stockmanmarc's posterous

December 2, 2009

Markel Corps Private Acquisitions

Markel Corp. (MKL) which is a property and casualty insurance holding company that specializes in specialty insurance products such as wind and earthquake exposed commercial properties, high valued motorcycles, personal watercrafts, even horse related risks is becoming more and more like Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA,BRKB) as time passes on. Yesterday Markel announced that it acquired Baltimore-based Ellicott Dredge Enterprises LLC which is a 124-year-old maker of Dredges. Markel first stepped into the private equity arena almost 5 years ago buying a major stake in a bakery manufacturer. This is a practice that Warren Buffett has been doing for over 40 years and is quite successful at it. By buying into private concerns Markel is able to get 80-100% of these smaller companies unlike their passive investments in larger holdings such as General Electric (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Carmax (KMX). As you see by the list below these are simple businesses to understand. It seems Tom Gayner who runs the investment arm of Markel adheres to the same practices as Buffett, which is buying businesses that are simple and that have good management already intact. You will notice that their are no high-tech, fashionable companies in this group.

Private acquisitions since 2005

- A majority stake in AMF Bakery Systems- Located in Richmond Virginia is the world's leading manufacturer of quality bakery equipment for high volume bakeries since 1915.

- Also bought Parkland Ventures- which owns and operates mobile home parks around the country.

- A 40 percent stake in First Market Bank- First Market Bank was founded and is headquartered in Richmond and mostly owned by the Ukrop family who own a chain of super markets in central Virginia. Now celebrating its twelfth anniversary, the bank has grown to more than 300 employees and has a network of 39 full-service locations (including 25 in Ukrop's stores and 14 freestanding branches). It has more than $1 billion in deposits and offers a full range of retail and commercial products including mortgage, trust and investment services. Earlier in the year First Market announced a merger with Union Bankshares Corporation. When the merger is complete the combined organization will have 97 branch locations throughout Virginia with more than $4.0 billion in assets.

- Acquires Panel Specialist- is a leading manufacturer of panels, partitions, wall systems, casework, furniture, and countertops. Their customers include project managers, architects, and builders within five specialized divisions with annual revenues are over 30 million dollars.

- Acquires an unspecified majority interest in Baltimore- based Ellicott Dredge Enterprises LLC- located in Baltimore Maryland has designed and manufactured over 1500 dredges, more than any other manufacturer, and has served customers in over 80 countries. They market their products through two divisions. The Ellicott Division sells pre-engineered standard dredges primarily to the marine contracting and sand and gravel markets. Ellicott Dredge is the only dredge builder which designs and builds all key components of the dredging system - from winches to pumps, from excavators to spud carriages. This concept of single responsibility lies behind Ellicott's reputation for reliable and durable dredges. Because of this approach, many Ellicott dredges are still going strong after 50 years of steady service. Ellicott also built all of the dredges used in the original construction of the Panama Canal.

Markel has over a one hundred and ten publicly traded companies totaling 1.3 billion dollars in its investment portfolio.

*Author currently long BRKB,MKL

Filed under // berkshire hathaway Markel Corp MKL Thomas Gayner

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November 9, 2009

Steak n Shake Transforming Into Mini Berkshire Hathaway

Sardar Biglari acting CEO of Steak n Shake has wasted no time in turning the company into a holding company much like Warren Buffett did with Berkshire Hathaway. Biglari is using Steak n Shakes $SNS free cash flow to buy a 9.9% steak in Fremont Michigan Insuracorp $FMMH. Fremont Michigan InsuraCorp, Inc. is a holding company owning all of the outstanding shares of Fremont Insurance Company. Fremont Insurance Company is a Michigan licensed property and casualty insurer operating exclusively in the State of Michigan and writing principally personal lines, commercial lines, farm and marine insurance policies through independent agents. They were founded in 1876 and have served Michigan policyholders for over 131 years. They market policies through approximately 175 independent insurance agencies. Fremont Insurance Company has a financial strength rating of “B++” (Good) by A.M. Best. Biglari had mentioned before he would like to get into the insurance arena if the right opportunity came along. Why an insurance business? The insurance business should add another stream of income and more free cash flow to acquire other businesses as they arise. Fremont has over 10 million in cash with no debt. Current book value is $23.63 per share. This looks like a good candidate for Biglari and company however I do not see Biglari being a passive investor in this investment. Could this be just an initial stake, soon to be a subsidiary of Biglari's Steak n Shake holding company? Time will tell. Take note that this is much like Buffett started out over 50 years ago and we no how that turned out.

