Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF

Do you want the kind of book that will explain financial concepts easily? Are you clueless about the next investing book to read? Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF is just the right book for you! Written by Warren Buffett’s former daughter-in-law Mary Buffett and a successful Buffettologist David Clark. This book is an easy read to learn Buffet’s time-tested dos and don’ts for interpreting an income statement and balance sheet. The authors have written a simple guide for reading financial statements from Warren Buffett’s successful perspective. With 57 short chapters, the book illustrated what Buffett would look at when buying a business. it’s an amazing book that explains financial concepts completely

Table of Contents

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF Free Details

Below are the details for Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements Online PDF:

Book Title: Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF
Authors: Mary Buffett, David Clark
Goodreads Link: Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
Published: 10/14/2008
ISBN: 9781416573180
Formats: [PDF] [Epub]
No. of pages: 224
Size: 8.5 MB
Genre: Economics, Finance, Non-Fiction, Accounting, Self-Help
Language: English
File Status: Available

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements Summary

With an insider’s view of the mind of the master, Mary Buffett and David Clark have written a simple, easy-to-follow guide for reading financial statements from Warren Buffett’s successful perspective.

Buffett and Clark clearly outline Warren Buffett’s strategies in a way that will appeal to newcomers and seasoned Buffettologists alike. Inspired by the seminal work of Buffett’s mentor, Benjamin Graham (The Interpretation of Financial Statements, 1937), this book presents Buffett’s interpretation of financial statements with anecdotes and quotes from the master investor himself.

Potential investors will discover:

Buffett’s time-tested dos and don’ts for interpreting income statements and balance sheets
How high research and development costs can kill a great business
How much debt Buffett thinks a company can carry before it becomes too dangerous to touch
The financial ratios and calculations that Buffett uses to identify the company with a durable competitive advantage—which he believes makes for the winning long-term investment
How Buffett uses financial statements to value a company
What kinds of companies Warren stays away from no matter how cheap their selling price

Once readers complete and master Buffett’s simple financial calculations and methods for interpreting a company’s financial statement, they’ll be well on their way to identifying which companies are going to be tomorrow’s winners—and which will be the losers they should avoid at all costs.

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements Review

Whether one is investing, managing a business, or beginning to learn finance, this book is the 101 rapid course in financial statements. A must-read.

The authors have written this book with the objective of making Financial Statements understandable to almost anyone. Every component of the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement is dismantled and explained in simple language without any financial jargon. Anybody who would, in some way, be starting to learn finance or accounting, should read this book first.

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF book is a quick and simple introduction to financial statements. The book takes you through a line by line analysis of the three financial statements:

Income statement;
Balance sheet;
Cash flow statement.

Income Statement

“The Income statement tells the investor the results of the companies operations over a set period of time. Traditionally, they are reported for each three-month period and at the end of the year.”

“An income statement has three basic components: First, there is the revenue of the business. Then there are the firm’s expenses, which are subtracted from the firm’s revenue and tell us whether the company earned a profit or had a loss.”

Balance Sheet

“A balance sheet is broken into two parts: The first part is all the assets, and there are many different kinds of assets. They include cash, receivables, inventory, property, plant, and equipment.”

“The second part of the balance sheet is liabilities and shareholder equity. Under liabilities, we find two different categories of liabilities: Current liabilities and Long-Term liabilities.” Current liabilities means the liability is owed within the year while long-term liabilities come due in one year or more.

“Now if we take all the assets and subtract all the liabilities, we will get the net worth of the business.”

Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement, like the income statement, covers a set period of time. The cash flow statement will tell us if the company is bringing in more cash than it is spending. Cash flow statements and broken down into three parts: Cash flow from operating activity, cash flow from investing operations, and cash flow from financing activities.

Capital Expenditures

Cap ex is cash that is used to purchase assets that are used in the long term operation of the company. Buffett likes companies that do not need to continually pour money into cap-ex. If a company is consistently using less than 25% of its net earnings for capital expenditures then you likely have a company with a durable competitive advantage.

Stock Buybacks

Companies with a durable competitive advantage are profit-generating machines. This causes the issue of what to do with the excess money. One of the options is to buy back the companies own shares. This reduces the number of outstanding shares, which increases the remaining shareholder’s portion of the company. Fewer shares also create an increase in earnings per share.

A history of stock buybacks is a good indicator of a durable competitive advantage. As long as the company isn’t using debt to buy back shares it shows that the company is generating excess cash and looking for a place to invest it.

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements pdf book focuses on what each line of the financial statement means. Authors Buffett and Clark provide an analysis of how Warren Buffett uses these line items to determine if a company has a durable competitive advantage.

