Buffett Says His Star Stock Pickers `Slightly' Beat the S&P 500

Buffett Says His Star Stock Pickers `Slightly’ Beat the S&P 500

(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s top stock-picking deputies have both “slightly” outperformed the S&P 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 S&P 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.

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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 percent of the amount by which their portfolios outperform the S&P 500 on a three-year rolling basis, Buffett said at the 2012 annual meeting.

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

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