Company/Symbol	Market Cap	Cash	Book Value p/share	Price p/share
Steak n Shake / $SNS	$348.3 mil	$37.8 mil	$10.02	$12.09
Fremont Mich Insuracorp / $FMMH	$37.4 mil	$10.5 mil	$23.63	$21.45

More Relevant Articles from these great sites:

"This tiny company could be the next Berkshire Hathaway" @ The Daily Crux

"Sardar Biglari Buys 9.9% Fremont Insuracorp" @ Street Capitalist

"Western Sizzlin Corp Completes Distribution of Special Dividend of Steak n Shake Shares" @ CNN Money

Filed under // berkshire hathaway book value fmmh free cash flow insurance sardar biglari sns

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November 4, 2009

The Great Iron Horse BNSF New Engineer: Warren Buffett

Buffett gave us subtle hints almost 3 years ago when he stated he wanted to "bag an elephant", who new the elephant was a "Iron Horse" (a pseudonym for steam engine). Buffett has said in the past he was looking for a large deal, something that would move the needle- the needle being Berkshires enormous stock portfolio. Well Warren Buffett just bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe, that is the whole company. BNSF will now be under the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella with companies such as Geico, Dairy Queen, See's Candies, and Shaw Carpets (see the whole list here). This is by far the largest deal Buffett has ever done which totals a whopping 44 billion. Before this, Berkshire's biggest acquisition was the $16 billion stock purchase of reinsurance giant

General Re

, announced in 1998. Buffett, who has been building up his rail holdings for several years was in the headlines back in early 2007 when it was announced that he had taken positions in several of the major rail carriers. But why did he zero in on Burlington Northern. Here are some of the pieces to the puzzle:

1) it's a business (railroads) that easy to understand

2) it's has a high return on equity which is currently 15% for the trailing 12 months (last year it was 19%)

3) it's a business with a moat (has high barrier to entry) not just anyone can start a railroad company

4) it's had consistent earnings

5) it's very efficient way of moving goods

6) it's a play on coal and other commodities

7) it's throwing off lots of free cash flow

8) it has high-quality management (its track record speaks for itself)

Many people wondered why he had suddenly fallen in love with the sector. The simple answer is globalisation. With booming demand for commodities from the Far East and a hunger for cheap foreign goods in the West, the rail companies linking consumer and producer look appealing for the long haul. Buffett has said he realized a few years late that railroads were an appealing investment. As diesel prices rise, shipping by rail instead of truck becomes more attractive, and it would be extremely difficult for a competitor to build a new railroad. Continuing upward pressure of fuel costs make rail transport increasingly more competitive with the trucking fleet and shall prompt more wholesale purchasing within our own continent. The dominant trend is the demand for raw materials and machinery to fuel the construction booms in China and India. US rail firms transport grains and building and construction products for export; US exports to China. "I basically believe this country will prosper and more people will be moving more goods 10, 20, 30 years from now and the rails will benefit," Buffett told CNBC. It's also a bet on the future of another country -- China. China craves the coal and other raw materials that the U.S. produces. Those commodities fuel the great economic engine that is China, which is the factory to the world. U.S. coal and goods are shipped via rail to Pacific ports and then shipped to China. With his round-out purchase of Burlington Northern, Buffett thinks China will continue to be strong.

Filed under // bni china coal free cash flow railroads warren buffett

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October 23, 2009

Steak N Shakes Flipping Burgers into $$$

I have written about Sardar Biglari a few times since the start of the year. It appears more on Wall Street are taking notice of this fund manager. This article is from the Wall Street Journals news wire... Steak N Shake 'Already Flowing with Cash'.

Biglari runs a partnership much like the one Warren Buffett ran earlier in his career.

Biglari who started buying Steak N Shake shares a couple years ago is currently the largest shareholder. He is also the acting CEO. He is what you would call a share holder activist. Share holder activists are usually investors who usually take a large stake in a company and push for a turnaround, this is usually when the stock has performed poorly. Not always is this good for the small shareholder but in the case with biglari, his interests are in line with shareholders. As the article states Steak N Shake is already producing free cash flow. Trailing 12 months free cash flow is 35.9 million (see chart below). Biglari has stated before that he could use the cash to buy back shares which decreases the shares outstanding which would help boost the bottom line. He can also take the excess cash and put it to use in better performing businesses, much like buffett has done over the last half century.

Management Direction

"New management, during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008, enacted a change in strategic direction under which we began to operate in a manner designed to generate cash. Our long-term objective is to maximize intrinsic business value per share of the Company. (Intrinsic value is computed by taking all future cash flows into and out of the business and then discounting the resultant number at an appropriate interest rate.) Thus, our financial goal is to maximize free cash flow and return on invested capital. We regard capital allocation as immensely important to creating shareholder value. Steak n Shake is transforming into a holding company. Its basic premise is to reinvest cash generated from its operating subsidiaries into any investments with the objective of achieving high risk-adjusted returns. Pursuant to a resolution of the Company’s Board of Directors on June 17, 2009, all investment and other capital allocation decisions are made for the Company by Sardar Biglari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "

Steak N Shake might sell burgers, fries and shakes, however one day they could very well be selling insurance. Biglari is also the largest shareholder of Western Sizzlin (WEST) which he plans on rolling into Steak N Shake which should take place in the coming months.