Durable Competitive Advantage Through the Interpretation of Financial Statements

Warren Buffett learned that companies that sustain a competitive advantage over their rivals lead to excellent stock returns. This advantage allows these companies to charge more or sell more of their products. Buffett identifies these types of companies using financial statements. Once he identifies a company with a durable competitive advantage Buffett holds them for as long as he can. If you identify and hold these companies for a long period of time wealth can be created.

Buffett determined that business with a durable competitive advantage came in three business models:

Selling a Unique Product: The producers of these unique products have ingrained their use in everyday life. Consumers instinctively reach for these brands. As a result, these brands are immediately recognized and so are their products. The authors use the example of Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Wrigley.
Selling a Unique Service: Like lawyers or doctors companies that sell a unique service sell something that people need and are willing to pay for. Unique service style companies do not have to continually reinvent themselves or pour money into new plants to make goods. The authors use the examples of Moody’s, H&R Block, and American Express.
Being the Low-Cost Buyer and Seller of a Product or Service: The key is to be both the low-cost buyer and the low-cost seller. This results in a business having higher margins than their competitors while remaining the low-cost seller. This will result in higher sales volumes. Examples in the book are Walmart, Costco, and Borsheim Jewelers.

Importance of Financial Statements in Investing

The author sets the stage for delving into all the elements of financial statements. She starts by explaining the types of businesses that Buffett would buy in part or a whole. She explains how Buffett took the value investing philosophy advocated by Benjamin Graham and augmented it with his philosophy of durable competitive business advantage. Graham believed in buying interest in businesses whose stocks are undervalued and selling it when the price is escalated, with less regard to the type of business. Buffett looks at businesses that always have, what he calls, a durable competitive advantage.

How does he unearth the hidden treasures? Only with the help of financial statements. Beginners and novice investors or traders just look into the metrics on the quote snapshots, which does not tell much about the financial strength or the competitiveness of a business. Financial Statements are what he turns to discover the gems. These don’t require reading between the lines, but just understanding the lines.

Income Statement – Where to Get the Bottom-Line Measure

The book first elucidates the metrics in the income statement, which is the most important of all the financial statements. It contains the bottom-line metrics, the net income, and all the components that equate to the net income. It is not enough to just look at the most recent statement. Buffett’s uses 10 years’ worth of bottom-line numbers to predict the durability of a company for at least the next 10 years.

How to Determine the Strength, Size, Sustainability, and Solvency

The next section details the components of a balance sheet. This provides a different view of a company. It tells about the size of a company, the liabilities, the magnitude of debt it carries, and the shareholder equity.

The third section details the importance of the cash flow statement. It explains what to look for in a cash flow statement. It is necessary to look into actual cash coming in and going out, as the net income may not be actual income earned, it is just the sales recorded and it may have been sold on credit to the customers.

One Financial Statements Pocket Guide to Definitely Carry Along for Quick Reference

The last section illustrates how Buffett makes his buy decision, once he has determined that the fundamentals are strong based on financial statements. The price paid for a stock determines the return. Even if the company is a good investment, if the price is not right, Buffett lets it go or awaits an opportunity. He also compares the return on Treasury bonds to estimate the right price to pay.

Every term on a financial statement is crisply explained in one or a few pages. This is a great book for those who are averse to reading pages of fluff. If this book were published with small text, it could be the bestselling pocket reference to interpreting financial statements.

Conclusion/Recommendation

This book Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF does an INCREDIBLE job at breaking down not only financial statements (e.g. Income statements, Balance sheets and Cash Flow Statements), but it also presented the opportunity to look at these financial statements through the eyes of the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffett. Knowdemia.com recommends this book specifically to intermediate investors who aren’t new to investments but aren’t familiar enough yet to make assessments from financial statements of companies they’re considering investing in.

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements PDF Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Two Great Revelations That Made Warren the Richest Person in the World
Chapter 2: The Kind of Business That Will Make Warren Superrich
Chapter 3: Where Warren Starts His Search for the Exceptional Company
Chapter 4: Durability Is Warren’s Ticket to Riches
Chapter 5: Financial Statement Overview: Where the Gold Is Hidden
Chapter 6: Where Warren Goes to Find Financial Information

THE INCOME STATEMENT

Chapter 7: Where Warren Starts: The Income Statement
Chapter 8: Revenue: Where the Money Comes In
Chapter 9: Cost of Goods Sold: For Warren the Lower the Better
Chapter 10: Gross Profit/Gross Profit Margin: Key Numbers for Warren in His Search for Long-Term old
Chapter 11: Operating Expenses: Where Warren Keeps a Careful Eye
Chapter 12: Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses
Chapter 13: Research and Development: Why Warren Stays Away from It

