Berkshire Hathaway

1.-What is the possible meaning of the changes in stock price for GEICO and Berkshire Hathaway on the day of the acquisition announcement?  Specifically,  what does the $718 milllion gain in Berkshire´s market value of equity imply about the intrinsic value of GEICO? (Note that Berkshire owned 33.25 million shares before the acquisition was announced)

1. Decompose IBM’s ROE (by quarter) and discuss the factors (and trends) that contribute to

The Charles Schwab & Company was founded shortly after the U.S. SEC deregulated brokerage commissions in 1975. The company differentiated itself at the time by becoming a self-service brokerage house that put the power in investor’s hands to make critical decisions while paying up to 75% less than traditional brokerage firms. This established the brand as a trend setter, which it further cemented by becoming a technological leader in 1996 when it introduced an online trading platform. Schwab then began to further cut prices and offer financial services through three different market segments:

This question expands upon the opening question and helps deepen the mystery about the acquisition—the bid price seems to be a fairly full-price offer for PacifiCorp.

In large corporations the success or failure of the company is the responsibility of the board of directors. According to Richard DeGeorge, “The members of the board are responsible to the shareholders for the selection of honest, effective managers, and especially for the selection for the CEO and of the president of the corporation.” (p. 202). The board members have a moral responsibility to ensure the corporation is run honestly, in respect to its major policies, and to ensure the interests of the shareholders are satisfied. The next responsibility within a corporation is the responsibility management has to its board of directors. DeGeorge writes, “It must inform the board of its actions, the decisions it makes or the decisions to be made, the financial condition of the firm, its successes and failures, and the like.” (p. 202). The management of the corporation is morally obligated to

The Board of Directors are in charge of determining the corporation’s leadership structure on an annual basis and determine if the board will be led by an independent Chairperson or an independent Lead Director. The board has decided that Ronald Sargent, the CEO of Staples, will remain and the Chairman of the board. The Board of Directors is broken down into five committees made up of around three or four board members. Each committee has there own responsibilities and are in charge of making critical decisions that they must assure is communicated properly throughout the entire company. This leadership structure assures that the Board of Directors has a proper balance of leadership roles that allows for a system that prevents any conflict of interests that may come from having the CEO serving on the board.

The DuPont Analysis is a type of analysis that provides a more detailed look at a company's Return on Equity (ROE) by breaking it into three main components. The three components are profit margin, asset turnover and a leverage factor. By separating the ROE into these smaller categories, investors can quickly identify how effectively or efficiently a company is using their resources. If any of the three categories is performing poorly then this can lower the overall figure. To calculate a firm's ROE through Du Pont analysis, multiply the profit margin (net income divided by sales), asset turnover (sales divided by assets) and leverage factor (total assets divided by shareholders' equity) together - the higher the result, the higher the return on equity.

2． Wal-Mart’s average ROE for the 1997 fiscal year was 19.7% [$3,525/($18,503+$17,143)/2] while Sears’ average ROE over roughly the same period was 22.0% [$1,188/($5,862+$4,945)/2]. Don Edwards was puzzled by these numbers because of Wal-Mart’s reputation as a premier retailer and Sears’ financial difficulties not long ago. Use the 3-step DuPont method to break down the ROE calculation and determine what is driving the individual performance of each of these two companies during

Historically, the Du Pont innovation of (ROI) calculations represents one of the most significant turning points in the history of modern accounting and management, (Hounshell, 1998 ). The 1920’s began the Du Pont system company with methods and calculations from leaders, owners, executives, etc. Furthermore, it was the beginning of the integration of financial accounting, capital accounting, and cost accounting. When it comes to return on assets (ROA), they are a (ROI) measure that evaluates the organization’s return or net income relative to the asset base need to generate the income, (Finkler, Ward, & Calabrese, 2013). The Du Pont Company has been the leader of industrial research. Throughout the years with companies emerging, Du Pont’s method was becoming more prominent with owners and executives needing a method for

But Dupont analysis indicates that profitability and efficiency have become lower. Additionally, the working capital has become lower and the current and quick ratios have declined. To understand the impact of these declining ratios on this company, the industry trend has to be analyzed to see if this happening throughout

In this specific Case, that has asked the Sale growth for the four-year period, can be calculated ‎as bellow;‎

3. Assume that cost of goods sold for a company consists only of variable costs and gross margin is = (revenue – cost of goods sold)/revenue. Which of the following is true

Warren Buffet is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Berkshire Hathaway (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com), a holding company for several businesses (Berkshire Hathaway, n.d.). Fortune Editors (2014) named Warren Buffett number four on The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders (2014) list for his leadership techniques with his 300,000 employees. Buffett is also a proponent for philanthropy and earmarks Berkshire Hathaway shares to distribute to several foundations annually (Berkshire Hathaway Inc., n.d.). In 2014, Buffett led his followers with a hands-off style empowering his managers to act as owners (Fortune Editors, 2014). However, Buffett did not begin his career with a hands-off style; his leadership techniques evolved as he became a seasoned CEO. Over time, Buffett shifts from a unilateral power to a mutual power (Kelly, 2013).

Joshua Kennon (2007), stated that “The board of directors is the highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded company and is usually made up of the directors who are elected for a specific number of years by the shareholders”. According to Wikipedia,” A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization”.

In this paper, an analysis of Amazon’s financial position for the year ending 2015 has been conducted. Amazon’s Pro Forma financial statements for the 2016 and 2017 were generated so as to assess the future financial position of the company. When you look at the breakdown of the analysis of financial ratios, the Return on Equity (ROE) using the DuPont method of analysis and the