So JPM had their marathon investor day the other day. The slides and presentation is available at the JPM investor relations website. It’s well worth a listen for anyone interested in banking. It might be torture for those who aren’t, though, because it’s long. But long is good. We want more information, right? People keep…
Email Updates Not Working
Someone mentioned that they haven’t been receiving email updates. I too notice that I haven’t gotten an email since November. I have no idea why. I didn’t change anything here. I did some googling and there seems to be some problems with this, but I haven’t found any solution (that I understand) yet. Sorry for the…
Buffett on CNBC with 3T’s
Buffett spent three hours on CNBC yesterday (March 3, 2014). Here are some notes, not necessarily comprehensive. I flipped through some transcripts too to help me remember what he said. Two most interesting things for me was Weschler’s comment on DaVita, and Comb’s comment that he reads 500 pages per week (which I think…
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report 2013
So, Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders came out. What can I say? Berkshire (BRK) is an incredible money making machine. They grew book 18.2% after some meaningless charges. Yes, that’s not so exciting compared to the S&P 500 index, but for a $200+ billion giant, it’s pretty darn good. And this is not too far…
Alleghany Annual Report 2013
Alleghany (Y) just put out their annual report for 2013, but before that let’s take a quick look at something else. Not long after my post on Alleghany’s (Y) investor day, Weston Hicks presented at a Merrill Lynch conference. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard him speak so it was pretty interesting…
Pzena Quarterly Newsletter: Record Profit Margins?
I just listened to the fourth quarter earnings conference call for Pzena (PZN) and Richard Pzena said something interesting. He does a lot of work on deep value cycles and things like that so even if you don’t own the stock, it’s a good conference call to listen to. He is the only pure…
Graham Holdings Split-Off
So Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) made an interesting 13D/A filing: The Issuer is discussing with Berkshire the possibility of Berkshire acquiring an as yet unformed subsidiary of the Issuer, which would own a business and would own certain other assets to be determined but which may include shares of Berkshire common stock owned by the Issuer, in…
Alleghany Corp Investor Day
Before I start, I came across this great quote in a totally unrelated book so let me start this post with that: “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” – Hannah More, British writer/novelist (1745 – 1833) With the market tanking and people obviously wondering what…
Post Holdings Annual Report 2013
So it’s been a while since my last post (no pun intended). I didn’t mean take any time off. December was a busy month with some travelling, holidays and things like that (shopping etc.). But I intend to keep posting here as before. I know most blogs tend to peter out after a year or…
Platform Specialty Products
So, someone commented on another outsider-esque investment idea backed by some billionaires. Platform Acquisition Holdings is another Martin Franklin – Nicolas Burggruen SPAC (special purpose acquisition corporation, otherwise known as a blank check company). Bill Ackman also owns a stake. I think this is Ackman’s second investment with Franklin – Burggruen. The first was in…