...Berkshire Hathaway SWOT Analysis “SWOT is an acronym for the internal Strengths and Weaknesses of a firm and the environmental Opportunities and Threats facing that firm. SWOT analysis is a widely used technique through which managers create a quick overview of a company’s strategic situation. The technique is based on the assumption that an effective strategy derives from a sound “fit” between a firm’s internal resources (strengths and weaknesses) and its external situation (opportunities and threats). A good fit maximizes a firm’s strengths and opportunities and minimizes its weaknesses and threats. Accurately applied, this simple assumption has powerful implications for the design of a successful strategy.” Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway (Berkshire) is a holding company that engages in a number of diverse business activities through its subsidiaries. The group's business activities primarily comprise insurance and reinsurance operations. Additionally, the group is also engaged in non insurance businesses including building products, finance and financial products, flight services, retail, and apparel production. A strong capital position together with strong credit ratings enhances its bargaining power in the debt markets and gives it a competitive advantage. However, Europe's Solvency II project may put pressure on its profitability in Western Europe. Berkshire Hathaway | Parent Company | Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | Category...
Words: 536 - Pages: 3
...Fourth Edition Financial Statement Analysis & Valuation Peter D. Easton University of Notre Dame Mary Lea McAnally Texas A&M University Gregory A. Sommers Southern Methodist University Xiao-Jun Zhang University of California, Berkeley Cambridge Business Publishers To my daughters, Joanne and Stacey —PDE To my husband Brittan, and my children Loic, Maclean, Quinn and Kay —MLM To my wife Susan, and my children Christian, Peter and Philip —GAS To my wife Sharon, my daughter Jasmine, and my parents 滕惠清 and 张祥林 —XZ Financial Statement Analysis & Valuation, Fourth Edition, by Peter D. Easton, Mary Lea McAnally, Gregory A. Sommers, and Xiao-Jun Zhang. COPYRIGHT © 2015 by Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC. Published by Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC. Exclusive rights by Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC for manufacture and export. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or stored in a database or retrieval system in any form or by any means, without prior written consent of Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Student Edition ISBN 978-1-61853-104-9 Bookstores & Faculty: to order this book, call 800-619-6473 or email customerservice@cambridgepub.com. Students: to order this book, please visit the book’s Website and order directly online. Printed in...
Words: 28387 - Pages: 114
...Fourth Edition Financial & Managerial Accounting for MBAs Peter D. Easton Robert F. Halsey Mary Lea McAnally Al L. Hartgraves Wayne J. Morse Cambridge Business Publishers To my daughters, Joanne and Stacey —PDE To my wife Ellie and children, Grace and Christian —RFH To my husband Brittan and my children Loic, Cindy, Maclean, Quinn and Kay. —MLM To my wife Aline. —ALH To my family and students. —WJM Cambridge Business Publishers FINANCIAL & MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING FOR MBAs, Fourth Edition, by Peter D. Easton, Robert F. Halsey, Mary Lea McAnally, Al L. Hartgraves, and Wayne J. Morse. COPYRIGHT © 2015 by Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC. Published by Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC. Exclusive rights by Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC for manufacture and export. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or stored in a database or retrieval system in any form or by any means, without prior written consent of Cambridge Business Publishers, LLC, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Student Edition ISBN 978-1-61853-102-5 Bookstores & Faculty: to order this book, call 800-619-6473 or email customerservice@cambridgepub.com. Students: to order this book, please visit the book’s website and order directly online. Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Authors ...
Words: 33010 - Pages: 133
...show the investor examples of how companies can manipulate their reported earnings. This article also provides information on what warnings signs to look for. The article has taken information from a variety of sources in order to provide the reader with a quick overview of accounting red flags. Focused investors practicing portfolio concentration should be particularly aware of these issues. I have written the article for the individual investor who has an intermediate level of accounting knowledge. That being said I believe the beginning investor with only a moderate understanding of accounting will benefit from a close reading of this article if for no other reason that to understand what elements of accounting they should study more closely. While this article focuses on accounting issues all investors should investigate the management team of a company before investing since the management team has such a strong influence of any companies operations and how they report their results. To this end I would strongly urge all investors to first study the way management treats their shareholders. Do they provide an accurate picture of their business in their annual report? Do they discuss the negative issues in addition to the positive ones? If they treat the shareholders like owners and behave ethically then in the vast majority of cases this accounting red flag list will not be needed. List of Accounting Red Flags 1. Companies Conducting Large Amounts of Merger...
