Showing posts with label Berkshire Hathaway's Owner's Manual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berkshire Hathaway's Owner's Manual. Show all posts

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Buffett's Opinion on Calculation of Intrinsic Value

Try using Free cash flow.
Set a process for identifying future cash flows and based on that try to calculate intrinsic value of a company.

Read what is written by Warren Buffett in his letters to shareholders. 


While writing about Calculation of Intrinsic value in the Owners manual Buffet says...

Intrinsic value is an all-important concept that offers the only logical approach to evaluating the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses. Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life.


The calculation of intrinsic value, though, is not so simple. As our definition suggests, intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a precise figure, and it is additionally an estimate that must be changed if interest rates move or forecasts of future cash flows are revised. Two people looking at the same set of facts, moreover — and this would apply even to Charlie and me — will almost inevitably come up with at least slightly different intrinsic value figures. That is one reason we never give you our estimates of intrinsic value. What our annual reports do supply, though, are the facts that we ourselves use to calculate this value.


Read owners manual on http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

Sunday 27 March 2011

HOW and WHY to own a piece of a business?

An interesting post by Special Situation on how investing is actually owning a piece of a business. I concur, though I am in business myself. ;-)




Quote:


It's ok. I don't really care people buying follow my advice or not. I would rather think of owning a piece of business, which is managed by capable management + capital. It's very hard to start a biz, which is making enough $$$$ for you.

Just make it simple.

If Mr. Lim start a biz with RM200k, the return is RM5k/month. This biz is not something profitable after RM5k-his own salary = ??!!. Further more, how long it takes to breakeven?

I would like to see net return after minus all his salary. Investing in stock, just like buying a piece of business,which is managed by well-capable management. For some biz, it's very hard for us to start it nowadays due to high initial invested capital. But, with share, we can buy a piece of GREAT biz like Parkson.

If you're a biz, how much capital required to start a business like parkson? Will bank approve your loan?

There're many things to consider when you start a big biz like parkson. They have powerful bargain with bank. For us, it's very hard. So, just buy a piece of business better Smiley





by Special Situation
http://www.investlah.com/forum/index.php/topic,18615.msg346266.html#msg346266

Thursday 29 April 2010

An Owner's Manual: Owner-related Business Principle by Warren Buffett

In June 1996, Berkshire’s Chairman, Warren E. Buffett, issued a booklet entitled “An Owner’s Manual*” to Berkshire’s Class A and Class B shareholders. The purpose of the manual was to explain Berkshire’s broad economic principles of operation.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

Saturday 9 May 2009

Warren Buffett: What does intrinsic value mean?

What does intrinsic value mean?

Why doesn't Mr. Buffett provide the shareholders with his estimate of Berkshire's intrinsic value?

"Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life. The calculation of intrinsic value, though, is not so simple.

As our definition suggests, intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a precise figure, and it is additionally an estimate that must be changed if interest rates move or forecasts of future cash flows are revised. Two people looking at the same set of facts, moreover - and this would apply even to Charlie and me - will almost inevitably come up with at least slightly different intrinsic value figures. That is one reason we never give you our estimates of intrinsic value. What our annual reports do supply, though, are the facts that we ourselves use to calculate this value."

Source: Berkshire Hathaway's Owner's Manual



-----



BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
AN OWNER'S MANUAL*
A Message from Warren E. Buffett, Chairman and CEO
January 1999

INTRINSIC VALUE

Now let's focus on two terms that I mentioned earlier and that you will encounter in future annual reports.

Let's start with intrinsic value, an all-important concept that offers the only logical approach to evaluating the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses. Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life.

The calculation of intrinsic value, though, is not so simple. As our definition suggests, intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a precise figure, and it is additionally an estimate that must be changed if interest rates move or forecasts of future cash flows are revised. Two people looking at the same set of facts, moreover - and this would apply even to Charlie and me - will almost inevitably come up with at least slightly different intrinsic value figures. That is one reason we never give you our estimates of intrinsic value. What our annual reports do supply, though, are the facts that we ourselves use to calculate this value.

Meanwhile, we regularly report our per-share book value, an easily calculable number, though one of limited use. The limitations do not arise from our holdings of marketable securities, which are carried on our books at their current prices. Rather the inadequacies of book value have to do with the companies we control, whose values as stated on our books may be far different from their intrinsic values.

The disparity can go in either direction. For example, in 1964 we could state with certitude that Berkshire's per-share book value was $19.46. However, that figure considerably overstated the company's intrinsic value, since all of the company's resources were tied up in a sub-profitable textile business. Our textile assets had neither going- concern nor liquidation values equal to their carrying values. Today, however, Berkshire's situation is reversed: Now, our book value far understates Berkshire's intrinsic value, a point true because many of the businesses we control are worth much more than their carrying value.

Inadequate though they are in telling the story, we give you Berkshire's book-value figures because they today serve as a rough, albeit significantly understated, tracking measure for Berkshire's intrinsic value. In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year's change in intrinsic value.

You can gain some insight into the differences between book value and intrinsic value by looking at one form of investment, a college education. Think of the education's cost as its "book value." If this cost is to be accurate, it should include the earnings that were foregone by the student because he chose college rather than a job.

For this exercise, we will ignore the important non-economic benefits of an education and focus strictly on its economic value. First, we must estimate the earnings that the graduate will receive over his lifetime and subtract from that figure an estimate of what he would have earned had he lacked his education. That gives us an excess earnings figure, which must then be discounted, at an appropriate interest rate, back to graduation day. The dollar result equals the intrinsic economic value of the education.

Some graduates will find that the book value of their education exceeds its intrinsic value, which means that whoever paid for the education didn't get his money's worth. In other cases, the intrinsic value of an education will far exceed its book value, a result that proves capital was wisely deployed. In all cases, what is clear is that book value is meaningless as an indicator of intrinsic value.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/owners.html

http://www.focusinvestor.com/brkfaq.htm