Question: What is the definition of Value vs. Growth stocks?
Warren Buffett: No two distinct categories of business. PV of cash a company generates is what the business is worth. No distinction in our mind between growth & value. All decision you decide how much value you are going to get. When we buy a stock we think of it in terms of buying the whole enterprise.
Aesop’s wrote the first investment primer “A bird in the hand (Lay out cash today) is worth two in the bush”. Esop forgot to say when you get the two in the bush and what the interest rate was. People associate growth with the birds in the bush but they still have to figure out when they get the birds. People often are not thinking of the mathematics implicit in what they are doing.
[Charlie Munger: All intelligent investing is value investing; then acquire more than you are paying for. Investing is where you find a few great companies and then sit on your ass.]
Source: BRK Annual Meeting 2000
Time: April 29th 2000