From giving a shout out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to shedding light on hisalong-term investing approach, billionaire Warren Buffett released his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday.

Buffet began by mentioning that he and Charlie Munger, his long-time partner, have the job of managing a portion of the shareholders’ savings and they are honored by the trust. He emphasised that whatever their form of ownership is, the goal is to have meaningful investments in businesses.

“Charlie and I are not stock-pickers; we are business-pickers,” Buffet stated in the letter.

The billionaire talked underscored that shareholders own many dozens of businesses through Berkshire. “Operations of our “Big Four” companies account for a very large chunk of Berkshire’s value.”

He heaped praises on Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple (their runner-up Giant as measured by its yearend market value), who quite properly regards users of Apple products as his first love.

Tim Cook, Apple’s brilliant CEO, quite properly regards users of Apple products as his first love, but all of his other constituencies benefit from Tim’s managerial touch as well,” Buffet noted.

While Buffet shared that their ownership in Apple is mere 5.55 per cent, yet their “share” of Apple’s earnings amounted to a staggering $5.6 billion.

Berkshire’s 3rd and 4th giants were BNSF and BHE.

The CEO sought to reassure shareholders that he retains a strong appetite for acquisitions and stock investments, but he hasn’t found many of either that interest him at today’s inflated prices. He blamed the continued low interest rates for helping drive up the price of stocks and whole companies alike.

Buffet further highlighted that increasing competition from private equity buyers has made it hard to find good deals.

“From time to time, such possibilities are both numerous and blatantly attractive. Today, though, we find little that excites us,” Buffett wrote about the prospects for finding good stock investments.

For shareholders, multiplying their money is the prime aspect while making an investment and taking note of that, Buffet discussed the 3 ways that they can increase the value of shareholder’s investment.

-The first is always front and center in our minds: Increase the long-term earning power of Berkshire’s controlled businesses through internal growth or by making acquisitions.

-Second choice is to buy non-controlling part-interests in the many good or great businesses that are publicly traded.

-Our final path to value creation is to repurchase Berkshire shares. Through that simple act, we increase your share of the many controlled and non-controlled businesses Berkshire owns.

“I want to underscore that for Berkshire repurchases to make sense, our shares must offer appropriate value. As of February 23, 2022, since yearend we repurchased additional shares at a cost of $1.2 billion,” Buffet noted.

Buffet goes back to teaching his first investing class 70 years ago until retiring from that pursuit in 2018. “Along the way, my toughest audience was my grandson’s fifth-grade class. The 11-year-olds were squirming in their seats and giving me blank stares until I mentioned Coca-Cola and its famous secret formula,” he said.

He then talked about what Charlie calls the Orangutan effect. “Teaching, like writing, has helped me develop and clarify my own thoughts. Charlie calls this phenomenon the orangutan effect: If you sit down with an orangutan and carefully explain to it one of your cherished ideas, you may leave behind a puzzled primate, but will yourself exit thinking more clearly,” he wrote.

Berkshire will have its annual gathering of capitalists in Omaha on Friday, April 29th through Sunday, May 1st, Buffet informed the shareholders. He further shared that “Cousin” Jimmy Buffett has designed a pontoon “party” boat that is now being manufactured by Forest River, a Berkshire subsidiary. The boat will be introduced on April 29 at our Berkshire Bazaar of Bargains.