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Markel reports Q1 2011 Earnings

May 10th, 2011 Comments off

Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL), one of the stocks this blog follows on a regular basis reported first quarter 2011 results:

The company posted sharply lower earnings to shareholders of $ 8 million compared to $ 43 million in 2010.

The combined ratio jumped to 112% from 101% last year due mainly to natural catastrophes including the Australian floods, the earthquake in New Zealand and the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

But do not forget that historically the first quarter is Markel’s lowest cash and earning quarter as they are paying employee benefit, agent incentives, pension contributions etc.

As a positive sign book value/share increased to $ 329 from $ 326 at yearend 2010!

At yesterday’s share price of $ 405 Markel trades at a price/book value of only 1.2!

That’s historically cheap! Why not profit from current negative sentiment and snap up some shares of this high quality company at a good price?

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Very solid first quarter 2011 for Colfax!

May 4th, 2011 Comments off

Colfax (NYSE: CFX) did beat expectations.

As this is perhaps more important for short term oriented investors their numbers really underlign some nice trends:

Net sales up 32%

operating income up 57%

Net earnings up 69%

… Margin improvements! All segments exept defense contributed to these results.

Order backlog at the end of the quarter stood at $ 369.8 mil, 31,5 % higher than one year ago.

Here one can clearly see the positive impact of their acquisition strategy: The acquired companies alone contributed 27.3% to this order backlog growth!

The balance sheet remains strong, but it is interesting how they ramp up inventories:

most important – the inventory component „work in progress” is up 60% as you can find if you dig into the 10 Q-report they already filed. A positive sign!

On the statement of operations 2 legacy components are down:

Asbestos liability and defense cost is down 7% and

Asbestos coverage litigation expense is down 48%

Let’s hope this positive trend continues and Colfax can get rid of this legacy costs over time!

Colfax stock trades at a p/e of 18 and at a p/last year free cash flow of equally 18

If you did not already buy perhaps wait for the next dip!

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Colfax beat expectations!

May 3rd, 2011 Comments off

Colfax (NYSE: CFX) one of the 2 stocks this blog follows on a regular basis released its Q1 2011 financial results this morning!

Pretty good numbers! They beat expectations on earnings and on revenue.

More details later!

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Colfax has a bright future!

February 18th, 2011 Comments off

Colfax (NYSE:CFX) Q4 2010 adjusted earnings came in at $ 0.39 which beat analysts estimates of $ 0.33!

This already is tradition with Colfax which has consistently beaten estimates for the past 5 quarters!

Colfax is a fluid handling specialist wich produces a great variety of pumps for all industry purposes. So Colfax not only profits from a rebound of the global economy but also from an enormous demand by the oil and gas industry.

But Colfax is also a serial acquirer of smaller companies which they integrate rapidly and smoothly into the group. They call this the „Colfax Business System” which is modeled after the „Danaher Business System”. We already explained it in this blog.

So it’s not suprising that Colfax together with the financial results of 2010 announced another acquisition, this time  a  Dutch premier supplier of multiphase pumping technology.

4th quarter earnings adjusted for cost of asbestos litigation were 47% higher than in Q4 2009!

Sales have risen 27,5% in 4th quarter, too.

But equally impressing is the improved working capital management which has helped

to improve cash flow from operating activities by 60% year over year!

Colfax has a bright future, there can be no doubt about it!

Earnings / share in FY 2011 are expected to be about $ 1.15 which translates into a p/e of 19.5

Price to 2010 free cash flow stands at 19.5 too.

So why not wait for some weak days to buy some shares of this high quality company?

This blog follows Colfax since May 2009 when the share price stood at $ 7.27!

Since then this stock performed 208%……and this story is far from over yet!

Enjoy the ride!

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Colfax Corp. reports Q4 and FY 2010 results better than expected!

February 15th, 2011 Comments off

Colfax Corporation (NYSE:CFX) today reported Q4 and FY 2010 results!

Have a look! We will dig deeper into these numbers later on!

They beat analyst estimates on earnings and on revenues and the stock is already up 14% to $ 21.60 in an overall weak market!

Enjoy the ride!

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Markel had an impressive year 2010!

February 4th, 2011 Comments off

After listening to the FY 2010 conference call of Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL) one simply remains impressed by their discipline and their committment to build strong value to shareholders as few others!

Markel today rests on 3 pillars to realize shareholder value:

1. The first is obviously the insurance section.

The insurance market overall has been competitive and soft in 2010 and they anticipate that it will remain so in 2011!

Gross written premiums have been just under $2 billion.

The combined ratio stood at 97% which is very good after realized losses from the Chilean Earthquake and from Deep Water Horizon.

Markel never sacrifies profitablity for growth! Don’t forget that!

2. Investment section

This section just had a fantastic year!

They gained 8.1% in local currencies or 7.9% after conversion into US$, even as they sacrify return by buying bonds of shorter maturities in order to protect them against rising interest rates.

But the best is the Equity component of their investment portfolio:

Up 20% compared to a 15.1% rise of the S&P 500 index!

Over the last 5 years they had a return of 6.2% and over the last 10 years a return of 7.6% clearly outperforming the S&P500 index!

3. Their third pillar is Markel Ventures,

which invests in private high quality companies.

This is still a rather small part of Markel Corporation with its $185 mil revenue in 2010, but watch out!

They profit from a high reputation and confidence just in the way Berkshire Hathaway always did and they have the same investment criteria!

For more details about the FY 2010 results please listen to the conference call.

Markel’s book value/share is at an all time high of $326.36. The stock trades at a price/book value of 1.3

…..still doesn’t seem very expensive for a company many value investors consider the „next Berkshire Hathaway”!

