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Posted

A little FRPH  today. I had some resting bids for shares at just under 60, 59, 58, 57 and someone hit the bid on the higher one today. 🙂

Posted
1 hour ago, juniorr said:

anyone buying HUY / UNH

 

@juniorr,

 

For a specific reason [<- 😉 ], there exists no separate topic in the Investment Ideas forum here on CoBF about UNH. [ I suppose you here by UNH mean - UnitedHealth Corporation Holding Inc.]

 

There is to me personally no doubt it's a good company.

 

So please always feel free to start a new topic about UNH here on CoBF in the Investment Ideas forum for discussion. 🙂

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

Also, a belated welcome to CoBF from me, @juniorr🙂

Posted
1 hour ago, John Hjorth said:

 

@juniorr,

 

For a specific reason [<- 😉 ], there exists no separate topic in the Investment Ideas forum here on CoBF about UNH. [ I suppose you here by UNH mean - UnitedHealth Corporation Holding Inc.]

 

There is to me personally no doubt it's a good company.

 

So please always feel free to start a new topic about UNH here on CoBF in the Investment Ideas forum for discussion. 🙂

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

Also, a belated welcome to CoBF from me, @juniorr🙂

Thanks

Posted
44 minutes ago, Jaygo said:

SWK, Douglas Dynamics and Newmont 

 

I've traded in and out of Douglas a few times.  There wasn't a lot of snow last year, and we're heading into spring/summer. Is there a reason that you think it will turn around soon?

Posted

For starters my purchase was only like 110 shares so its not like i'm all in on PLOW. Ive owned and followed over the years and was looking for another beaten up dividend payer so tossed a few bucks at it.

 

Douglas was a pure play in Plows but then bought Dejana the upfitter that had bad margins and changed the whole way the company was looked at. It went from seasonal cyclical but with good margins in the up years to lower overall margins but still cyclical.

 

In my mind at these prices your paying a decent price for a commodity plus business. The steel blades are the commodity and the wiring harnesses and accessories are the plus and where you make money.

 

Its no different than Toro or Federal signal and with some management improvements there is no reason they cant get their shit together. 

 

 

Posted
22 hours ago, Jaygo said:

For starters my purchase was only like 110 shares so its not like i'm all in on PLOW. Ive owned and followed over the years and was looking for another beaten up dividend payer so tossed a few bucks at it.

 

Douglas was a pure play in Plows but then bought Dejana the upfitter that had bad margins and changed the whole way the company was looked at. It went from seasonal cyclical but with good margins in the up years to lower overall margins but still cyclical.

 

In my mind at these prices your paying a decent price for a commodity plus business. The steel blades are the commodity and the wiring harnesses and accessories are the plus and where you make money.

 

Its no different than Toro or Federal signal and with some management improvements there is no reason they cant get their shit together. 

 

 

 

When I used to listen to their conference calls, I was impressed with their Kaizen continuous improvement philosophy.  It reminded me of the Danaher guys. It rang a bell when I read the Isaacson book on Musk over the weekend because with cars, or spaceships, or tunnel machines, the design is something that a lot of people can do, but building "the machine that makes the machines" is a complicated process and a rare skill.  I noticed a similar skill when I was connected the dots in my investment in Smith and Wesson.  It's surprisingly hard to make a gun because of tight tolerances and manufacturing processes.  I noticed that although some companies have been around for a long time (Beretta started in the 1500s), there are a lot of crappy new entrants, and a few surprisingly good ones.  What the good ones have in common, is that they were in some other manufacturing business first.  Benelli, the high end shotgun company made racing motorcycles, and Diamondback made speed boats etc. There's a reason that they sell most of the snow plows in the US. They have a really great process for efficiency and improvement. 

 

Several years of warm winters have taken their toll on PLOW.  It WAS a slow and steady compounder with no debt and a decent, boring dividend. I check in on it once in a while, but it seems that the most important thing in moving the needle (a cold winter with lots of snow) is something that they can't control.  I hope you are right about it. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Saluki said:

 

When I used to listen to their conference calls, I was impressed with their Kaizen continuous improvement philosophy.  It reminded me of the Danaher guys. It rang a bell when I read the Isaacson book on Musk over the weekend because with cars, or spaceships, or tunnel machines, the design is something that a lot of people can do, but building "the machine that makes the machines" is a complicated process and a rare skill.  I noticed a similar skill when I was connected the dots in my investment in Smith and Wesson.  It's surprisingly hard to make a gun because of tight tolerances and manufacturing processes.  I noticed that although some companies have been around for a long time (Beretta started in the 1500s), there are a lot of crappy new entrants, and a few surprisingly good ones.  What the good ones have in common, is that they were in some other manufacturing business first.  Benelli, the high end shotgun company made racing motorcycles, and Diamondback made speed boats etc. There's a reason that they sell most of the snow plows in the US. They have a really great process for efficiency and improvement. 

 

Several years of warm winters have taken their toll on PLOW.  It WAS a slow and steady compounder with no debt and a decent, boring dividend. I check in on it once in a while, but it seems that the most important thing in moving the needle (a cold winter with lots of snow) is something that they can't control.  I hope you are right about it. 

Yeah DDM sounded great on the calls but I guess they just cant outmanage a lack of snow in their key markets.

 

Boss plows is moving up as well as buyers plows. I think DD thought they had a captive market and now Toro and ASH are taking their market share. Western, fisher and snowex are still the most prevalent but its not a monopoly by any stretch.

 

Long term I think Toro will continue to hurt them just from the scale and dealer network pressure. 

 

 

 

 

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