Berkshire vs. the ETF

I'm a longtime fan of Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-A  ) (NYSE: BRK-B  ) Warren Buffett. I've been to several of his company's annual meetings and I've followed discussions on our Berkshire discussion board. And I've heard a lot of similar things, year after year.

For example, people often refer to the company as being just like a mutual fund. That's not quite reasonable. It's true that the company does hold stock in many other companies, such as Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) , Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) , and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB  ) . But most of the company's value comes from its insurance businesses and the many companies that Berkshire owns outright (such as Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, See's Candies, and Net Jets). While most mutual funds are managed by folks who actively buy and sell various holdings, Buffett tends to keep most of his holdings rather stable. Coke shares, for example, appeared in his portfolio 20 years ago, and Wells Fargo shares appeared not much later.

The ETF comparison
At seekingalpha.com recently, I ran across a new thought about Berkshire -- that it's similar to a particular exchange-traded fund (ETF). Gary Gordon drew some similarities between Berkshire and the ELEMENTS Morningstar Wide Moat Focus ETN (WMW). Both, for example, look for companies with wide moats, defending them against competition. The ETF, for instance, owns shares of Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN  ) , eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY  ) , Lowe's (NYSE: LOW  ) , and Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP  ) .

He rightly pointed out several reasons why it's silly to opt for the ETF over Berkshire, such as the fact that the ETF charges 0.75% per year in fees, while there's no fee to own a stock like Berkshire. I'd be hard-pressed to argue with that, as would my colleague Joe Magyer, who recently wrote about the stock that's right to own.

Still, I think that it's worth considering ETFs such as the Wide Moat Focus. As Buffett has pointed out, his public stock holdings are not contributing the kind of growing value that his subsidiaries are. Also, most of his stock holdings represent relatively small pieces of Berkshire's assets, with many making up less than 1% at the end of fiscal 2007. If you want an investment focused on a handful of high-quality, wide-moat companies, the ETF is worth a look.