The CEO of Jefferies Group, Richard Handler sold 2 million of his shares to Leucadia National Corporation (LUK). This is not that particularly noteworthy but it does illustrate the sort of advantage a firm like Leucadia has. Although the price looks around market price and anyone could have bought JEF shares in the public market,…
Goldman Sachs is Cheap!
I talked about how great it is that people can buy BRK and LUK at book value, and that JPM is selling at or below it’s tangible book value per share even though JPM is capable of earning much more than 15% on that tangible equity. The markets are falling apart now and financials are…
LUK: Leucadia National at Book Value
A lot about investing is about finding the right people. If you can find smart people to run your money and just give them the money, that’s a good thing. This is why I like to follow companies that are run by outstanding management with a long history of outperformance. Of course, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway…
Buffett Editorial in the New York Times from October 2008
In the midst of the financial crisis in October 2008, Buffett published this editorial in the New York Times. I keep saying this won’t be a Buffett fan site or anything like that, but I do think this is an important editorial that applies today too and I thought I would post it here, ‘for…
Microsoft
Here’s a just a quick note on the cheapness of Microsoft (MSFT). Microsoft is a controversial stock; some feel it has great value and others feel it is a value trap, an old dinosaur on it’s way out. David Einhorn among other notable value investors have taken a decent stake in this company. The primary…
Berkshire Hathaway at Book Value?!
OK, I really have no intention of turning this blog into a Warren Buffett fan site or a Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) information aggregation/news site or anything like that. There are tons of those things out there and many are very well done. BUT, having said that, I can’t not mention an astounding thing going on in…
J.P. Morgan at Tangible Book
I was reading a recent issue of Grant’s (August 12, 2011) and he reminds us that J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) is trading at close to tangible book value per share. He also quotes Jamie Dimon, one of my favorite CEOs as saying in April, “Your company earned a record $17 billion in 2010, up 48%…
Theme Investing, Good Idea?
When you have been in the investment world for a long time, you realize that every era, people get caught up in all sorts of ‘themes’ and ‘stories’. Back in the early 80s, it was technology. There was a technology boom that ended in a bust. This happened in the 60s too, with many companies…
The Perils of Trying to Time the Market
There has been a lot of bearish talk lately (or in the past few years) about how hopeless things are. Someone posted a link to a very well done analysis by Comstock Partners. The conclusion was that there is too much debt around the world, soveriegn debt is a big problem, consumers have too much…
Why Value Investors Like Apple
OK, this is supposed to be a value investing blog and my first three posts are about tech stocks. Hard to believe. I don’t like technology, but if that’s where the cheap things are, that’s where I’ll look. This is just a quick note on how cheap the stock is. A quick look at Apple,…