Chapter 14: Depreciation: A Cost Warren Can’t Ignore
Chapter 15: Interest Expense: What Warren Doesn’t Want
Chapter 16: Gain (or Loss) on Sale of Assets and Other
Chapter 17: Income Before Tax: The Number That Warren Uses
Chapter 18: Income Taxes Paid: How Warren Knows Who Is Telling the Truth
Chapter 19: Net Earnings: What Warren Is Looking For
Chapter 20: Per-Share Earnings: How Warren Tells the Winners from the Losers

BALANCE SHEET

Chapter 21: Balance Sheet in General
Chapter 22: Assets
Chapter 23: Current Asset Cycle: How the Money Is Made
Chapter 24: Cash and Cash Equivalents: Warren’s Pile of Loot
Chapter 25: Inventory: What the Company Needs to Buy and What the Company Needs to Sell
Chapter 26: Net Receivables: Money Owed to the Company
Chapter 27: Prepaid Expenses/Other Current Assets

Chapter 28: Total Current Assets and the Current Ratio
Chapter 29: Property, Plant, and Equipment: For Warren Not Having Them Can Be a Good Thing
Chapter 30: Goodwill
Chapter 31: Intangible Assets: Measuring the Unmeasurable
Chapter 32: Long-Term Investments: One of the Secrets to Warren’s Success
Chapter 33: Other Long-Term Assets
Chapter 34: Total Assets and the Return on Total Assets
Chapter 35: Current Liabilities

Chapter 36: Accounts Payable, Accrued Expenses, and Other Current Liabilities
Chapter 37: Short-Term Debt: How It Can Kill a Financial Institution
Chapter 38: Long-Term Debt Coming Due and the Troubles It Can Cause
Chapter 39: Total Current Liabilities and the Current Ratio
Chapter 40: Long-Term Debt: Something That Great Companies Don’t Have a Lot Of
Chapter 41: Deferred Income Tax, Minority Interest, and Other Liabilities
Chapter 42: Total Liabilities and the Debt to Shareholders’ Equity Ratio

Chapter 43: Shareholders’ Equity/Book Value
Chapter 44: Preferred and Common Stock: Additional Paid-in Capital
Chapter 45: Retained Earnings: Warren’s Secret for Getting Superrich
Chapter 46: Treasury Stock: Warren Likes to See This on the Balance Sheet
Chapter 47: Return on Shareholders’ Equity: Part One
Chapter 48: Return on Shareholders’ Equity: Part Two
Chapter 49: The Problem with Leverage and the Tricks It Can Play on You

THE CASH FLOW STATEMENT

Chapter 50: The Cash Flow Statement: Where Warren Goes to Find the Cash
Chapter 51: Capital Expenditures: Not Having Them Is One of the Secrets to Getting Rich
Chapter 52: Stock Buybacks: Warren’s Tax-Free Way to Increase Shareholder Wealth

VALUING THE COMPANY WITH A DURABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Chapter 53: Warren’s Revolutionary Idea of the Equity Bond and How It Has Made Him Superrich
Chapter 54: The Ever-Increasing Yield Created by the Durable Competitive Advantage
Chapter 55: More Ways to Value a Company with a Durable Competitive Advantage
Chapter 56: How Warren Determines the Right Time to Buy a Fantastic Business
Chapter 57: How Warren Determines It Is Time to Sell

Appendix

Select Glossary of Terms
Acknowledgements
Index

About the Authors of Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements

Mary Buffett is the coauthor of Scribner’s bestselling Buffettology series, a sought-after business speaker worldwide and a contributor to HuffPost and the online magazine Thrive Global. Mary and Sean Seah recently launched Buffett Online School (BuffettOnlineSchool.com), a monthly webinar sharing investment insights and helping students learn how to build successful stock portfolios.

For over twenty years, David Clark has been considered the world’s leading authority on the subject of Warren Buffett’s investment methods. His international bestselling investment books, coauthored with Mary Buffett—Buffettology, The Buffettology Workbook, The New Buffettology, The Tao of Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements, The Management Secrets of Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett and The Art of Stock Arbitrage, and The Warren Buffett Stock Portfolio—have been translated into more than twenty foreign languages and are considered “investment classics” the world over. He has once again joined forces with Mary Buffett, and together they are writing Warren Buffett Investment Analysis, an in-depth investment manual for professional and aspiring investors.