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LowIQinvestor

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    'A bit of a bubble' in stocks: Berkshire director

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    I am very interested in PSX - Phillips 66

    Look at the return on capital employed in the Chemical division!

    http://www.phillips66.com/EN/about/our-businesses/chemicals/PublishingImages/c1.jpg

     

    "As value investors, "our style is really bottoms up. So we're looking at individual companies and try to find a cheap one, find something that's misperceived," said Witmer, who joined the board of Warren Buffett's Berkshire this spring.

     

    "I think one area is refining, and in particular Phillips 66, which is a position of ours," she said.

     

    Besides refining, Phillips 66 also has a chemical business that's a "great niche, very high return on capital," and a "midstream business that moves oil and gas around," she said.

     

    Witmer said she bought shares of Phillips 66 when it was spun out of Conoco Phillips in the spring of 2012. "We've [also] bought some since, even at around these current prices.""

    Cannibals

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Anybody have an efficient way to generate a comprehensive list of companies who consistently buyback their shares and therefore significantly reduce the float over time?

     

    Was thinking about what Munger said ---over the weekend:

     

        1. Carefully watch what other investors are doing

        2.  “Look at the cannibals” – look at businesses buying back huge amounts of stock

        3. Carefully study spin-offs

     

    I know some of the large to mega-cap companies that do this well, but was looking to find some off the beaten path. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks

    Fairfax Q1 2013 Results

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    I just don't understand the macro obsession.

    Buffett always says they spend zero time trying to predict macro economics or where the stock market is going.

     

    It's just unfortunate that now that the insurance business is humming along that we can't get decent investment results. It seems like the two are never in sync...

     

    Full Disclosure: I have been long Fairfax since 2008 but have much more capital in Berkshire

     

     

     

    16yr old emerging fund manager

    in General Discussion

    Fairfax down 8% this morning

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    How would people describe Prem's investment strategy?

     

    This would typically be a situation I am interest in, but I read a few annual reports and couldn't get comfort over his investing style.  Two things that turned me off immediately were his hedging of his equity portfolio and his large position in RIMM.  I don't feel I have as much comfort over his methods compared to MKL's and BRK's, which have very simple investing rules imo.

     

    That's a really good question and you have to be comfortable with the ebb and flow of FFH's investing style to invest.  I've been a shareholder since the low 200's, around 2008, there are other board members here that have held a position longer and know much more. 

     

    Right now you hear a lot of talk about RIMM, DELL, the newspaper investments, that haven't done too well and that's fair.  However, this is their style and over time they have done remarkably well (there have been the ICO's, SD, the banks in early 2009, the CDS, the Muni's and a lot of others).  There are shareholders that sometimes piggyback on some of their investments, I try not to.  Prem is more of a Ben G. type and if I remember correctly he named his son Ben Graham. 

     

    I also own MKL, but don't think that they don't receive their share of criticism.  Often, the criticism is on why Tom is conservative and why in 2009 he wasn't as aggressive.  I think that's fair as well, but personally I kind of like the fact he sticks to his circle, he's more of Berkshire circa (Coke, PG, quality). 

     

    I owned Y until today, but they are different as well.  There's also WTM (which I haven't followed for a long time). 

     

    Any specific reason you sold "Y"? I just started reading their annual reports and am quite impressed with the combination of their combined ratios and investment returns.

    Fairfax down 8% this morning

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    And again I am averaging down in Fairfax.

    Hope Prem is starting to buy back shares. Although maybe the discount to book isn't large enough yet...

     

    "On September 24, 2012, the company renewed its normal course issuer bid which allows it to purchase up to 800,000 subordinate voting shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange."

     

    Has anyone taken a stab at figuring out potential exposure to Sandy?

    Overstock.com: No Change from Paper Stock Certificates for Shareholders

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Interesting...

     

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/overstock-com-no-change-paper-171500969.html

     

    "We understand that many banks prefer the paperless system of share certificates to traditional paper certificates. Many do so for their own purposes," said Patrick Byrne, CEO and chairman of Overstock.com.  "However convenient that may be for banks, we believe that shareholders, if they prefer, should have the option to hold their shares in paper certificate form. We also believe that legally, investors do have this right. Through our transfer agent services, we will continue to provide a paper certificate option to the shareholders who express that preference, and encourage investors to disbelieve and question those who tell them otherwise."

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