- Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett told shareholders at the conglomerate’s annual meeting on Saturday that he nearly pulled the trigger on a significant deal recently but ultimately didn’t. That comes as investors have been wondering when he will deploy Berkshire’s massive, and growing, stockpile of cash on a bigger scale.
For years, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has bemoaned high asset prices and the lack of bargains out there to scoop up, but that may be changing.
During a question-and-answer session at the conglomerate’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, he said the company nearly pulled the trigger on a significant deal but didn’t go through with it.
“We came pretty close to spending $10 billion, not that long ago, for example, but we’d spend $100 billion,” he said. “I mean, those decisions are not tough to make when something is offered that makes sense to us and that we understand and offers good value.”
That comes as investors have been wondering when he will deploy Berkshire’s massive, and growing, stockpile of cash on a bigger scale, though it has made some smaller stock purchases.
Earlier on Saturday, Berkshire reported that its available cash climbed to $347.7 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $334.2 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.
Buffett defended Berkshire’s stance on keeping its powder dry, telling shareholders that “we have made a lot of money by not wanting to be fully invested at all times.”
He previously has noted the tidy returns Berkshire has made from putting its cash in U.S. Treasury bills. Meanwhile, his stock sales last year, especially Apple, now appear uncannily well timed ahead of the market selloff caused by President Donald Trump’s trade war this year.
Buffett added that trying to invest tens of billions of dollars every year “would be the dumbest thing in the world” because “things get extraordinarily attractive very occasionally.”
But he expressed confidence that an investing opportunity will come around in the coming years. “It’s very unlikely to happen tomorrow,” Buffett said. “It’s not unlikely to happen in five years.”