Free Cash Flow $Mil	2006	2007	2008	TTM
Cash from Operations	69.6	43.4	24.4	42.0
Cap Ex	(80.8)	(68.6)	(31.4)	(6.1)
Free Cash Flow	(11.3)	(25.2)	(7.0)	35.9

Filed under // Buffett Partnership free cash flow sns

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October 5, 2009

Update On Thor Industries

Thor Industries $THO is the world's largest manufacturer of recreation vehicles and a major builder of commercial buses. I first mentioned Thor back in January 2009 when it was trading at $13.50 per share. The stock was used as an example of a company that the seasoned value investor Walter Schloss might pick if he were still picking stocks on a professional basis. Schoss had a very impressive track record during his years managing money. He was also a part of Ben Graham's alumni.

The stock has had an impressive run this year. I believe the stock price has gotten a little ahead of itself. They just announced today that they were making a special one time payout of 50 cents per share on their dividend. This is in addition to their quarterly payout of 7 cents per share. This is probably why the stock price ran up today.

10 months ago this stock traded at around 1X book value, where as now it trades for 2.3 book. Management still holds a big stake in this company at 39%, which is a plus, and aligns them with shareholders. The company still has a nice cash cushion of over 328 million with NO debt and free cash flow. All good looking figures for any value investor on the lookout for a new business to allocate money in. In fact Warren Buffett bought a similar business Forest River back in 2005, it to had NO debt. It would not suprize me if Buffett or another company would come in and buy this company outright. While I still feel that this is a very well managed company and things are looking up, the margin of safety is not where it was 10 months ago.

*Author does not currently have position in $THO

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September 29, 2009

Two Companies Trading at Their Cash Value

Without getting into the current Healthcare Reform issues. Here are two managed-care companies

Humana Inc. and Molina Healthcare that are now selling for what they currently have in cash.

Humana has nearly doubled off its march low while Molina is only up about 30 percent. Both have

current ratio's above the 1.5 ratio, which is a measure of a company's ability to pay back short- term

debt with its short term assets. A ratio of under 1 shows that they might be hard pressed to pay off

any monies owed if it were due at that point. Molina is currently trading at 1x book value while

Humana has a book value ratio of 1.28. Molina has increased its book value almost 5.5x since 2002

while Humana has increased theirs 3x which is a key measure that Warren Buffett looks for.

Both seem to be consistent free cash flow generators another key measure that most value

investors look for. Income investors might want to look elsewhere due to the fact that neither

company pays a dividend.

Company	Symbol	Cash/share	Price as of 9/28/2009	Book value/share	Current ratio	P/E ratio	Market cap
Humana	HUM	$36.57	$38.03	$29.82	1.62	7.5	6.3b
Molina Healthcare	MOH	$21.59	$20.97	$20.94	1.88	9.4	537m

*The Molina family along with other insiders hold 51% of the stock. Currently 20% of the float is being shorted.

*Value Investor Bruce Berkowitz of The Fairholme Fund owns 9.5 million shares of Humana which represents a top ten holding for the fund.

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September 22, 2009

Spot Light On A Small Cap

Vicon Industries $VII Industries is an industry-leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of video systems and components used for security, surveillance, safety and control purposes. Celebrating over 40 years in business, the company is unrivalled in experience developing video surveillance technologies. Vicon systems are employed worldwide in high-profile, enterprise-scale installations by a diverse range of customers, including governments, Fortune 500 companies, private and public institutions, and global transit and commerce hubs.

Vicon currently trades at 4x current free cash flow with a Book Value of 7.6. Currently the stock is trading at $5.85 per share. Management has a 39% stake in the business. It also has a earnings yield of 11.24% which is double the S&P 500’s earnings yield of 5.29%. Recently the company was named to Fortune Magazine’s 2009 Fastest Growing Small Public Companies.

Filed under // book value earnings yield free cash flow smal cap

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September 17, 2009

Update On Steak n Shake!

Sardar Biglari, CEO of Steak n Shake continues to whittle down the debt while increasing free cash flows. The stock has made a nice move over the last couple weeks. Biglari has added to his stake by purchasing an additional $4,000,000 dollars worth. Traders may want to give this Value play a look, it is trading near its 12 month high.

