Confusing Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway’s 2009 Annual Meeting & Earnings Dates (BRK-A)

There appears to be some over-reporting around the upcoming earnings date of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) ahead of this weekend’s highly anticipated annual shareholder meeting.  The media is reporting that there is not going to be an earnings release Friday from the company on its first quarter of 2009 ahead of this weekend’s annual shareholder meeting.  There is just one problem.  Berkshire Hathaway never set a pre-meeting date for the earnings report.

This over-reporting is on the heels of an Associated Press story that Berkshire Hathaway was not going to release earnings this week.  Then came headlines from Reuters that there was a delay in the earnings report from Berkshire Hathaway. We called the company ourselves to find out what was going on.

The annual shareholder meeting is Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.  Some may have been hoping that earnings would come this Friday, but we did not have this Friday (MAY 1) as an official earnings date for Berkshire Hathaway.  There is a comparison for the years past, and while this was the case for the last three years it has not always been the case:

• May 2, 2008 “First Quarter Earnings 2008″… Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 was the annual shareholder meeting date.
• May 4, 2007 “First Quarter Earnings 2007″… Saturday, May 5, 2007 was the annual shareholder meeting date.
• May 4, 2006 “First Quarter 2006 Interim Report Release Information”… Saturday, May 6, 2006 was the annual shareholder meeting date.
• May 5, 2005 “First Quarter 2005 Interim Report Release Information”… Saturday, April 30, 2005 was the annual shareholder meeting date.
• May 6, 2004 “First Quarter 2004 Interim Report Release Information”… May 1, 2004 was the annual shareholder meeting date.
• May 8, 2003 “First Quarter 2003 Interim Report Release Information”… Saturday, May 3, 2003 was the annual shareholder meeting date.

It is probably easy to spook investors into thinking that this was a formal delay of earnings.  Unfortunately, that is what happens when reporting gets too aggressive and when reporters start reporting on each other.

At 3:40 PM EST we received an update from one of our contacts at Berkshire Hathaway who said that there was whole host of reasons as to why this Friday would not mark the earnings date.  But one statement stood out that confirms our entire thesis here: “There was DEFINITELY some over-reporting” on this issue.

Jon C. Ogg