Warren Buffett: Why We Didn’t Repurchase Our Shares When They Were Relatively Cheap In March

Here’s the entire video of the 2020 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. One of the questions Buffett was asked was why he didn’t repurchase Berkshire shares in March when they were 30% cheaper than the price he purchased them at earlier in the year. Here’s an excerpt from the meeting:

Becky Quick: All right, this question, I was looking for one of these, because I got several questions that came in similar to this. I was looking for one of these a moment ago. This one’s from Andrew [Wenky 04:05:22]. He says, “Can you ask Warren why he didn’t repurchase Berkshire shares in March when they dropped to a price that was 30% lower than the price that he had repurchased shares for in January and February?”

Warren Buffett:
Yeah, it was very, very, very short period where they were 30% less. But I don’t think Berkshire shares relative to present value are at a significantly different discount than they were when we were paying somewhat higher prices. I mean, it’s like Cain said, or whoever it was. I don’t know. The facts change. I change my mind. What do you do, sir? We always think about it, but I don’t feel that it’s far more compelling to buy Berkshire shares now than I would’ve felt three months or six months or nine months ago. It’s always a possibility. We’ll see what happens.

You can watch the entire meeting here:

https://youtu.be/69rm13iUUgE
(Source: YouTube)