Words: 3529 - Pages: 15
...IMPACT OF STOCK SPLIT ON MARKET PRICES OF SHARES Introduction & Overview: In today's financial markets, the distinction between stocks and shares has been somewhat blurred. Generally, these words are used interchangeably to refer to the pieces of paper that denote ownership in a particular company, called stock certificates. However, the difference between the two words comes from the context in which they are used. For example, "stock" is a general term used to describe the ownership certificates of any company, in general, and "shares" refers to a the ownership certificates of a particular company. So, if investors say they own stocks, they are generally referring to their overall ownership in one or more companies. Technically, if someone says that they own shares - the question then becomes - shares in what company? Bottom line, stocks and shares are the same thing. The minor distinction between stocks and shares is usually overlooked, and it has more to do with syntax than financial or legal accuracy. A stock split or stock divide increases the number of shares in a public company. The price is adjusted such that the before and after market capitalization of the company remains the same and dilution does not occur. Options and warrants are included. Take, for example, a company with 100 shares of stock priced at $50 per share. The market capitalization is 100 × $50, or $5000. The company splits its stock 2-for-1. There are now 200 shares of stock and each...
Words: 2132 - Pages: 9
...Christoper The U.S. Current Account Deficit On-going political battles over U.S. government budgets, the Federal Reserve Bank's intimations that it might raise interest rates, even as sovereign-debtcrises in Europe remained unresolved, the Chinese and some other developing-country economiesseemed precarious are the worldwide economy overview in 2013. The role of the U.S. currentaccount deficit had receded into the background. In fact, the currentaccount deficit had declinedfrom an average of almost 5% of GDP from 2000 through 2007 to about 3% of GDP in 2011 and 2012. Much of the reason for that moderation was presumably not long-term: the slow U.S. growth hadreduced imports. The financial counterpart of the U.S. current account deficits was the continuingcapital inflow from abroad, as foreigners financed Americans' spending in excess of their income. Asthese inflows accumulated, the gap between U.S. holdings of foreign assets and foreign holdings ofU.S. assets (known as the net international investment position, or NIP) was sinking to anunprecedented nadir. Still balanced in 1985, the NIIP had reached an almost $4.0 trillion deficit in2012. Most U.S. policymakers had long downplayed the risks implied by the large current accountdeficit and net international investment position. They insisted that the deficit and NIIP simplyreflected the attractiveness of the U.S. economy as a destination for global investment. For example,the 2006 Economic Report of the President focused on the...
Words: 964 - Pages: 4
...Law Law Offices of Dan R. Young Seattle, Washington danryoung@netzero.net Presented the Spring Meeting of the CAS New Orleans, Louisiana May 6, 2009 The Story of the AIG Accounting Scandal The Companies The Participants Regulatory Scrutiny Intensifies The Prosecution Case The Defense Case Relevant Laws and Regulations The Fate of the Participants The Companies AIG Overview (2007) World’s largest insurance and financial services company 93,000 employees Business in 130 countries Led by Maurice (“Hank”) Greenburg Shareholder’s equity 2007: $95.8 billion Net Income 2007: $6.2 billion Premium written 2007: $59.8 billion GenRe Overview One of World’s largest reinsurers Established 1921 Headquartered in Connecticut Owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Led by Ronald Ferguson, FCAS, until he retired in 2002 Premium written 2007: $6.0 billion The Participants Hank Greenburg, CEO of AIG Born 1925 Admitted to NY Bar in 1953 Joined AIG in 1962 Named CEO in 1968 Led AIG for 38 years Stepped down March 21, 2005 Ron Ferguson, CEO of Gen Re Born 1942 Fellow of CAS Co-developer of B-F method Joined Gen Re in 1966 Named CEO in 1987 1998 Berkshire Hathaway acquired Gen Re Retired 2002 Others Christopher Garand, FCAS Senior VP and Chief Underwriter of GenRe’s Finite Reinsurance in US from 1994 to 2005 Elizabeth Monrad, CPA CFO of Gen Re 2000 to 2003 Robert Graham...
Words: 3259 - Pages: 14
...Young, Esq. Attorney at Law Law Offices of Dan R. Young Seattle, Washington danryoung@netzero.net Presented the Spring Meeting of the CAS New Orleans, Louisiana May 6, 2009 The Story of the AIG Accounting Scandal The Companies The Participants Regulatory Scrutiny Intensifies The Prosecution Case The Defense Case Relevant Laws and Regulations The Fate of the Participants The Companies AIG Overview (2007) World’s largest insurance and financial services company 93,000 employees Business in 130 countries Led by Maurice (“Hank”) Greenburg Shareholder’s equity 2007: $95.8 billion Net Income 2007: $6.2 billion Premium written 2007: $59.8 billion GenRe Overview One of World’s largest reinsurers Established 1921 Headquartered in Connecticut Owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Led by Ronald Ferguson, FCAS, until he retired in 2002 Premium written 2007: $6.0 billion The Participants Hank Greenburg, CEO of AIG Born 1925 Admitted to NY Bar in 1953 Joined AIG in 1962 Named CEO in 1968 Led AIG for 38 years Stepped down March 21, 2005 Ron Ferguson, CEO of Gen Re Born 1942 Fellow of CAS Co-developer of B-F method Joined Gen Re in 1966 Named CEO in 1987 1998 Berkshire Hathaway acquired Gen Re Retired 2002 Others Christopher Garand, FCAS Senior VP and Chief Underwriter of GenRe’s Finite Reinsurance in US from 1994 to 2005 Elizabeth Monrad, CPA CFO of Gen Re 2000 to 2003 Robert Graham, JD SVP and Assistant...
