Asmus Puhl Finance Blog

2014 comes to an end in a rather turbulent manner.

Shares are beaten down after the rapid slide of the oil price. Even shares of companies which profit from cheaper oil are beaten down highlighting how hysteria and speculation are influencing markets in these days.

Let’s keep calm! The most important is not to sell on panic but to stay in for the long term.

One of our long term holdings Colfax Corp. (NYSE: CFX) held its investor day on dec. 16^th

The company issued guidance for 2015 below expectations seeing EPS of $2.20-$2.40 vs. $2.58 analyst consensus estimate and revenues of $4.525B-$4.675B vs. $4.8B consensus.

Colfax as an industrial company certainly is not immune against headwinds of the world economy but the company will continue to grow by acquisitions and growth investments.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear them announcing an acquisition pretty soon.

Hopefully this will be in a sector which is not heavy industry and more independent of the economic cycles than there existing activities.

Stay tuned for more to come. CFX certainly is a buy at this price!

We wish a Happy and Peaceful Christmas and a very successful New Year 2015 to all our readers!

This blog follows the stock of 2 companies:

Colfax Corporation (NYSE: CFX), the industrial manufacturing and fluid handling company and

Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL), the speciality and niche insurer.

So how did they perform year to date?

Let’s start with the worst: Colfax performance is a whopping -24% ytd    … ouch …

Now the better one: Markel’s performance is +20% ytd beating the S&P 500 which performed 13.6% ytd.

Does this change our long term view of these 2 companies:    …    NO!

The investment thesis of Colfax is still intact: It grows by successful acquisitions and integration of the acquired activities getting them up to their efficiency levels.

On the conference call Q3 2014 CEO Steve Simms hinted at a full acquisition pipeline, so expect more. Insiders do the same and are buying shares!

Markel on the contrary got finally the performance it deserves I would say.

This reflects the successful integration of Alterra and slightly improving general conditions of the insurance market.

Both shares are a buy at these prices. Don’t forget, we are in for the long term!