Berkshire’s growth in bvps slowed down in 1984 to 13.6% vs. previously over 20% compounding growth.
Buffett loves the idea of stock repurchases for his portfolio companies. He could then sell some shares, but he liked to retain the % of ownership so that his proportion of any dividend income won’t drop.
Buffett viewed this kind of transactions as a synthetic “dividend” and wanted to be taxed as dividend. Although from accounting perspective this would be treated as “sales of stock”, those “transactions were
dividends for IRS purposes”.
Buffett loved newspapers – “the economics of a dominant newspaper are excellent”. And he considered some local newspaper as locally “dominant”.
Buffett bought “risky” bonds, and viewed them as businesses that can generate cash – 16.3% after tax yield! They also acknowledged that “ceiling on upside potential is an important minus”.
Again, Buffett talked about the weakness of capital-heavy business w/ competition – reinvestment shall be hurt by inflation (e.g. if high inflation, new store opening will cost more), and thus previous profits is not representing the future. Those earnings are “restricted”, as the business needs to invest to maintain its economic position.
This limits a company’s dividend policy.
Another common problem is reinvesting in “economically unattractive, even disastrous” adventures.