This is a ChatGPT-free Zone
So Markel’s (MKL) 2013 annual report is out. MKL grew book value per share by +18.2%, the same as Berkshire Hathaway (BRK). BPS is now $477.16 versus the recent price of $591, so it is trading at 1.24x BPS. 18% growth in BPS is pretty good, but they also grew BPS at a +16.5%/year…
OK, so I know this thing about not timing the market leads to a lot of debate. One thing you always hear when talking about this is that Warren Buffett himself is a market-timer. Well, yes, he has made comments on the market over the years; in 1999/2000 warning of a high market cap to…
My last post reminded me of the second post I ever made on this blog back in 2011. I didn’t know it was my second post until I just looked back and checked. There are some prominent commentators these days, even an economist that runs a mutual fund based on his econometric analysis. The newsletter…
So Joel Greenblatt was just on CNBC and said some interesting things. I don’t intend to post every time someone I respect shows up on TV, but this appearance was especially interesting to me for a couple of reasons. One major reason is, of course, market valuation. I don’t really care about the many folks…
So here is another ripple from the recent flurry of Buffett stuff on this blog (from the letter to shareholders to the 3T’s etc. OK, so two posts does not a flurry make). A lot of people look at Buffett’s holdings for investment ideas, but for most of the recent ten or twenty years, he…
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…
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 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…
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 (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…