"The 'Stock God' faith is strong! Long-time shareholders praise Buffett: Berkshire (BRK) can still outperform the S&P 500 even if it falls by 99%."

According to Dolphin Research APP, Chris Bloomstran, the president of Semper Augustus Investments, a long-term shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A.US), said that even if the stock price of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway plummeted by 99% from its current level, it would still outperform the S&P 500 index in nearly 60 years. Bloomstran tweeted, "Since the 'current management' took control in 1965, even if Berkshire Hathaway suffered a 99.4% decline, its performance would still exceed the S&P 500 index."

In fact, from 1965 to the end of 2022, Berkshire Hathaway's stock price has soared nearly 38,000 times, which is more than 100 times higher than the 250-fold increase in the S&P 500 index during the same period. Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares have risen by 17% this year, reaching nearly a record-breaking $550,000, almost on par with the S&P 500 index's year-to-date increase. As a result, the performance gap between the stock and the index has widened to over 4,000,000%.

Bloomstran also emphasized another astonishing fact about Berkshire Hathaway's impressive performance under Buffett's leadership. He wrote, "How about this interesting data: Mr. Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway's holdings at a price below $11 per share. And today, Berkshire Hathaway's earnings per share can reach $11 every 2.25 hours!"

This data highlights the enormous scale of Berkshire Hathaway today. This massive conglomerate owns dozens of companies such as Geico, Duracell, and Dairy Queen, and holds billions of dollars in shares of companies like Apple (AAPL.US) and Coca-Cola (KO.US). Last year, Berkshire Hathaway generated over $300 billion in revenue and $30 billion in operating profit. As of the end of the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway's total assets exceeded $1 trillion, including nearly $150 billion in cash and Treasury bills, and a stock portfolio of approximately $350 billion.

In his letter to shareholders this year, Buffett attributed Berkshire Hathaway's amazing returns to several truly great investments, such as Coca-Cola and American Express stocks purchased over 25 years ago. He also emphasized his anticipation of achieving even greater success in the future.

One of Berkshire Hathaway's most notable successful investments this year is undoubtedly its large-scale acquisition of Japanese assets. Subsequently, the rising stock prices of several Japanese companies purchased by Buffett once again confirmed the "stock god's" brilliant move. Data released in early August showed that Japanese trading companies favored by Warren Buffett reported strong profits in the last quarter, despite a decline in commodity prices during the same period. Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo Corporation announced net profits for the first quarter of the Japanese fiscal year that exceeded expectations. Mitsubishi and Mitsui stated that they would consider additional shareholder returns based on future performance. It is understood that Berkshire Hathaway, under Buffett's ownership, increased its average stake in the five major trading companies to over 8.5% in June.Buffett first invested in these companies in 2020 and visited Japan earlier this year to strengthen ties with these trading companies.

Subsequently, fueled by this news and Berkshire's strong quarterly performance, the venerable "Stock God" and his numerous followers in the global market continued to pour in money to "recharge their faith": Berkshire Hathaway Class A and Class B shares reached historic highs on August 7, with Class A shares reaching a staggering $551,290 per share!

However, recently Berkshire Hathaway seems to be showing a cautious attitude towards the US stock market. In the three months ending June 30, Berkshire Hathaway was a net seller of stocks, selling about $7.98 billion more stocks than it bought, and slowing down its buyback pace. In the first two quarters of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway sold $18.4 billion more stocks than it bought. Over the past three quarters, the company has sold a net $33 billion worth of stocks, increasing Berkshire Hathaway's cash reserves by $38 billion.

This has pushed the total amount of cash and US Treasury bonds held by Berkshire Hathaway to increase by 13%, reaching nearly a record $147 billion. According to Buffett's standards, this is not too much, but it is a significant move when the market is rising. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the bestselling finance book "Rich Dad Poor Dad," believes that Buffett's recent series of moves indicate that he is preparing for a stock market crash and buying opportunities at low prices.

Kiyosaki believes that Buffett is hoarding cash because he expects the stock market to decline; this bargain hunter now has enough "gunpowder" to buy low-priced stocks and acquire companies if the market really falls, just like he did during the Great Recession when he made deals with Goldman Sachs, General Electric, and many other companies.