China-Singapore Jingwei client, May 3rd, Beijing time on the evening of May 2nd, Berkshire Hathaway, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett, released its first quarter financial report for the year. The financial report shows that Berkshire Hathaway had a net loss of USD 49.746 billion (equivalent to RMB 351.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2020. The net profit for the same period last year was $ 216.61 billion.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway ’s first quarter earnings for 2020
As of March 31, 2020, Berkshire Hathaway ’s top five positions accounted for 69% of its portfolio, with a quarterly quarterly loss of $ 42.1 billion.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway ’s first quarter earnings for 2020
Among them, American Express has a fair value of US $ 13 billion and a loss of US $ 5.9 billion; Apple ’s fair value of US $ 63.8 billion and a loss of US $ 9.9 billion; Bank of America ’s fair value of US $ 20.2 billion and a loss of US $ 13.2 billion; Coca-Cola ’s fair value of US $ 17.7 billion, The loss was 4.4 billion U.S. dollars; the fair value of Wells Fargo Bank was 9.9 billion U.S. dollars, and the loss was 8.7 billion U.S. dollars.
The quarterly report also showed that as of the end of March 2020, the company held cash and equivalents totaling USD 38.717 billion, a significant decrease of USD 22.434 billion from the USD 61.151 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019, a decrease of 36.69%.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway ’s first quarter earnings for 2020
Cash and cash equivalents include the purchase of Treasury bills of three months or less. As of the end of 2019, Treasury bills held by Berkshire Hathaway for three months or less totaled $ 37.1 billion. By the end of March 2020, this scale had shrunk to $ 19.6 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway said, "We continue to hold large amounts of cash, cash equivalents and short-term US Treasury bills. Short-term bond yields have continued to decline since the first half of 2019, and continued to decline in the first quarter of 2020. "Berkshire Hathaway expects that such interest rates will remain low for the remainder of 2020, and the company's returns on such investments will also be lower than in 2019." Berkshire Hathaway believes that maintaining sufficient liquidity is essential.
Berkshire Hathaway also stated that the new coronavirus spread rapidly around the world in the first quarter of 2020, and the government and private sector ’s response to controlling its spread began to have a significant impact on the company ’s operations in March, It may adversely affect almost all of the company's business in the second quarter.
It is worth noting that at 4:45 am Beijing time on May 3, Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders' meeting will be held online for the first time. How would Buffett explain this first-quarter "transcript"? Worth looking forward to. (Sino-Singapore Jingwei app)