Interview with Spekulatius on QUCT

[CGJB]

Good grief, talk about hijacking a thread.

 

There's nothing wrong with Og posting that he'd interviewed a member of this board for his podcast. The fact that the person interviewed is a member of this board makes it relevant to the board.

 

I can't see why it's a big deal that a member of this board used to post under his real name, then decided to post under a made-up name -- especially since the vast majority of board members use made-up names. Is that against the rules or guidelines set by Parsad for posting on this board? If not, there's no issue here. Certainly no reason to start questioning the person's "integrity."

 

And I bet there's plenty more to the story than what the linked news article reported. But that's neither here nor there, especially since it's a settled matter legally. I wish Parsad would delete everything in this thread except Og's original posting, then only allow comments pertaining to the interview.

[Gregmal]

Good grief, talk about hijacking a thread.

 

There's nothing wrong with Og posting that he'd interviewed a member of this board for his podcast. The fact that the person interviewed is a member of this board makes it relevant to the board.

 

I can't see why it's a big deal that a member of this board used to post under his real name, then decided to post under a made-up name -- especially since the vast majority of board members use made-up names. Is that against the rules or guidelines set by Parsad for posting on this board? If not, there's no issue here. Certainly no reason to start questioning the person's "integrity."

 

And I bet there's plenty more to the story than what the linked news article reported. But that's neither here nor there, especially since it's a settled matter legally. I wish Parsad would delete everything in this thread except Og's original posting, then only allow comments pertaining to the interview.

 

Welcome to COBF. This stuff happens all the time. It's head scratching. So many self proclaimed "investors" regularly get hung up on totally irrelevant details, fabricate issues, and almost always look for excuses to miss the forest for the trees.

[LC]

Partially correct.

 

Motives are important.

 

Imagine this: someone posts a stock idea. Now as an investor, you will never know 100% of the details regarding how to value this stock. You know what the financials tell you, what your due diligence tells you, etc. but you will never have a full picture.

 

Now, what if you find this person is a paid promoter for the company? Wouldn't you want to know this? Wouldn't you want to understand the biases and incentives underlying a stock pitch? This is why disclosure statements exist.

 

Liberty makes a good point. Despite anonymous names, we all build up some social cache here on this message board. Or at the very least, over time people understand our biases and incentives.

 

Of course content matters, but so does context. You need both.

[writser]

Your point being? Posters are not allowed to create a new account because then you lose the context to say “get the fuck out of my area code you pervert” when they post a podcast? I’d say that is actually a great reason to argue for the opposite.

 

This is an anonymous board. If somebody with 5 posts pitches a stock: be skeptical. If somebody with 500 posts pitches a stock: be skeptical. If somebody with 5000 posts pitches a stock: be super skeptical.

[Gregmal]

Partially correct.

 

Motives are important.

 

Imagine this: someone posts a stock idea. Now as an investor, you will never know 100% of the details regarding how to value this stock. You know what the financials tell you, what your due diligence tells you, etc. but you will never have a full picture.

 

Now, what if you find this person is a paid promoter for the company? Wouldn't you want to know this? Wouldn't you want to understand the biases and incentives underlying a stock pitch? This is why disclosure statements exist.

 

If I was lazy and didn't want to be thorough with my due diligence? Sure. But in that case I'd be better off buying an index fund.

 

If I'm willing to do the work and do my own deep dive, it is entirely irrelevant.

 

[LC]

Your point being? Posters are not allowed to create a new account because then you lose the context to say “get the fuck out of my area code you pervert” when they post a podcast? I’d say that is actually a great reason to argue for the opposite.

 

This is an anonymous board. If somebody with 5 posts pitches a stock: be skeptical. If somebody with 500 posts pitches a stock: be skeptical. If somebody with 5000 posts pitches a stock: be super skeptical.

 

Post whatever, as whomever, you want but if there’s context I’m not going to ignore it.

 

[johnny]

im absolutely shocked to learn that a poster on my beloved value board has been getting involved in poorly thought out situations in largely ignored markets, oblivious to parentco and litigation issues

 

[Spekulatius]

Annual report is out. Cliffs notes:

 

Trust fund assets and under management and revenues up +15% YoY after stagnating for a while

Earnings ~$70/share ( some extraordinary gains from 1031 swap of RE included)

Book value ~$1050/ share

~$600/ share in bonds and cash

Some investments in RE and startup ventures initiated ($20/ share)

$53 revenue/ share in real estate rents

0.52 acre/ share CA farmland

 

I am very pleased with the pickup of the trust business.

 

[Foreign Tuffett]

Annual report is out. Cliffs notes:

 

Trust fund assets and under management and revenues up +15% YoY after stagnating for a while

Earnings ~$70/share ( some extraordinary gains from 1031 swap of RE included)

Book value ~$1050/ share

~$600/ share in bonds and cash

Some investments in RE and startup ventures initiated ($20/ share)

$53 revenue/ share in real estate rents

0.52 acre/ share CA farmland

 

I am very pleased with the pickup of the trust business.

 

Thank you for the update on this.

