why WB is WB?

I see two reasons. The first is he saw something embedded in the following table way before everyone and before there was such a table. The second is his timing, of course, based on his ability in reading of company finance and management situations. Performance from 1957 to 2005 Return Rank Company Avg. Annual Return Avg. EPS Growth Avg. Dividend Yield Avg. PE Ratio Next Year PE 1 ALTRIA GROUP (MO) 19.80% 14.75% 4.07% 13.13 12.46 2 BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB (BMY) 15.79% 11.59% 2.87% 23.52 18.79 3 ABBOTT LABS (ABT) 15.72% 12.38% 2.25% 21.37 14.96 4 MERCK & CO (MRK) 15.59% 13.15% 2.37% 25.32 14.65 5 COCA-COLA (KO) 15.54% 11.22% 2.81% 27.42 16.67 6 PEPSICO (PEP) 15.41% 11.23% 2.53% 20.42 17.78 7 PFIZER (PFE) 15.30% 12.16% 2.45% 26.19 11.57 8 TOOTSIE ROLL (TR) 15.27% 10.44% 2.44% 16.80 21.18 9 CRANE CO (CR) 15.14% 8.22% 3.62% 13.38 14.63 10 COLGATE PALMOLIVE (CL) 14.94% 9.03% 3.39% 21.60 18.18 11 FORTUNE BRANDS (FO) 14.22% 6.20% 5.31% 12.88 13.34 12 WRIGLEY WILLIAM JR (WWY) 14.12% 8.69% 4.02% 18.34 21.59 13 HEINZ H J (HNZ) 14.11% 8.94% 3.27% 15.40 16.86 14 KROGER COMPANY (KR) 14.09% 6.21% 5.89% 14.95 13.08 15 SCHERING PLOUGH (SGP) 14.02% 7.27% 2.57% 21.30 23.52 16 PROCTER & GAMBLE (PG) 14.00% 9.82% 2.75% 24.28 18.98 17 WYETH (WYE) 13.81% 8.88% 3.32% 21.12 14.36 18 HERSHEY FOODS (HSY) 13.79% 8.23% 3.67% 15.87 17.69 19 ROYAL DUTCH (RD) 13.55% 6.67% 5.24% 12.56 10.36 20 GENERAL MILLS (GIS) 13.39% 8.89% 3.20% 17.53 15.89 TOP 20 15.48% 9.70% 3.40% 19.17 16.33 S&P 500 10.73% 6.08% 3.27% 17.45 15.31 By the way, the new Fed chairman owns one and only one stock. MO. Kind of remember someone said "diversification is for the average minds". when I read this table sometime ago, literally sparks were all over my brain... hope you have some of the sparks in your own minds,