By Alon Bochman, CFA I’ve recently had the pleasure of catching up with the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) Annual Report for 2012, which contains an interesting discussion on dividend policy. With dividends being all the rage in our low interest rate environment, this seems like a timely topic. Berkshire has famously never paid a dividend, yet Warren Buffett frequently extols the dividends Berkshire receives from its subsidiaries and publicly traded investments — from such companies as American Express (AXP), Coca-Cola (KO), and IBM (IBM). This presents a bit of a paradox: Why are dividends right for American Express but not for Berkshire? Is Buffett being hypocritical? The...
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