Live updates: Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting

The Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting is over. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger pontificated about their favorite stocks and the current investing environment.

Sure, there were a lot of comments that sounded like they came straight from the Warren and Charlie greatest hits playbook. But it was still refreshing to hear their thoughts about the tumultuous market.

However, there's one topic that nobody asked them about that this reporter wishes they had the chance to discuss: What do they think of Elon Musk, the world's richest person? (Musk's net worth is more than double Buffett's.)

It would have been fun to get their thoughts on Musk's plan to buy Twitter (TWTR), as well as whether or not Berkshire would ever invest in Tesla's (TSLA) stock.

Maybe next year.

Berkshire Hathaway investors who needed a sugar rush at Saturday's annual meeting were in luck. Berkshire-owned See's Candies and Dairy Queen both had popular booths on the exhibit floor.

"People need their candy," said See's Candies president and CEO Pat Egan. But inflation is a concern.

Egan noted that See's has raised prices for some products due to higher costs for ingredients and packaging. But he added that a lot of what the company needs to produce its candy is sourced from America, which means that there are fewer worries about higher overseas shipping costs.

Egan said last year was the company's best year for sales ever, with revenue up 26% from pre-Covid levels of 2019. He added that e-commerce sales were especially strong.

Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader said the ice cream chain is also doing well, especially since it has added chicken strips, burgers and other lunch items to the menu.

Still, inflation is a big issue for its consumers.

"Inflation is hot. Consumers are spending more on housing, fuel for our vehicles, utilities. heath care, on and on and on. The discretionary income we have is smaller," Bader said.

He added that higher labor and equipment costs are a challenge for Dairy Queen franchisees too. That's why many have chosen to raise prices for some menu items.

But Bader said Dairy Queen franchise operators have to "thread the needle" because the chain doesn't want to lose customers. Price hikes are necessary to protect profit margins. The risk though is that consumers may get turned off, which would hurt sales.

Warren Buffett made what he referred to as some "news" about an existing Berkshire Hathaway investment at his annual meeting in Omaha on Saturday. He said that Berkshire has bought more shares of video game maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI) since Microsoft (MSFT) announced plans to acquire it earlier this year.

Berkshire first invested in Activision last year before the merger was announced. But with Activision stock now trading at about $75.60 a share, well below Microsoft's proposed takeover price of $95 a share, Buffett felt that buying more was a good "arbitrage" investment in the event that the deal goes through at the higher price.

Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger has long been critical of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, he referred to it as being akin to a "venereal disease."

The 98-year-old isn't about to change his stripes now. He appeared to take a knock at Fidelity and other investment companies that plan to let people buy bitcoin for their 401(k) accounts.

Munger said that if an investment advisor wants you to put retirement money in bitcoin, "Just say no."

Munger also took a jab at online trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) and its recent struggles. He said the "unraveling" in the company's stock price is an example of "some justice," adding that the short-term oriented, gambling-like attitude to investing that it promoted was "disgusting."

Buffett attacked Robinhood at last year's annual meeting, saying that the company was “a very significant part of the casino aspect” of the market. Robinhood fought back, saying in a statement that "adversaries of this future and of change are usually those who’ve enjoyed plentiful privileges in the past and who don’t want these privileges disrupted." The statement, which also noted that the "criticisms are unfortunate," did not mention Buffett or Munger by name.

Some shareholders are calling for Warren Buffett to step down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and just remain in his role as CEO. But Berkshire's vice chairman Charlie Munger isn't having any of it.

"It’s the most ridiculous criticism I’ve heard,” Munger said during Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha on Saturday.

Investors will vote on a proposal to split the roles at the end of Saturday's shareholder meeting. It is not expected to pass, even though the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and some other large institutional owners of Berkshire stock are in favor of it.

Munger said it doesn't make any sense for investors to ask for Buffett to give up one of his two positions, mainly because Berkshire Hathaway has done so well under the Oracle of Omaha's leadership. He quipped that it would be like telling Greek general Odysseus after he won the battle of Troy that "I don’t like how you hold your spear.”

Berkshire Hathaway famously does not pay a dividend. Instead, Warren Buffett prefers to reward shareholders by using its cash to buy stocks. Berkshire disclosed Saturday that it bought more than $51 billion in stock during the first quarter. It bought $3.2 billion of its own stock, a move that lowers share count and increases earnings per share.

However, Buffett told investors at the shareholder meeting Saturday that the company did not buy back any of its own shares in April...despite the nearly 9% drop this month in Berkshire's stock as the broader market sank. Berkshire shares are still up about 8% in 2022, beating the S&P 500, which has fallen 13%.

Buffett said the investing mood is "lethargic" currently but he added that the company still has a lot of cash on hand and will continue to use it for opportunistic investments.

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Oil giant Chevron (CVX) is now one of Berkshire Hathaway's largest holdings.

Berkshire disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Saturday that approximately two-thirds of the fair value of Berkshire's nearly $388 billion portfolio was in four companies -- and Chevron is one of them. The stock made up $25.9 billion of the portfolio, up from about $6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.

The remaining top three investments are Apple (AAPL), which accounts for a whopping $159.1 billion of Berkshire's stock bets, Bank of America (BAC) and American Express (AXP). The latter two account for $42.6 billion and $28.4 billion, respectively.

Sure, most Berkshire Hathaway investors who attend the company's annual meeting to hear the wit and wisdom of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are fans of value stocks. But shareholders also love good bargains on Berkshire merchandise.

Berkshire's Fruit of the Loom booth, which sells the popular Berkshire briefs, was packed on Friday night.

The Oriental Trading booth was also a popular spot. I wasn't the only one who purchased these lucky ducks.

And at a time where the price of just about everything is skyrocketing higher, it's nice to see that there is still one super (and tasty) bargain.

Berkshire Hathaway may be beating the broader market this year. But Warren Buffett's conglomerate just reported a big drop in earnings for the first quarter, due to a slowdown in in its massive insurance business.

Berkshire said Saturday that its net income was $5.46 billion, down more than 50% from $11.71 billion a year ago.

But operating earnings, the method that Buffett prefers to look at since it backs out investment gains and losses, were up slightly to just over $7 billion. Berkshire was helped by solid increases in revenue at its railroad, energy and utilities businesses.

The company also put a large dent into its cash pile during the quarter following some big investments and acquisitions, including stakes in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and HP (HPQ), as well as the purchase of insurer Alleghany. Berkshire ended the first three months of 2022 with about $106.3 billion in cash, down from nearly $147 billion at the end of 2021.