Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway at a glance, ahead of annual meeting

Stock price: $325,080.01 per Class A share as of April 30, 2019. Widely held Class B shares are worth about 1/1,500th as much.

Market value: about $533 billion as of April 30, 2019

Compounded annual changes from 1965-2018: book value per share: 18.7 percent; stock price: 20.5 percent; S&P 500 including dividends: 9.7 percent (pre-tax)

Float (insurance premiums collected before claims are paid, which help fund investments): $122.7 billion as of year-end

Selected business units: Benjamin Moore, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, BNSF, Borsheims Fine Jewelry, Brooks, Business Wire, Clayton Homes, Duracell, Fruit of the Loom, Geico, General Re, HomeServices of America, IMC International Metalworking, International Dairy Queen, Johns Manville, Lubrizol, Marmon, McLane, National Indemnity, Nebraska Furniture Mart, NetJets, Oriental Trading, Pampered Chef, Precision Castparts, See’s Candies, Three (Berkshire Hathaway Direct Insurance)

Selected acquisitions (larger amounts rounded to nearest billion): See’s Candies, $25 million (1972); Geico, $2.3 billion (1996); Dairy Queen, $590 million (1998); General Re, $16 billion (1998); NetJets, $725 million (1998); Clayton Homes, $1.7 billion (2003); PacifiCorp, $5 billion (2006); Marmon, $4.5 billion (2008); Burlington Northern Santa Fe, $27 billion (2010); Lubrizol, $9 billion (2011); NV Energy, $6 billion (2013); H.J. Heinz, $12 billion (majority stake, 2013); Van Tuyl, $4.1 billion (2015); Precision Castparts, $32 billion (2016), Pilot Flying J, $2.8 billion (38.6 percent stake, 2017). (Sources: Barclays Capital, Berkshire)

Employees at year-end: 389,373

Employees in main office: 26, including Buffett

Year Buffett met Munger: 1959

Year Munger became Berkshire vice chairman: 1978

Munger’s influence: Buffett has credited Munger, like him an admirer of famed value investor Benjamin Graham, with pushing him to find wonderful companies at fair prices, rather than fair companies at wonderful prices.

Munger on restraint in investing: “Part of the Berkshire secret is that when there’s nothing to do, Warren is very good at doing nothing.... Generally I think people make more money if they’re very narrowly specialized, like the proctologist. And it’s much harder to make a lot of money for most people if you try to imitate Warren and me.” (2018 annual meeting)

Succession: Buffett, 88, and Munger, 95, have not publicly signaled any plans to retire. Berkshire’s board plans to quickly install a new CEO when Buffett retires, cannot continue or dies.

Possible CEO successors: Abel, 56, who led Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and Jain, 67, a top insurance executive, have since January 2018 had day-to-day oversight of Berkshire’s non-insurance and insurance units, respectively. Buffett and Munger still handle major capital allocation decisions and investments.

Other possible successors: Combs and Weschler, who together recently managed $26 billion, may succeed Buffett as chief investment officer. Buffett’s eldest son Howard is expected to become non-executive chairman. Tracy Britt Cool, 34, chairs several Berkshire units and is chief executive of Pampered Chef.

Annual meeting attendance: 12 (1965), about 24 (1979), 1,000 (1986), 4,100 (1995), 7,700 (1997), 13,000 (2000), 21,000 (2005), 42,000 (2015, Buffett’s 50th anniversary), 42,000 (2018). (Sources: Omaha World-Herald, Berkshire, Reuters)