Words: 3259 - Pages: 14
...Chapter 2 The Financial Market Environment ( Instructor’s Resources Overview Money and capital markets and their major components are introduced in this chapter. Firms need to raise capital in order to survive. Financial institutions give firms access to the money they need to grow. However, greed can drive financial managers and institutions to commit actions that get them into trouble and even force bankruptcy. These bankruptcies result in limited capital flows to firms, and both they and the whole economy can suffer. Therefore, financial institutions and markets should be well regulated. The final section covers a discussion of the impact of taxation on the firm’s financial activities. ( Suggested Answer to Opener-in-Review Question Consider a buyer who purchased a home that month for $150,000, using $30,000 of her own funds as a down payment and borrowing the remaining $120,000 from a bank via a 30-year mortgage. Two years later, prices in Phoenix rose by 30 percent, and the house was worth $195,000. Assuming that after making two years of payments on the 30-year mortgage, the outstanding mortgage balance was still $118,000. How much equity does the buyer have in her home? What rate of return has she earned on her initial $30,000 investment? Buyer’s equity in her home = $195,000 – $118,000 = $77,000 Rate of return = ($77,000 – $30,000) ÷ $30,000 = $156.67% ( Answers to Review Questions 1. The key participants in financial transactions are individuals, businesses...
Words: 4329 - Pages: 18
...Module title: Introduction to Business Studies Report title：Analysing the working system of Tesco’s business Student name: JIANAN XIE Student number: 200951639 Tutor name: Mr.Morgan Word count:1542 Contents 1. Introduction p3 2. Entrepreneur: Warren Buffett p3/p4 2.1 The profile of Warren Buffett 2.2 Skills lead to success 3Marketing strategies of Tesco p4/p5/p6 3.1 The overview of marketing and marketing mix 3.2 Four P’s strategies of Tesco 3.21 Product 3.22 Price 3.23 Place 3.24 Promotion 4 Organisational culture of Tesco p6 5Employee motivation strategies of Tesco p6/p7 5.1 Definition and Importance of motivation 5.2 Theories of motivation 6 Conclusion p7 7 Reference list p8/p9 8 Appendix p10 1. Introduction In 1919, Jack Cohen built a small shop in the east of London. Afterwards, Tesco was born because of the combination of Jack Cohen and a tea supplier called T.E.Stockwell (Time100, 2012). Since then, Tesco has a steady growth. Now, Tesco is a leader in the UK retailer field which own 2979 stores and employ about 300,000 staffs in the Britain, accounting for more than 30% market...
Words: 1953 - Pages: 8
...FIN 4414 Financial Management Course Syllabus Spring 2010 Term INSTRUCTOR: Dr. T. Craig Tapley Graham-Buffett Master Lecturer of Finance Section: Section: Room: 2109 – Monday and Wednesday, Periods 3-4 (9:35 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) 7111 – Monday and Wednesday, Periods 5-6 (11:45 a.m. – 1:40 p.m.) 112 Matherly Hall Office Hours: Wednesday (2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.) Thursday (1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.) CONTACT INFORMATION: Office: Phone: Fax: E-Mail: 329 David Stuzin Hall (352) 392-6654 (352) 392-5237 ctapley@ufl.edu http://vista.courses.ufl.edu/ Class Webpage: COURSE MATERIALS: TEXTBOOK 1. Financial Management: Theory and Practice (12th Edition), Eugene F. Brigham and Michael C. Ehrhardt, Thompson/South-Western, 2008, ISBN: 0-324-42269-5. The official textbook for the class will be an excellent reference book as you start your career, as you may easily find that there will be times, on the job, when you need to reference prior material, or formulas, covered in your corporate finance classes at UF. However, books have become somewhat expensive, so you may, instead, purchase the 11th or 10th Edition of the book, typically at a cheaper price, through various online booksellers. However, there are minor differences between the 10th, 11th, and 12th editions; mainly in the order of the chapter. These differences should not impact your ability to perform well in this class, but you may need to map the chapters in the 10th or 11th Edition to those assigned in the 12th Edition. This is...
