Except for the chosen ones -- CEOs and the like who have outrageous salary and benefit packages -- almost nobody has been able to escape the financial pain in the world today.

'My pal Warren,' Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A and BRK.B), who only draws a $100,000 salary, has watched his net worth diminished by billions of dollars as his stock has unraveled like everything else. I last read Buffett had a 31% stake in Berkshire so he understands his shareholders angst, even if he does not feel their pain. The stock has dropped from a 52-week high of $151,650 to yesterday's close of $77,500 for a loss of 49%.

Once again in quarterly SEC filings Berkshire's holdings were released and I could not help but wonder if this great holding company had not become one more giant index fund. There are a lot of quality names in the mix including:

• Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI)
• Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO)
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE; COP)
• Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
• Kraft Foods'A' (: NYSE: KFT)
• Procter and Gamble (NYSE: PG)
• U.S. Bancorp (: NYSE: USB)
• Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC)

The above referenced stocks are all down with the market and there are still more that might be considered fallen angels or turn-around plays within Berkshire's holdings that include:

• American Express (NYSE: AXP)
• General Electric (NYSE: GE)
• Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS)
• Home Depot (NYSE: HD)
• Lowe's Cos (NYSE: LOW)

In addition to these publicly traded stocks Berkshire holdings include privately held Geico Insurance, See's Candies, Dairy Queen, Florsheim Shoes, and a multitude of others. Since so many stocks have been accumulated over the years I started to view BRK as a stock index and with that in mind did some comparisons between the Standard & Poors 500 and BRK.

The following is a three-year chart that illustrates that buying BRK instead of the index anytime in the last three years would have been beneficial by a 30% margin.

Continue reading Is Berkshire Hathaway better than S&P Index?

Is Berkshire Hathaway better than S&P Index? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It is hard to believe that the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) company might be a value stock soon.

When entering any discussion or analysis of quality companies or stocks over the last 100 years, it is a relative certainty that JNJ will be included. This would be true whether you were considering the company history, quality of management, quality of products, diversity of products, market opportunity, investing in North America or internationally, and more. The stock is probably included in almost every index, mutual fund and portfolio that it qualifies for by both institutions and private individuals. I own it in my Roth IRA, and unless the world turns inside out and upside down, I'm not selling; and you probably could make an argument that you should not sell then either!

For all of the above reasons, Johnson & Johnson is one of the "safe haven'" stocks everyone will run to in a shaky market. A lot of investors are watching it now thinking that the time might be approaching to buy JNJ on the cheap. The problem is that this large cap stock ($178 billion) does not fly below the radar, it is one of the biggest lights on the screen. JNJ's closing stock price Thursday April 5, 2007 was $61.55; the following were its stated metrics:

Continue reading Chasing Value: Johnson & Johnson

Chasing Value: Johnson & Johnson originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.