounts. The company is a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Registered Investment Adviser. Investors include government and private sector pension and retirement funds, charitable foundations, university endowments, insurance companies, family savings and sovereign wealth funds.
Cerberus is named after the mythological three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades.[6] Feinberg has stated to his employees that while the Cerberus name seemed like a good idea at the time, he later regretted naming the company after the mythological dog.
Dan Quayle, former Vice President of the United States 1989–1993, who served with former President George H. W. Bush, joined Cerberus in 1999 and is chairman of the company's Global Investments Division.
Over time, Cerberus has grown to include 11 offices in 9 countries. Cerberus's largest locations include New York City, Chicago, & Boise, Idaho.
The company has been an acquirer of businesses over the past several years and now has investments in Financial Services, Healthcare, Consumer & Retail, Government Services, Manufacturing & Distribution, Technology & Telecommunications, Building Products, Energy & Natural Resources, Apparel, Paper, Packaging & Printing, Transportation, Commercial Services, Industrial & Automotive, Real Estate, Travel & Leisure, and Weaponry.
The firm is active in private equity investment, lending, specialty finance, real estate investment, and securities trading.[2] In May 2011, Steve Feinberg noted that the firm also believes that residential mortgage-backed securities may present "a real opportunity for continued investment for quite a period of time" and that there are opportunities in buying assets from European banks. The firm’s current investment portfolio includes more than 40 companies around the world with an average hold time of more than five years.
Steve Feinberg
Stephen Andrew Feinberg (born March 29, 1960) is an American billionaire financier, who is active in hedge fund management and private equity. He is known for turning around struggling businesses and making them profitable. He is co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cerberus Capital Management. As of March 2019, his net worth is US$1.5 billion. On May 11, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump named Feinberg to head the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
Born in New York, to….
Feinberg was born to an American Jewish familyand raised in The Bronx, New York. When aged eight, his family moved to Spring Valley, New York, a suburb of New York City. His father was a steel salesman.[6] He attended Princeton University and graduated with a degree in politics in 1982.While there, he captained the tennis team and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
In 1992, at the age of 32, Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management with William L. Richter.[8] At the time the firm had $10 million under management; its assets under management have since grown to over $30 billion in 2016.[9][10] In 1999, the firm hired former vice president Dan Quayle as a chairman of Cerberus Global Investment.[11] In 2006, the firm hired former United States Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, who serves as a chairman of Cerberus.[12]
In May 2011, Feinberg stated that he believed residential mortgage-backed securities may present "a real opportunity for continued investment for quite a period of time" and that there were opportunities in buying assets from European banks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Feinberg