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Non-Tech : Berkshire Hathaway Class B -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Benkea who wrote (903)	8/7/1999 11:42:00 AM
From: Maher Sid-Ahmed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1652

I don't know why whenever anyone brings up the fact that BRK shares have been on a downslide since the purchase of General Re, the BRK holders go on the defensive. No one can argue that BRK holds positions in some of the best companies on the planet, however the BRK share as a whole has underperformed many individual stocks. I hold BRK shares, but this cannot be my only holding. Many individual stocks have done much better in the last year. For example: $13,000 invested in LSI a year ago is today worth 52,000. $32,000 invested in SUNW a year ago is worth today $140,000, $10,000 in IBM is worth today $25,000, $18,000 in Apple is worth $55,000 and so on. On the other hand $80,000 invested in BRK/A a year ago is today worth $69,000. It is always prudent to study fundamentals of good companies and if you see a potential upside buy yourself a few shares. To me BRK shares will only be 5 to 10% of my portfolio. This is not gambling but forming a portfolio with some long term (5 years or more) and some short term investments (6 months to two years). Many funds are doing that and are providing returns in excess of 30% annually. If the market corrects severely BRK shares will be hurt just as well, but I will bet when the market rebounds companies like AT&T, Phizer, Compaq, Dell, Cendant, Disney, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Lucent, Alacatel, Intel, IBM, etc. will outperform BRK. If you don't care about return and you wish to be part owner of some of the best companies around then BRK shares will meet your requirement. Maher