Warren Buffett -- Idle Thoughts -- March 11, 2021

New headlines:

• Warren Buffett's fortune tops $100 billion as Berkshire stock soars;
• shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway hit a record high;
• Warren Buffett's cautious road to riches isn't ideal for society -- Bloomberg; archived;

Previously posted:

Buffett:

• at 90 years of age, his net worth has blown past $100 billion;
• at $100.4 billion, Buffett is the sixth man of the $100 billion club;
• Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bernard Arnaut, Mark Zuckerberg;
• first article I've seen that mentions the "K-shaped recovery";

Buffett:

• BNSF? Best buy ever? How Berkshire Hathaway makes money, Investopedia; 
• BNSF Railway Berkshire's freight rail transportation business operates one of the largest systems in North America. BNSF Railway ships coal as well as consumer, industrial, and agricultural products.
• BNSF Railway's revenue fell 11.3% in 2020 to $20.9 billion as EBT fell 6.3% to $6.8 billion. Rail transport comprised only 9% of Berkshire's total revenue, but it generated over 25% of total EBT.
  

Something to think about:

• in the big scheme of things, BNSF and Union Pacific are two peas in a pod, as they say
• Berkshire Hathaway's EBITDA for the three months ended in December, 2020, was $49,364 million; its EBITDA for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in December, 2020, was $70,372 million
• 25% of $70 billion is $17.5 billion
  
• Union Pacific EBITDA for the quarter ending December 31, 2020 was $2.563B, a 3.61% decline year-over-year. Union Pacific EBITDA for the twelve months ending December 31, 2020, was $10.044B, a 6.74% decline year-over-year.