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?
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!
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!