Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company with a wide array of subsidiaries engaged in diverse activities. The firm's core business segment is insurance, run primarily through Geico, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group. Berkshire has used the excess cash thrown off from these and its other operations over the years to acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe (railroad), Berkshire Hathaway Energy (utilities and energy distributors), and the companies that make up its manufacturing, service, and retailing operations (which include five of Berkshire's largest noninsurance pretax earnings generators: Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, Clayton Homes, Marmon, and IMC/ISCAR). The conglomerate is unique in that it is run on a completely decentralized basis.
Market capitalization, or "market cap", is the aggregate market value of a company represented in a dollar amount. Since it represents the “market” value of a company, it is computed based on the current market price (CMP) of its shares and the total number of outstanding shares.
Enterprise value (EV) measures a company's total value, often used as a more comprehensive alternative to equity market capitalization. EV includes in its calculation the market capitalization of a company but also short-term and long-term debt and any cash or cash equivalents on the company's balance sheet.
The enterprise value-to-revenue multiple (EV/R) is a measure of the value of a stock that compares a company's enterprise value to its revenue. EV/R is one of several fundamental indicators that investors use to determine whether a stock is priced fairly. The EV/R multiple is also often used to determine a company's valuation in the case of a potential acquisition. It's also called the enterprise value-to-sales multiple.
The enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ratio (EV/EBITDA) compares the value of a company—debt included—to the company's cash earnings less non-cash expenses. It's best to use the EV/EBITDA metric when comparing companies within the same industry or sector. Typically, when evaluating a company, an EV/EBITDA value below 10 is seen as healthy.
It follows the same logic as the EV/EBITDA indicator, but instead of EBITDA, EBIT is used, which considers non-cash D&A expenses in the company's operating result.
Variation in the number of Shares Outstanding from one quarter to the next.
...and much more!