10 top takeaways from Warren Buffett’s address to Berkshire AGM

Investors in tens of thousands flocked to Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday and Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger offered their outlook on businesses, economy and markets and shared plenty of wisdom.

Here are top 10 takeaways from the 53rd Annual General Meeting of Berkshire Hathaway:

On Well Fargo
Warren Buffett on Saturday criticised Wells Fargo & Co’s previous management for failing to take action immediately upon learning that its employees were signing up customers for accounts they did not want.

All praise for index funds
Buffett thanked index fund king Jack Bogle for saving billions of dollars for US investors. Bogle founded Vanguard Group, the largest US mutual fund firm, in 1974 and created the first index fund that allows investors to passively invest in the stock market by tracking a market index.

Take on IBM
Responding to a shareholder question on the Berkshire move to sell a large stake in IBM, an investment which had earlier surprised investors mainly because of Buffett’s stated aversion towards the technology sector, the ace investor said he was wrong on IBM. “We started buying IBM six years ago as we thought it would have performed better,” he said.

Take on Apple
To a pointed question on Apple, a stock on which Berkshire doubled its stake in first quarter, Buffett said he looks at Apple more as a consumer stock than a tech bet.

Biggest regret
Buffett said he regretted not investing early in Google. “Our biggest tech failure was missing Google. Walmart and Google were missed opportunities,” he said.

On Ajit Jain
This is Ajit Jain, who is creating more money for shareholders than Warren Buffett. “Nobody would possibly replace Ajit Jain if he were to leave or retire. But we have a terrific team. There are things which only he can do. A lot of things are institutionalised in business. Ajit Jain made more money for Berkshire than I have probably,” said Buffett.

Bullish on aviation
The legendary investor said the airlines industry would have some more pricing sensibility in next 10 years and he believed airlines would operate at higher degrees of capacity in the future.

On automation
Buffet said automation, driverless cars could hurt auto insurers.

On Amazon & Jeff Bezos
Buffett believes Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is not only just an investor, but an incredible executor.

On Q1 earnings
Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday reported a 27 per cent fall in first quarter net profit, and said a loss from insurance underwriting contributed to operating results that fell short of forecasts.