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Archive for February, 2016

Auch die Kids auf dem Weg zur Elektromobilität!

February 18th, 2016 Comments off

Im Mai 2016 erscheint das ultimative Spielzeug für Autofans, die ihre Kinder auf die Elektromobiliät vorbereiten wollen, wie die Firma Tesla Motors gerade getwittert hat:

tesla.radioflyer.com

image

Es kann jetzt schon vorbestellt werden!

Den Grossen bleibt es natürlich unbenommen, gleich auch für sich selbst das “Erwachsenenmodell” S zu bestellen. Oder auf das Model 3 zu warten, das Ende März zum ersten Mal vorgestellt wird!

Und wer dann noch etwas Geld übrig hat, sollte sich mit einem Langfristhorizont die Tesla-Aktie (Nasdaq: TSLA) anschauen. Ist im Zuge der augenblicklichen Börsenkorrektur stark zurückgekommen!

 

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Markel’s FY 2015 – Excellent underwriting results!

February 13th, 2016 Comments off

Markel Corp. (NYSE: MKL) the speciality insurer this blog follows for years now released excellent FY 2015 underwriting results!

“Unfortunately the favorable impact from underwriting was muted by investing results which were adversely affected by volatility in the equity markets”, as pointed out CFO Anne Waleski on the conference call.

Gross written premiums were $4.6 billion for 2015 compared to $4.8 billion in 2014, a decrease of 4%, driven by a decline within the reinsurance segment.

Market conditions continued to be very competitive but Markel’s consolidated combined ratio for 2015 was an outstanding 89%, compared to 95% a year ago.
“The decrease in the consolidated combined ratio was driven by more favorable development on prior year loss reserves in each of our underwriting segments in 2015 compared to 2014 as well as a lower current accident year loss ratio in 2015 compared to 2014.“

Book value/share the all important ratio of an insurance company was $561.23 at the end of 2015, up 3% from $543.96 at the end of 2014.
Over the five-year period ended December 31, 2015, compound annual growth in book value per common share outstanding was 11%.

And what happened on the investment side?

“In 2015 we emphasized defense in the investment operations“ declared CIO Tom Gayner. “We maintained our high credit quality profile in our fixed income operations and we kept our equity exposure at the low end of our range for equity investments over the last 25 years.”

Markel reported an overall return in local currency of .5%. In the equity portfolio they were down 2.9%, and in the fixed income portfolio they were up 1.6%. After a 1.2% drag from the foreign currency effects, the net return is a negative .7%.

The results of Markel Ventures were ok but not sensational:
2015 revenues were $1 billion compared to $838 million in 2014. Net income to shareholders from Markel Ventures for 2015 was $11 million, compared to just under $10 million in 2014. EBITDA was $91 million in 2015 compared to $81 million in 2014.

For sure the investment results could not match the quality of the underwriting results in 2015. The slowing signs of the overall stock market were already visible.
But this does not change the big picture of Markel as an outstanding longterm compounding machine of shareholder value!

Markel shares closed Friday at $ 841.22 which translates into a price /book ratio per share of 1.5
Not cheap but not too expensive either.
If you want to add to your position this is certainly not a bad moment, but your time horizon with this type of company should be „longterm“ (at least 5 years from now) in order to reap the benefits of your investment!

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Markel released Q4 and FY 2015 results

February 11th, 2016 Comments off

Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) released Q4 and FY 2015 results:

They reported book value per common share outstanding of $561.23 at December 31, 2015, up 3% from $543.96 at December 31, 2014.

 

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Colfax stock jumped 15% after releasing FY 2015 results!

February 8th, 2016 Comments off

Colfax Corp. (NYSE: CFX) released FY and Q4 2015 results last week and the stock price immediately jumped 15%.
Is everything fine again in this commodity related business? Not exactly!

Net sales were $1.061 billion in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 12.0% from the prior year.
Adjusted net income was $63.0 million, or $0.51 per share, compared to $89.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, or $0.72 per share.
But this was much better than analysts expected!

Even if the downturn in the industry is and remains brutal Colfax is a very well managed company!

On the Conference Call the new CEO Matthew L. Trerotola hinted at already announced additional cost reduction efforts to eliminate $100 million from the 2014 cost base by the end of 2016.
And he continued to announce good progress on these actions through the quarter, which will allow to recognize $50 million of incremental cost savings this year.
These measures together with other cost reductions and „Colfax Business System“ tools will allow Colfax to increase the operating margin in 2016!

Impressive as they continue to expect market headwinds!

CFO C. Scott Brannan explained the historically strong cash flow generation in the fourth quarter: „We generated $152 million in operating cash flow in the 2015 fourth quarter of which $109 million is from a reduction in working capital and this was a major contributor to the strong free cash flow for the quarter and for 2015 in total. We finished 2015 with $100 million less debt than we started the year despite the use of $200 million for acquisitions and $27 million for share repurchases.“

Colfax will continue to „advance our acquisition cultivation efforts“ as Trerotola put it. „But with current market conditions, we’re also deploying capital to attractive stock repurchases.“

A change in the commodity cycle does not seem to be in sight but Colfax is well prepared to take advantage when their industry market will change.

Colfax stock is for long term investors who believe that commodity prices will not remain that low forever!

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Colfax releases FY and Q4 2015 results

February 4th, 2016 Comments off

Colfax Corp. (NYSE: CFX) today released the FY and Q4 2015 results.

They beat (already low) analyst expectations.

Have a look!

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