[Janeo]

Hi there, I got interested in the stock after listening to the podcast. So I googled around and found something interesting regarding the 25,000 acres of land.

 

So here's a bio (http://straighttalktv.com/bios/henry_walker.html) of Henry Walker pre-2010. I assumed this because it states that QUCT's AUM is $1.2b and in 2010 the AUM is ~$2b. In that bio, it states that QUCT has a 25,000 acre working cattle ranch, and other commercial/retail investment properties located throughout Southern California.

 

And this is a bio (http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2017/sep/26/money-book-w-henry-walker/) of Henry Walker published in 2017. I quote the relevant parts: "Queen City Investments, a multifaceted holding company that owns F&M Trust Co., California’s oldest chartered trust company with assets under management of $2 billion, a more than 50,000-acre working cattle ranch, and other Southern California commercial-retail investment properties. "

 

Am I missing something here or did the amount of land QUCT owns actually doubled over the past decade?  :o

[Spekulatius]

Hi there, I got interested in the stock after listening to the podcast. So I googled around and found something interesting regarding the 25,000 acres of land.

 

So here's a bio (http://straighttalktv.com/bios/henry_walker.html) of Henry Walker pre-2010. I assumed this because it states that QUCT's AUM is $1.2b and in 2010 the AUM is ~$2b. In that bio, it states that QUCT has a 25,000 acre working cattle ranch, and other commercial/retail investment properties located throughout Southern California.

 

And this is a bio (http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2017/sep/26/money-book-w-henry-walker/) of Henry Walker published in 2017. I quote the relevant parts: "Queen City Investments, a multifaceted holding company that owns F&M Trust Co., California’s oldest chartered trust company with assets under management of $2 billion, a more than 50,000-acre working cattle ranch, and other Southern California commercial-retail investment properties. "

 

Am I missing something here or did the amount of land QUCT owns actually doubled over the past decade?  :o

 

I don’t think that anything has changed with respect to QUCT‘s Land holdings. I have been tracking this stock since at least Y2010 and I don’t think there were some larger land purchases. They continue to shuffle around their commercial real estate holdings den possibly some plots near Long Beach. Buying another 25,000 acres would have been in the news, that’s a size of 40 sq miles and that’s a lot of land!.

 

What I did find is that  the ranch is held via Messer Land &Development, which is registered in 12707 Huasna Road in Arroyo Grande. When you look this up in the San Luis Obispo county website, you can look at some plots there, but they are only part of part if the land  apparently.

 

https://assessor.slocounty.ca.gov/assessor/pisa/Search.aspx

 

Pro Tip, search for the street number 12707 and a couple of parcels will pop up. The parcels are named Huasna Rancho, which is actually from a Mexican land grand from hr 19 century ( for 22k acres back then), but I don’t think that the areas for Messer Land ranch and the land grant are a exactly the same, but I think they overlap.

 

Anyone is welcome to do  do more sleuthing, I have spent already enough time in this rabbit hole  :o

[marrob]

This is old information but the 1996 Walker's Manuals lists that they own "a 27,000 acre ranch in Arroyo Grande, California. The company also leases 25,000 acres from the U.S. Government and raises cattle on the properties." Maybe that is where the roughly 50,000 acres comes from.

[capitalg]

Has anyone received the 2019 annual report?  I received 2018 electronically in April 2019 so surprised nothing has come out yet.  I feel like reporting has been slower this year across the board.

[Spekulatius]

Has anyone received the 2019 annual report?  I received 2018 electronically in April 2019 so surprised nothing has come out yet.  I feel like reporting has been slower this year across the board.

 

I haven’t seen nothing yet either. They typically sent out the annual report either late June or even late July. Only last year they were early in late May.

[mjm]

2019 annual received here

[bskptkl]

2019 annual received here

By mail? Through your broker?

I own in several accounts and got nuttin.

 

Edit: spoke too soon - TD sent a copy. Also thanks mjm for forwarding.

[mjm]

email thru etrade

 

[Spekulatius]

2019 annual received here

 

Same here. Looks pretty solid. Their trust business revenue and AUM keeps rising at a decent clip.

[mjm]

would anyone have any idea what their buildings entail under property on note 5?

[Spekulatius]

They actually published their AR in OTCmarkets. Did they get cold feet?

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Spekulatius

[Spekulatius]

Annual report is out:

https://www.otcmarkets.com/otcapi/company/financial-report/324942/content

 

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Spekulatius

[mjm]

bought back 62 shares  .   seems they bought some land.

[Spekulatius]

Annual report is out - again dropped during market hours. Not that it matters because the stock usually does not trade:

https://www.otcmarkets.com/otcapi/company/financial-report/362972/content

 

Results seem OK - trust revenue is up. Income is down a little and they have some market losses on their muni bonds.

 

Looks like they bought back 288 shares. That's it - see you next year.

[Spekulatius]

Looks like they “found” ~$12.6/ share in additional income.Very timely communication…

.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Spekulatius

[Spekulatius]

Annual report is out.

 

Earnings ~$77.6/share (about flat )

Book value ~$1370/share, of which ~$700 are treasuries, munis and cash. They did buy back ~215 shares this year.

Nothing new really.