March 2010
1 post
Berkshires McLane Unit Buys Spirits Distributor...
Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKB) subsidiary McLane Co. which is a 32 billion supply chain services provider is buying Kahn Ventures LLC which owns Empire Distributors, a wholesale alcoholicbeverage distributor based in Atlanta Georgia with operations in Georgia and North Carolina. Buffett likes buying private family run businesses and this one seems to fit the bill. As of this writing the price of the...
February 2010
4 posts
Operating like Berkshire Hathaway: Alleghany...
While most eyes have been on Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKA), ($BRKB) lately and rightly so. Their are other companies that operate in a similar fashion to Berkshire one being Alleghany Corp. ($Y) . Alleghany is one of those companies that fly under the radar. Alleghany is an insurance company that takes the “float” (which is money that doesn‘t belong to the company, but are...
Lampert's Sears Holdings Unlocking Some Value
It Looks like Eddie Lampert is unlocking some of Sears Holdings ($SHLD) value. What value? For most onlookers Sears is nothing but a washed up retailer, playing second fiddle to the likes of WalMart ($WMT) and Target ($TGT). But too the value investor their is a different story. For those not familiar with Eddie Lampert, he is the acting CEO of Sears Holdings and a Hedge Fund manager with over 20...
The Dhandho Investor Sells Ternium, Buys Capital...
Mohnish Pabrai aka the Dhandho Investor just released his 13F-HR filings seen here. Pabrai exited out of all of his Ternium ($TX) position. He had this in his portfolio since August 2007 quarterly filing. Pabrai started a new position in Capital Source ($CSE). Pabrai usually has around 15-20 different stocks in the portfolio. As of his latest filing Potash Corp ($POT) and Teck Cominco look to be...
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Lampert's Sears Holdings Unlocking Some Value
It Looks like Eddie Lampert is unlocking some of Sears Holdings ($SHLD) value. What value? For most onlookers Sears is nothing but a washed up retailer, playing second fiddle to the likes of WalMart ($WMT) and Target ($TGT). But too the value investor their is a different story. For those not familiar with Eddie Lampert, he is the acting CEO of Sears Holdings and a Hedge Fund manager with over 20...
January 2010
1 post
4 tags
Steak n Shake Holdings To Change Name?
Well its been a little under two years that Sardar Biglari took over the stewardship of one of America’s oldest hamburger joints, Steak n Shake ($SNS). Since then he has moved pretty swiftly in shoring up the business and converting it into a holding company. Steak n Shake is no longer just a restaurant but an investment holding company. Currently under their umbrella are Steak n Shake,...
November 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Steak n Shake Transforming Into Mini Berkshire...
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....
The Great Iron Horse BNSF New Engineer: Warren...
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...
October 2009
2 posts
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...
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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...
September 2009
6 posts
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...
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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 $4,000,000 dollars worth. Traders may want to give this Value play a look, it is trading near its 12 month high.
Links to recent articles: Biglari & Co. Find Value In...
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HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?
A popular story recounts a meeting that took place at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago in 1923. Attending this meeting were nine of the richest men in the world at that time: (1) Charles Schwab, President of the world’s largest independent steel company; (2) Samuel Insull, President of the world’s largest utility company; (3) Howard Hopson, President of the largest gas firm; (4)...
10 Small Caps with High "Insider Ownership"
All 10 stocks mentioned below offer double digit rates of return on equity as well as assets. REO is a corporations measurement of how profitable the company is with the money shareholders have invested. ROA shows how efficient management is at using its assets to generate earnings. All ten are trading at reasonable P/E ratios. All 10 mentioned have current ratios above 1.9, any thing above 1.5...
4 Stocks With Rising Dividend$
Below is a screen I ran this morning on dividend stocks. This screen seeks to identify quality companies that have a history of good dividend growth and that also have an additional kicker: their shares are sporting above-average yields. All four are ranked A or better by Standard & Poor’s Investor service. All four have grown their dividends at double digits over the last 5 years. The...
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Your Garbage Can Pay You Dividends
Who said their wasn’t money in trash. Well these three companies pass their profits to share holders. Listed below are three companies that are in the waste management industry. Two large caps and one small cap. All three pay a nice dividend. One well known tycoon has a significant stake in Republic Services.
Waste Management, Inc. - was founded in 1894 and is based in Houston, Texas. Waste...
August 2009
6 posts
3 tags
Biglari: The Young Buffett
Interesting read in the Wall Street Journal this morning on Sardar Biglari. For those that are not familiar with this young 31 year old CEO, let me bring you up to date. Biglari runs several investment partnerships or (hedge funds) out of San Antonio Texas. The most notable is The Lion Fund. Biglari is what’s known in the investment community, as a shareholder activist. He buys a large stake...
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Value Investor Mohnish Pabrai - The Dhandho...
For those of you that are not familiar with MohnishPabrai, he is a devout disciple on the teachings by Warren Buffett and Ben Graham. Mohnish runs a fund identical to Warren Buffett’s original Buffett Partnership which was the predecessor of Berkshire Hathaway. Pabrai wrote a book about 2 years ago titled the Dhandho Investor. The word Dhandho which is pronounced dhun-doe is a Gujarati(a...
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Who Will Be The New King Of Beers?
With Anheuser-Bush being acquired by the large South American/European beverage conglomerate who will be the new King of Beers or All American owned brewer in the United States. The U.S. has over 1500 micro and craft breweries, some of them growing to a national and global scale such as The Boston Beer Co., maker of Sam Adams. Along with the craft beer market growing their seems to be a...
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“Go for a business that any idiot can run – because sooner or later, any idiot is...”
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Warren Buffett's Snack Company: Kraft Foods
It looks like Kraft Foods is in a cup and handle pattern. The cup and handle is one of the most fundamental chart-base price patterns, because it looks like a cup with a handle when the outline of a cup is viewed from the side. This stock looks like it has legs to go higher. Kraft recently reported better than expected earnings. Billionaire Warren Buffett has a very large stake of 138 million...
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A Smaller Version of Berkshire Hathaway: Markel...
Markel Corporation markets and underwrites specialty insurance and have been doing business since 1930. They are not a big well known company except in the value investing community. This might be due to them being in a rather boring industry- insurance. Wall Street seems to push everything in vogue and the retail investor seems to follow along. Berkshire Hathaway was not well known either 25-30...