Enormous Financial Firepower Helps Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) to Create Earnings

April 2, 2024

2 minutes read

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Select Equity Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, Investor Class: ARTNX returned 12.84%, its Advisor Class: APDNX returned 12.92%, and Institutional Class: APHNX returned 12.88% compared to S&P 500 Index’s 11.69% return. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.

Artisan Select Equity Fund featured stocks like Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) in the Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in New York, New York, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) engages in the insurance, freight rail transportation, and utility businesses. On April 1, 2024, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) stock closed at $420.20 per share. One-month return of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) was 4.86%, and its shares gained 35.96% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) has a market capitalization of $908.561 billion.

Artisan Select Equity Fund stated the following regarding Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Our top seven holdings are American Express (the world’s leading premium closed loop credit card network operator), Samsung Electronics (the leading global manufacturer of memory semiconductors), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) (the holding company run by Warren Buffett), Elevance (a leading US health insurer), Danone (global food and nutrition), Heidelberg Materials (global cement and aggregates) and Alphabet (global Internet search)Our top seven are certainly not as dominant or as profitable collectively as their Magnificent Seven counterparts. But they are durable, attractive businesses with good growth prospects. Berkshire has enormous financial firepower that it can deploy to create earnings future earnings streams and cashflow.”

A team of insurance professionals in a boardroom overlooking a city skyline.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) is in 12th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) was held by 117 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 116 in the previous quarter, according to our database.

We discussed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) in another article and shared the list of largest insurance companies in the US by assets in 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.