Words: 10794 - Pages: 44
...C H A P T E R 1 The Nature and Scope of Managerial Economics chief of Omaha, W arren E. Buffett, the renowned chairman andstartedexecutive officerpartnership Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., an investment with $100 in 1956 and has gone on to accumulate a personal net worth in excess of $30 billion. It is intriguing that Buffett credits his success to a basic understanding of managerial economics. Berkshire’s collection of operating businesses includes the GEICO Insurance Company, Buffalo News newspaper, See’s Candies, and the Nebraska Furniture Mart. They commonly earn 30%–50% per year on invested capital. This is astonishingly good performance in light of the 10%–12% return typical of industry in general. A second and equally important contributor to Berkshire’s outstanding performance is a handful of substantial holdings in publicly traded common stocks such as The American Express Company, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wells Fargo & Company. As both manager and investor, Buffett looks for ‘‘wonderful businesses’’ with outstanding economic characteristics: high rates of return on invested capital, substantial profit margins on sales, and consistent earnings growth. Complicated businesses that face fierce competition or require large capital investment and ongoing innovation are shunned.1 Buffett’s success is powerful testimony to the practical usefulness of managerial economics. Managerial economics answers fundamental questions. When are the characteristics of a market...
Words: 11588 - Pages: 47
...its customers are met and to help them in anyway financially. Wells Fargo feels that if the customer does there homework and shops around and compares all the financial institutions it will be happy with the choice it makes to come or to stay with Wells Fargo. In the 1990’s Wells Fargo came out with a Vision and Values book but under Norwest Corporation at that time they were a small regional bank now Wells Fargo is a well known bank with a large global presence. Going back and keeping the traditions of each company they brought into make Wells Fargo what they are today is how the vision and values have all come about. Those beliefs are just as strong today as they were when they were first written down on a piece of paper. Staying true to them has helped Wells Fargo become known in every household, and where one in 600 US workers work. Wells Fargo is now home to 70 million customers. With stats like this, Wells Fargo is ranked in the top 10 publicly traded company according to Forbes magazine, this based on the sales, assets and...
Words: 2009 - Pages: 9
...Dow Chemical’s Acquisition of Rohm & Haas (2008-2009) MGT 4066 Professor Jayaraman December 7, 2010 Joseph Dennis Kunal Parbadia Robert Pirkle Will Weston Yash Ghogre Overview In mid 2008, Dow Chemical found itself in an industry that had recently been experiencing some consolidation. As one of the giants in the chemical material industry, it needed to maintain its position as an industry leader or else it would probably lose its foothold near the top. Then there is the target, Rohm & Haas, a smaller chemical materials firm, yet still considered a rival of Dow Chemical. Both companies had been in operation for a combined 200 years and have been creating innovative materials that each and every one of us see or use in our everyday lives without even noticing. On July 10, 2008, Dow Chemical announced the acquisition of Rohm & Haas, which had been approved by the Rohm & Haas Board of Directors. This deal occurred during one of the toughest economic times in recent history, which eventually had a profound effect on not only the financial structuring, but also the final execution of the deal, as you will see in the pages to come. About Dow Chemical The Dow Chemical Company was founded on May 18th, 1897 when Herbert H. Dow established a plan to both manufacture and market bleach and potassium bromide on a factory scale level. In the early years of the company’s existence there was a series of pricing wars between both British and German manufacturers of bleach...
Words: 4392 - Pages: 18
...The split of Insurance Products and Services in the Market Place E-1600 Economics of Business Professor R. Wayland Authors Steven Washburn Glenn Tam Derio Chan Anupam Raman Robert Rothschild Varun Malhotra Tiffany Hart December 9, 2014 Hypothesis On several levels, the Internet and related advances in technology have significantly affected financial services broadly, and insurance markets more specifically. When combined with globalization and regulatory reform, these advances have forced the insurance industry to become more competitive. We will discuss here specifically the split or disruption in the insurance business with a focus on the auto insurance product and less complex personal insurance products. These two products are on a trajectory to become fully commoditized with little or no agency interaction within 30 years. To the extent that the Internet reduces transaction costs, it also creates opportunities for new intermediaries as well as existing ones. It also has a natural influence on product design. For example - in some cases it is economically attractive to unbundle and repackage various forms of coverage. We will discuss this further in reference to driverless cars and bundling the insurance with the product later in the paper. This paper is organized in the following manner. First, we will briefly look at internet trends as the introduction. Next we will summarize the traditional insurance business, and the reduction of transaction...
Words: 3741 - Pages: 15
