Berkshire Hathaway logs share buyback

But Berkshire said on Monday it was now willing to pay up to 10 percent more than book value for the stock.

In the opinion of our Board and management,the underlying businesses of Berkshire are worth considerably more than this amount,though any such estimate is necessarily imprecise,Berkshire said in a statement.

As of June 30 Berkshire’s book value was $98,716 per Class A share,which would suggest the company would be willing to pay up to $108,588 per share in the buyback program.

Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett do really good analysis when they make investments in other companies,and you can be sure they know what they’re doing here,said Michael Holland,founder of Holland & Co,who oversees more than $4 billion of assets and owns Berkshire shares.

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares rose 3.7 percent to $104,050 in early trading,while the more actively traded Class B stock rose 4.4 percent to $69.29. Last week,both classes fell to their lowest point since early 2010.

The company said it would use cash on hand to fund the buybacks,but would not buy any shares if doing so took the company’s cash position below $20 billion.

Berkshire had $47.89 billion cash at June 30 but has spent at least $15 billion this quarter on acquisitions and investments,most notably the chemical company Lubrizol and a preferred stake in Bank of America.

One investor said Buffett may simply have run out of things to buy with all that cash.

Berkshire’s path with cash has been to make outside acquisitions. Perhaps for the time being,that fishing pond has dried up,said John Augustine,chief investment strategist for Fifth Third Bank,which has $25.6 billion under management and owns Berkshire shares.