Links to recent articles: Biglari & Co. Find Value In Those Famous Steakburgers, Biglari: The Young Buffett, Market Report- In Play SNS

Filed under // free cash flow sardar biglari sns

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September 15, 2009

10 Small Caps with High "Insider Ownership"

All 10 stocks mentioned below offer double digit rates of return on equity as well as assets. REO is a corporations measurement of how profitable the company is with the money shareholders have invested. ROA shows how efficient management is at using its assets to generate earnings. All ten are trading at reasonable P/E ratios. All 10 mentioned have current ratios above 1.9, any thing above 1.5 shows that the company is capable at paying back short term debt. All 10 have a large inside ownership with modest to low debt and free cash flow, with each paying a dividend.

Company	Symbol	Price$ as of 9/14/09	P/E Ratio	ROE%	ROA%	Market Cap	Free Cash Flow	Inside Ownership %	Current Ratio
AAON, Inc.	AAON	20.31	12.5	29%	18%	349 mil	20 mil	27%	2.1
Advance America	AEA	5.67	9.6	20%	11%	358 mil	168 mil	31%	5.2
Alliance Holdings	AHGP	20.16	11.9	38%	11%	1.2 bil	122 mil	79%	2.1
Alliance Resource	ARLP	35	11.3	52%	11%	1.3 bil	71 mil	44%	2.1
Buckle	BKE	28.54	11.5	30%	23%	1.3 bil	94 mil	44%	3.7
BreitBurn Energy	BBEP	10.95	.92	65%	21%	593 mil	37 mil	42%	1.95
Cal-Maine Foods	CALM	28.39	8.5	26%	14%	659 mil	113 mil	39%	2.3
Lancaster Colony	LANC	50.56	15.9	23%	16%	1.4 bil	64 mil	35%	2.9
Newmarket Corp	NEU	88.65	14.2	27%	12%	1.3 bil	42 mil	23%	2.8
Terra Nit	TNH	106	10	128%	63%	1.9 bil	375 mil	75%	5

* Deep Value Investor Seth Klarman of The Baupost Group holds 8.49 million shares of BreitBurn Energy which accounts for over 16% of the stock.

Filed under // free cash flow return on equity seth klarman

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September 10, 2009

A Look at The Big 3: Medical Stocks

Pharmaceutical distribution in the United States is dominated by three firms: Cardinal Health CAH, McKesson MCK, and AmerisourceBergen ABC. AmerisourceBergen is the purest play on this narrow-moat industry. However when siphoning through the numbers one sees their is a big contrast in their stock valuations. Without getting into the Presidents medical proposals, one needs to focus on the value of the individual businesses themselves. All three are trading at reasonable valuations, but digging into the numbers a little deeper, Cardinal Health is clearly the cheaper stock. Cardinal is trading near its book value, while the other two are over 2x book value. Cardinal also offers a much more attractive dividend yield. Cardinal's P/E ratio is currently half the industry average. While all three hold a bright outlook going forward Cardinal seems to have a margin of safety already built into its share price. This is not to say that its stock price could not fall from current levels but that it is trading at a cheaper valuation than the other two companies. With the aging of the population in the United States their is still much upside in this industry and Cardinal offers you a dividend while you wait.

AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a pharmaceutical services company, offers drug distribution and related services to health care providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It distributes brand name and generic pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter health care products, home health care supplies and equipment, and related services to health care providers, such as acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order facilities, physicians, medical clinics, and long-term care and other alternate site pharmacies.

Cardinal Health, Inc. provides health care products and services primarily in the United States. The companys Health care Supply Chain Services segment distributes branded, private-label medical and laboratory, generic pharmaceutical, health care, and consumer products to retail customers, hospitals, and alternate care providers. It provides distribution, inventory management, data/reporting, new product launch support and contract, and charge back administration services, as well as operates a pharmaceutical repackaging and distribution program that offers repackaged pharmaceutical products.

McKesson Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides supply, information, and care management products and services for the health care industry. It operates through two segments, Distribution Solutions and Technology Solutions. The Distribution Solutions segment distributes ethical and proprietary drugs, medical-surgical supplies and equipment, and health and beauty care products in North America. This segment also provides specialty pharmaceutical solutions for biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers; sells pharmacy software; and provides consulting and outsourcing services. The Technology Solutions segment provides enterprise-wide clinical, patient care, financial, supply chain, and strategic management software solutions; pharmacy automation for hospitals; and connectivity and outsourcing services.

Company Name	Symbol	Share Price (9/9/09)closing	Price/Book Ratio	Revenue (end June 30th)	Mkt Cap	P/E Ratio (TTM)	Dividend Yield	Debt/Equity Ratio
AmerisourceBergen	ABC	$21.43	2.3	70.2b	6.39b	13.3	1.10%	.43
Cardinal Health	CAH	26.83	1.1	99.5b	9.36b	8.5	2.70%	.38
Mckesson	MCK	57.25	2.4	106.5b	15.18b	18.1	.90%	.37

Filed under // abc book value cah dividend yield mck medical stocks

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