While
wide-moat
Berkshire
Hathaway’s
annual
meeting
has
always
been
entertaining,
it
has
generally
not
been
a
huge
source
of
meaningful
insight
into
the
firm’s
operations.
This
year’s
event
had
the
feel
of
past
meetings,
with
Warren
Buffett
and
Charlie
Munger
joined
by
Ajit
Jain
and
Greg
Abel
on
stage
taking
questions
from
CNBC’s
Becky
Quick
and
shareholders
during
a
live
event
in
Omaha.
The
nature
of
the
questions
coming
from
shareholders
this
year
seemed
to
be
driven
more
toward
eliciting
information
about
the
inner
workings
and
performance
of
Berkshire’s
operating
companies
and
investments
and
succession
planning,
although
they
were
interspersed
with
plenty
of
questions
about
the
economy,
the
health
of
the
US
banking
system,
and
requests
for
advice
from
Buffett
and
Munger
about
one
thing
or
another
in
the
questioner’s
life
or
business.
That
said,
we
still
think
the
elimination
of
the
analyst
panel
and
two
of
the
three
journalists
has
reduced
the
focus
on
the
inner
workings
of
Berkshire’s
businesses
and
management’s
capital
allocation
decisions.
We
also
believe
that
one
of
the
biggest
drawbacks
of
the
annual
meeting
format
is
that
it
generally
prohibits
follow-up
questions,
which
might
directly
challenge
statements
coming
from
management
during
the
course
of
the
question-and-answer
segment.
If
we
had
to
sum
up
our
main
takeaways
from
this
year’s
meeting
–
that
is,
from
an
analyst’s
perspective
–
we
would
highlight
the
following:
the
meeting
provided
more
insight
into
Geico’s
woes;
BNSF’s
game
plan
remains
a
mystery;
Berkshire
is
comfortable
with
the
risks
associated
with
some
of
its
largest
holdings
(including
Apple,
Bank
of
America,
and
Occidental
Petroleum);
the
company
continues
to
expect
to
invest
heavily
in
renewables;
Abel,
who
is
Buffett’s
heir
apparent,
is
invested
more
in
Berkshire
and
keenly
involved
in
business
planning
and
capital
allocation
decisions.
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