Buffett Says Few Stocks in U.S. Market Meet His Purchase Test

OMAHA — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett on Sunday said there are “very, very few” U.S. stocks that meet his test of being good businesses at low prices.

“We try to buy businesses at what we think are intelligent prices,” Buffett said during a news conference at the Marriott hotel in Omaha, a day before more than 10,000 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders gather for the company’s annual meeting. “We find very, very few things that meet that test.”

Buffett declined to say what stocks he might be buying in Britain. He had said a few weeks ago in London that he was buying shares of a British company.

“We’ve looked at a number of businesses there,” he said. “In some cases the prices look a little more reasonable than they do here.”

Shareholders generally don’t attend the annual meetings of most companies. Typically such meetings deal with routine matters such as hiring auditors and voting in a new board of directors that already has been decided through mail-in ballots.

Berkshire meetings, though, draw thousands of investors because Buffett and Vice Chairman Charles Munger spend about six hours fielding questions from the audience.

Buffett, the second-richest man in the U.S., owns 40% of Berkshire’s Class A shares, worth $36.5 billion at Friday’s closing price of $76,400 on the NYSE.

Buffett also declined to comment on his view of the silver market or say whether Berkshire Hathaway still owns 129.7 million ounces of the metal.