Cheers!

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Markel’s Earnings FY 2010 are out!

February 3rd, 2011 Comments off

Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) published its FY and Q4 2010 Earnings Release!

So please head over to their Investor Relation Site!

Book Value/share was $326.36 at the end of FY 2010, an increase of 15,5% compared to book value of $282.55 at the end of FY 2009.

The stock market reacts favourably to these news on an overall weak day caused by the events in Egypt.

MKL is trading at $407 which translates into a price/book ratio of 1.2

…still not very expensive!

We will dig deeper into these numbers later on!

Cheers!

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Markel will not remain cheap forever!

December 16th, 2010 Comments off

Interest rates are going up again! These are the most recent news!

Even as central banks are flooding the market with money and especially as the Fed tries to keep long term interest rates down the interest rate curve gets steeper.

The 30 year US bond is already yielding 4,60%, the 10 year treasury bond yields 3,54%.

This means that fixed income investors are able to earn interest income again while watching carefully the duration of their portfolio.

This in general is good news for insurers as they invest most of their „float” in the bond market.

So it is not astonishing that recently the stock market blew a little breeze of life in the stock of insurance and master investment company Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL).

This could be a promising sign that finally in 2011 this insurance stock will return to the favor of investors.

So be prepared: This stock will not remain cheap forever!

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Markel is still cheap!

December 3rd, 2010 Comments off

Mid November we stated on this blog that the stock of Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) is historically cheap as it sells at a price / book ratio of only 1.1 !

The board of directors seems to think likewise:

On Dec 1st they authorized a share repurchase program of $ mil 200.

This underlines how Markel’s management is aligned with the interests of their shareholders.

And …pssst… I want to share a “confidential information” with you:

Markel’s share price is the same as 2 weeks ago, still cheap by all means……..

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Soll man jetzt Aktien kaufen?

November 29th, 2010 Comments off

Die Finanzmärkte sind nervös. Die Schuldenkrise einiger europäischer Staaten ist akut.

Die Zukunft des Euro wird an den Märkten wieder stärker in Frage gestellt.

Auch in den USA sind Bundesschulden- und defizit auf langfristig unhaltbarem Niveau. Für die Schulden einiger Gliedstaaten gilt dasselbe. Japans Staatsschulden sind ebenfalls ungemütlich hoch.

Wie bereits früher – auch in diesem Blog – vorausgesagt, haben die Märkte nun definitiv das langfristig unhaltbare Niveau der Staatsverschuldung der westlichen Industriestaaten erkannt.

Soll man in dieser unsicheren Welt also jetzt Aktien kaufen?

Die Aktienbörsen erscheinen heute im Unterschied zu etwa dem Jahr 2000 nicht generell überbewertet.

Der breite Index der amerikanischen Börse, der S&P 500, liegt bei einer p/e von etwa 15.

Einige „Market Darlings” sind zwar etwas sehr teuer geworden, aber für den allgemeinen Markt kann man das so nicht behaupten.

Einige Schwellenländer-Märkte hingegen sind wegen hohem Kapitalzufluss etwas zu teuer geworden.

Es gibt auch fundamentale Gründe für diesen soliden Aktienmarkt:

Die Weltwirtschaft hat neue starke Kräfte in Form der Schwellenländer, die auf Jahre hinaus ziehen werden. Die US-Wirtschaft ist wahrscheinlich bereits wieder etwas dynamischer, als es gemeinhin angenommen wird.

Auch haben sich die zunehmend weltweit tätigen Firmen strukturell verändert. Sie haben heute nicht nur wie früher Tochtergesellschaften in den verschiedenen Ländern, sondern sind global einheitlich aufgestellt mit einer einheitlichen Firmenkultur. Sie sind von wirtschaftlichen Rückschlägen in einzelnen Ländern relativ unabhängiger geworden und dies stützt natürlich ihre Aktienkurse.

Dies alles spricht dafür, auch in diesen turbulenten Zeiten an den Bondmärkten selektiv Aktien zu kaufen!

Sollte man deshalb aber gleich einen kräftigen Bull Market erwarten?

Märkte hassen Unsicherheit und es besteht die grosse Unsicherheit, wie lange die westliche Staatsverschuldung noch tragbar ist und wann sie eben doch restrukturiert werden muss.

Bevor dieses Problem, so schmerzhaft es auch werden wird, nicht gelöst ist, wird es sicher keinen breiten Aufschwung geben!

Auch sind jederzeit Panikattacken denkbar, die zu kräftigen Börsentauchern führen.

Wenn jedoch die westlichen Volkswirtschaften, insbesondere Europas, einmal ihre Staatsschulden und deren Finanzierung reduziert haben werden und am besten gleich auch noch von einem Haufen Steuern und lähmender Bürokratie befreit würden (…man wagt es kaum zu hoffen), dann dürfte einem mehrjährigen Aktien Bull Market nichts mehr im Weg stehen!

Dies kann vielleicht noch 3 Jahre dauern. Angesichts des augenblicklichen Tempos der Schuldenkrise in Europa würde ich dem ganzen aber weniger geben.

Der dann beginnende starke Börsenaufschwung – davon bin ich überzeugt – kann für viele die Chance ihres Lebens beim Vermögensaufbau bedeuten, wenn sie sich nicht von der dann herrschenden Weltuntergangsstimmung bremsen lassen und trotzdem mutig investieren!

Dieses Jahrzehnt wird ein starkes Jahrzehnt für Aktien. Es ist nur noch nicht klar, wann der Bull Market beginnt.