Dickie Paria

Why Did Buffett Buy Glaxo SmithKline and Kraft?

Good point. Out of curiousity, I removed R&D/Rev and re-did the sorting for the Drug companies. GSK now came as the third best behind TEVA and GILD.

Why Did Buffett Buy Glaxo SmithKline and Kraft?

Among Food&Bev - KFT is number one in all 3 categories by a wide margin. The rankings are KFT (108), STZ.B (94), BUD (92), ABV (83), BG (81), CU (76), STZ (72), WWYWB (71), PEP (69), HANS, WWY, UL, KO, SJM, PBG, GIS, TSN, CCE, UN, SBMRY, KOF, CPB, SLE, CAG, PAS, DEO, K, HSY, MKC, BF.B, CSG, NSRGY, HNZ, TAP.A, KNBWY, TAP. The difference between the first and second is 14 points. The rest differ only by a point or two or three.

Why Did Buffett Buy Glaxo SmithKline and Kraft?

Twitcher - I have occasionally found errors in Morningstar's data. The best source for data is S&P's Compustat or Capital IQ databases. I used Morningstar for convenience.

IAI - For Drugs - the highest to lowest order is GSK (65), GILD (61), TEVA (54), SGP (46), WYE (45), SNY(45), NVS(43), NVO (42), AZN (41), DNA (41), ACL (38), AMGN (38), JNJ (29), LLY (26), ABT (22), MRK(20), PFE (15) and BMY (13). The Food&Bev worksheet is on my home computer and I'll post the numbers at another time. If I remember correctly, the top 3 companies were KFT, STZ.B and BUD. So, Buffett sure is picking the 'best-in-class'.