The shareholding ratio of the shares of the five major trading companies increased to over 8.5% on the Buffett Investment Average

The US insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway raised the investment ratio of 5 Japanese trading company stocks. Excluding corporate shares held by each company, the average holding ratio is over 8.5%.

It is said that the total value of shares of the five companies ITOCHU Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo Corporation greatly exceeds the value of shares of listed companies in any country held by Berkshire other than the United States.

There is a possibility that the investment ratio will be raised to 9.9% for any of the five companies, but there are no plans to make further investments unless there is special approval from the board of directors of the investee companies.

Mitsubishi Corporation 6.59% → 8.31% (+ 1.72%)

ITOCHU 6.21% → 7.47% (+ 1.26%)

Mitsui & Co. 6.62% → 8.09% (+ 1.47%)

Marubeni 6.75% → 8.30% (+ 1.55%)

Sumitomo Corporation 6.57% → 8.23% (+ 1.66%)

It was decided that there is a possibility that the investment ratio will increase to 9.9% for the purpose of long-term ownership.

According to Berkshire, the current shareholding ratio is average8.5%It is strong, and the total investment amount is the largest among listed stocks outside the US.

The stock prices of the five major trading companies have all risen by 30% or more since the beginning of the year.

Marubeni is 62% higher, and its stock price has more than tripled since the end of 2020.

The stock price/net asset ratio (PBR) for trading company stocks has recently become quite high. Berkshire has already announced the possibility of an increase in trading company stock purchases.

Judging from current stock prices and expected dividend yields, Japanese trading company stocks have high dividend yields. Having a high dividend yield isn't a very cool thing for a company that “turns funds into dividends because there are no effective investment opportunities,” but I don't think it's a bad thing from an investor's point of view.

However, it is unlikely that Buffett's goal of investing is dividend yield. But for an ordinary person like me, this dividend yield is quite a temptation. Since trading company stocks will continue to rise, they have quite a bit of investment flavor.

When viewed from a field perspective, most of the business of general trading companies in Japan is resource-related, and it is easily affected by resource prices.

There is no doubt that they are thinking to some extent that investing in trading company stocks is “also an investment in resource-related matters.” Since Buffett is investing in resources, I think it's safe to focus on resources and invest now.