📅 On This Day
Buffett Calls BofA in Crisis, Locks In 6% Preferred Dividend
On August 25, 2011, with Bank of America's stock cratering on mortgage-loss fears, Warren Buffett phoned CEO Brian Moynihan and offered $5 billion in preferred stock paying a 6% annual dividend — plus warrants to buy common shares at $7.14. BofA's stock jumped 26% on the news. It was Buffett's third preferred-stock rescue in three years, following Goldman Sachs and GE in 2008: arrive in a crisis, take the senior claim, lock in a fat dividend, and wait.
The playbook never changed — crisis on Wall Street, phone call from Omaha, and a very comfortable dividend.
BAC — Bank of America Corp
🇺🇸 US
Source: The New York Times; Berkshire Hathaway
📅 On This Day
Buffett Calls BofA in Crisis, Locks In 6% Preferred Dividend
On August 25, 2011, with Bank of America's stock cratering on mortgage-loss fears, Warren Buffett phoned CEO Brian Moynihan and offered $5 billion in preferred stock paying a 6% annual dividend — plus warrants to buy common shares at $7.14. BofA's stock jumped 26% on the news. It was Buffett's third preferred-stock rescue in three years, following Goldman Sachs and GE in 2008: arrive in a crisis, take the senior claim, lock in a fat dividend, and wait.
The playbook never changed — crisis on Wall Street, phone call from Omaha, and a very comfortable dividend.
BAC — Verizon Communications Inc.
🇺🇸 US
Source: The New York Times; Berkshire Hathaway
🌍 Around the World
Japan's Dividend Calendar Follows the Rhythm of Fiscal Spring
Most Japanese companies time their dividends to a March 31 fiscal year-end, with many now offering semi-annual payments — an interim dividend in autumn and a larger year-end payment in spring. Toyota is a clear example: an interim dividend lands in November, followed by a year-end dividend in May, with the latter tied to full-year results and typically the more generous of the two.
In Japan, the spring dividend is more than a payment — it's a verdict on the full year's performance.
🇯🇵 JP
Source: Japan Exchange Group; Toyota investor relations
🔥 Dividend Streak
Sysco Has Raised Its Dividend Every Year Since 1971
Sysco was born in 1969 when John Baugh persuaded eight fellow food distributors to merge — nine companies with combined sales of roughly $115 million, united under the acronym for Systems and Services Company. It grew into the largest foodservice distributor in North America. Most diners have never knowingly eaten a Sysco product, and have eaten one constantly — and investors have enjoyed 55 consecutive years of dividend increases to show for it.
An invisible supply chain, a household name in every restaurant kitchen, and a dividend streak stretching back to 1971.
SYY — Sysco Corporation
Source: Wikipedia; FundingUniverse
💡 Did You Know
About 60 Fund Managers Ask the SEC to Hide Positions Each Quarter
The 13F filing includes a confidential-treatment provision that lets managers temporarily omit a position from public disclosure while they are still accumulating shares — designed to prevent front-running. The SEC reportedly receives around 60 such requests per quarter. Warren Buffett is perhaps the most famous user, having quietly built positions in IBM, Verizon, Chevron, and Chubb before revealing them in later filings.
Before Buffett's biggest buys show up in a 13F, they've often been hiding in plain sight — just not on paper.
US
Source: Cooley; SEC EDGAR