9
Authors: Super UserBy Noah Buhayar and Sonali BasakWarren Buffett’s top stock-picking deputies have both “slightly” outperformed the SP 500 Index since they started managing Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
funds.
Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who together oversee about $25 billion, have almost identical performance since they joined, Buffett said Saturday at his firm’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Combs was hired by Berkshire in late 2010 and Weschler joined about a year later.
While Buffett said their performance roughly amounts to matching the SP 500, they’ve received some incentive pay that they only get if they beat that benchmark.
“It’s been better than I’ve done, so naturally I can’t criticize,” Buffett said.
Berkshire investors are closely monitoring the two men’s performance as they try to forecast how the company will fare beyond the tenure of its 87-year-old chairman, who has far surpassed the U.S.
stock benchmark over his five decades at the helm.
Buffett said he doesn’t envision disclosing the two managers’ annual investing performance and praised both of their contributions to the company.
Combs and Weschler receive $1 million salaries and get 10 per cent of the amount by which their portfolios outperform the SP 500 on a three-year rolling basis, Buffett said at the 2012 annual meeting.
