Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway AGM 2021: 10 key highlights

Berkshire Hathaway's widely anticipated annual meeting was held virtually for a second year but reclaimed one bit of normalcy as Charlie Munger rejoined fellow billionaire Warren Buffett to answer shareholder questions.

Warren Buffett made a few blunt admissions at his annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders. Among them were regrets over Apple Inc. stock sales, the circumstances surrounding its airline share dump, and a failed healthcare venture.

Berkshire Hathaway AGM 2021: There are 10 key highlights

• Berkshire is still sitting on $145.439 billion in cash and short-term investments because Buffett has struggled to find major acquisitions for the company for several years.
• Warren Buffett said he sold some Apple inc stock last year and it was probably a mistake. Buffett says apple is an 'extraordinary' business with 'indispensable' products, says CEO Tim Cook has made accomplishments that steve jobs could not.
• 'The economic recovery has gone far better than you could say with any assurance, so we didn’t like having as much money as we had in banks at that time,' Buffett said.
• Buffett says Robinhood has become 'a very significant part of the casino aspect' that the market has taken on in the last 12-18 months.
• “The gambling impulse is very strong in people worldwide and occasionally it gets an enormous shove and conditions lead to this place where more people are entering the casino than are leaving everyday,” Buffett said. “And it creates its own reality for a while and nobody tells you when the clock’s going to strike 12 and it all turns to pumpkins and mice.”
• “It’s a killer,” Buffett said about the influence of special purpose acquisition companies on Berkshire’s ability to find businesses to buy. “That won’t go on forever, but it’s where the money is now and Wall Street goes where the money is.”
• Buffett asked why Berkshire recently sold some shares in US Banks, said the industry is in much better shape than 10-15 years ago, but Berkshire had too much exposure.
• 90-year-old retained his optimism for the future of the company he has run since 1965, including after he's gone. "We've seen some strange things happen in the world in the last year, 15 months," Buffett said. "It has reinforced our desire to figure out everything possible to make sure that Berkshire is, 50 or 100 years from now, every bit the organization and then some that it is now."
• “I really hope, and I think the odds are very, very good, that we get to hold this next year in Omaha. I hope that we get a record turnout of Berkshire shareholders, and we really look forward to meeting you in Omaha,” Buffett said.
• “Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done,” Buffett quotes from John Maynard Keynes.