Shares of the Japanese trading companies that Warren Buffet has invested in reached record levels this week after announcing earnings and buybacks.
Mitsubishi Corp., the largest, surged as much as 6% to an all-time high Wednesday after announcing plans to repurchase $2.2 billion worth of shares along with a better-than-expected profit target for the fiscal year through March 2024. Peers Sumitomo Corp. and Itochu Corp. climbed to records Tuesday after results.
The rising share prices have created big paper gains for famed value investor Buffett, who has held stakes in the companies since 2020. His announcement last month about increasing those stakes helped fuel the latest leg up, dovetailing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s drive to raise corporate valuations above book level.
With recession concerns looming, the heavily commodities-linked companies are all projecting earnings declines for the current period, though not as bad as some had feared. The stocks also remain relatively cheap, with both Mitsubishi and Sumitomo still trading below book value.
“Earnings for trading companies are basically on an upward trend,” said Hideaki Kuribara, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. “Over the past ten years, trading companies have been trying to strengthen their non-resource sectors in order to increase and stabilize their earnings, and this is now bearing fruit.”
