So the question was raised about MKL management’s use of EBITDA to evaluate Markel Ventures (MV). I wondered about that too, but had totally forgotten that this issue was addressed back in 2010 in the letter to shareholders (thanks to someone pointing it out in the comments section of my previous post). I figured clarifying…
Markel 2014 Annual Report
The Markel (MKL) annual report is up on the website and as usual it’s a really good read. Markel seems to be on fire, doing really well. They grew BPS +14% in 2014 versus +13.7% for the S&P 500 index (total return) and +8.3% for BRK (BPS). The equity portfolio also did really well,…
Alleghany Annual Report 2014
Alleghany (Y) also just published their annual report for 2014. As usual, it’s a really good read. A long time ago, Dorothy Boyd said to Jerry McGuire, “You had me at ‘hello’”. Well, Alleghany had me with this: BPS grew +12.7% in 2014 compared to +13.7% for the S&P 500 index. Y noted that the…
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report 2014
So the long awaited annual report came out last weekend. As usual, I thought it was a great report. For most Berk-heads, though, it’s mostly the usual same old, same old. There was one big difference, though, this year. Buffett changed the performance page of the letter to include change in the stock…
JPM Investor Day 2015
I spent yesterday listening to the JPM investor day on their website (replay). They have a bunch of great slides so if you are interested in JPM at all, I would highly recommend at least flipping through them. There is a lot going on there that looks really interesting. Anyway, as usual, this is not…
Loews 4Q 2014 Conference Call
I don’t normally make posts about conference calls as I tend to look at things over the long term and things don’t change much from quarter to quarter or even year to year. If I look at something and like it, it is probably because I looked at how someone has done over a long…
Green Brick Partners, Inc. (GRBK)
So here’s an interesting situation. Some people just have a knack for getting out of bad situations. I remember when Leucadia got out of their WilTel. It was a disaster, but they got out at break-even and walked away with a big tax asset. It sort of reminds me of a silent movie scene where…
Buffett is Right! (About Bitcoin)
Every now and then, people do ask me about Bitcoin. And my usual response is, I have no idea what that’s about. But if they are interested in buying some so they can make money, I tell them don’t do it. If there are other reasons (like arms or drug dealing), then it might be…
Watsa’s Massive Bet
All this talk of deflate-gate got me thinking about another kind of deflation. No, Prem Watsa (Chairman and CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings (FRFHF)) doesn’t have a put option on air pressures of footballs, but he does have a massive bet on global deflation. It’s scary how big the bet has become. Check this out,…
Cowen Group, Inc. (COWN)
I was always curious about COWN; it did an interesting merger with Ramius, an alternative asset management company run by some stars from the 1980’s. I have taken a look at it a few times over the years but never really thought much of it. I don’t know what I think of it now, but…