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Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway
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MOST ADMIRED
Top 50 rank: 7
Rank in Insurance: Property and Casualty: 1
(Previous rank: 1)
Overall score: 7.34
Ticker: BRKA
Why it's admired:
Berkshire Hathaway remains one of the most admired companies in the Fortune 500, due to the sage leadership of its CEO Warren Buffett. In a poll, Fortune readers voted Buffett the business person of the year for 2011. Buffett suggested that most likely happened because he's been outspoken about his opinion that America's wealthiest citizens should pay a greater percentage of their income in federal taxes than they currently do.

In this year's annual letter to shareholders, Buffett also outlined his thoughts on why investing in stocks still beats investing in gold and bonds. Berkshire has also begun to welcome some tech companies into the fold. Last November, Berkshire purchased shares in Intel, DirecTV and IBM.
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Berkshire Hathaway stats
Nine key attributes of reputation Industry rank
Innovation 1
People management 1
Use of corporate assets 1
Social responsibility 1
Quality of management 1
Financial soundness 1
Long-term investment 1
Quality of products/services 1
Global competitiveness 2
From the March 19, 2012 issue
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The Most Admired companies in America are spread out across the country, but a few states dominate.
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Most Admired Industry Stars
These 20 Most Admired companies have landed among the top in their industries for multiple years.
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 People management  Financial soundness
 Use of corporate assets  Long-term investment
 Social responsibility  Product/services quality
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The experts chose the top 50. Now it's your turn. 'Like' the company you most admire to vote. The top 5 reader favorites are below.

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1. Apple 1,188
2. Teradata 651
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5. IBM 304
How we pick the Most Admired
The Most Admired list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations. Our survey partners at Hay Group start with about 1,400 companies... More
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