巴菲特大手笔建仓蓝色巨人

    某种程度上说，巴菲特和彭明盛今年其实是在竞购IBM的股票。巴菲特投下107亿美元买入6,400万股，而IBM本身在2011年前九个月投入近115亿美元，回购了近6,900万股。

    这九个月中，IBM回购这批股票的平均价格约为167美元——根据巴菲特刚刚宣布的数据，他在3月份至11月之间建仓的平均成本与此恰好一样。

    巴菲特并未见过彭明盛（就连后者的名字他今天都说错了一次），也没有见过彭明盛新任命的继承人弗吉尼亚•罗曼提，后者将在年底接过首席执行官权杖。不过，10月初《财富》主办“最有权势女性大会”时，罗曼提担任了演讲嘉宾，当时，巴菲特也赏光出席。（彭明盛和罗曼提的生日在同一天——都是7月29日，这可是365分之1的小概率事件——若是考虑闰年因素，那还要小一些，莫非这是什么征兆？）

    彭明盛现年60岁，他将继续担任IBM董事长，毫无疑问他将毫不松懈地监督IBM最新计划的实现。这份称为2015路线图的计划同样表述清晰、公之于众，它要求在2010年11.67美元的基础上，2015年IBM的每股营业利润应至少达到20美元。计划同时包括进一步的回购股票，不过那自然得在价格合适的时候进行，否则可过不了巴氏测谎仪这一关。

    是伯克希尔公司的仓位，那他会非常开心。那当然不可能发生，可巴菲特或许觉得推动IBM提高回购量不是坏事。

    本文作者卡罗尔•卢米斯女士是《财富》杂志资深编辑，她是沃伦•巴菲特的老朋友，同时还持有伯克希尔的股票。

    译者：小宇

    In a sense, Buffett and Palmisano have been in competition for IBM's stock this year. While Berkshire was paying its $10.7 billion for 64 million shares, IBM itself spent nearly $11.5 billion in 2011's first nine months to buy almost 69 million shares.

    IBM's cost-per-share for the stock it repurchased in those nine months was about $167 -- just what Berkshire's cost is on the facts that Buffett has announced for the March-into-November period.

    Buffett has not met Palmisano (whose name Buffett bobbled once today) nor his just-announced successor, Virginia Rometty, who will take over as CEO at yearend. Buffett, however, was in the audience at Fortune's Most Powerful Women's conference in early October when Rometty was a featured speaker. (In a 1-out-of-365 chance, or less considering Leap Year, Palmisano and Rometty share the same birthday, July 29th; is that an omen of some kind?)

    Palmisano, 60, is to stay on as IBM's chairman and will no doubt be unflaggingly watching what happens under IBM's latest stated, publicized plan, called the 2015 Roadmap. The plan calls for operating earnings per share to rise from $11.67 in 2010 to at least $20 in 2015. More buybacks are also on the agenda, though naturally they will need to be made at prices that don't make the polygraph blow a gasket.

    Buffett said today that if IBM got its shares down to 64 million -- Berkshire's holding, that is -- he'd be happy. That won't happen, of course, but Buffett probably figured it wouldn't hurt to give IBM a nudge.

    Fortune senior editor-at-large Carol Loomis, who wrote this article, is a long-time friend of Warren Buffett's and a Berkshire shareholder.