Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 2023

As another Berkshire Hathaway question-and-answer session wraps up, it’s worth reflecting on why the event has become so iconic. CNBC spoke with attendees exploring exhibits during the halftime break who said they invested in the company because it is a “safe” and “diversified” stock. 

“It’s just one of the best companies in the world, honestly, the way it’s so diversified, with so many different subsidiaries, and Warren Buffett. All around, this is, probably, arguably the greatest investor of all time,” said Phillip Sheppard, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Georgia, who attended the event with his classmates. 

The university student said he’s been interested in the conglomerate since he was a high school sophomore, and, on his father’s advice, took advantage of the Covid crash in 2020 to buy shares. His father Alan is not a shareholder, but was also in attendance. 

“I kind of got lucky when I bought in,” Sheppard said. 

Dr. Alexandra Cook, a professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University, has been a Berkshire shareholder for five years, and brought three of her students as guests to the event so they could gain an understanding of Berkshire’s underlying investments. 

One of her students said the conference has been “very impactful.” Isabelle Reinhart, a 22-year-old business student, said she pulled out of the stock about a year ago, but recently started buying shares after discussing the investment with her stock broker. 

“We have been talking about a lot of different options for investment, and I was looking for a safer option. So I think that it’s nice that it’s so diversified,” Reinhart said. “And I’ve heard a lot about the different industries that the company is involved in, which has really helped in kind of solidifying that it’s the right company to be invested…