Is Gamco Investors a Value Trap?

From most value investing metrics, the stock of Gamco Investors (NYSE:GBL) looks dirt cheap. Based on the trailing twelve-month earnings per share, GBL trades at a Price-to-Earnings ratio of about 5.3: 2Q20$0.421Q20$0.424Q19$0.913Q19$0.50EPS (TTM)$2.25Share Price12.11P/E Ratio5.38 If we use the 2019 Earnings per Share, the trailing P/E is about 4: 4Q190.913Q190.502Q190.881Q190.70EPS (TTM)2.99Share Price12.11P/E Ratio4.05 The operative … Continue reading Is Gamco Investors a Value Trap?

The Most Profitable Industry Ever?

Allan MacDonald, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Burgundy Asset Management Ltd presented at the Ben Graham Centre's 2018 Value Investing Conference. The topic of his talk was: Finding Great Investment Opportunities in New Business Models. Companies owned by their own customers One of the opportunists that Allan covers he refers to as Demutualization. The term … Continue reading The Most Profitable Industry Ever?

Fundamental Finance vs Value Investing

Most investors equate Fundamental Finance with Value Investing. Although all value investors are fundamentalists, not all practitioners of fundamental finance can be defined as value investors. Both approaches focus on Security Analysis and the discovery of Intrinsic Value but Fundamental Finance branches into areas such as control situations, distressed and credit investing, as well as … Continue reading Fundamental Finance vs Value Investing

Leucadia National Corporation

Leucadia was run by two high-quality capital allocators, known for their ability to find value-oriented investment opportunities in distressed companies. Ian Cumming and Joseph Steinberg were able to compound the equity of Leucadia during a period of over 20 years, at rate of around 20% per annum. Due to the nature of the corporate strategy, … Continue reading Leucadia National Corporation

Nugget: Third Avenue takes on a position in Madison Square Garden common

To my surprise, Curtis R. Jensen, Chief Investment Officer of the Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund, revealed in his letter to shareholders from April 30th. 2011, that the fund had added Madison Square Garden common shares to its portfolio. Third Avenue operates value oriented mutual funds, based on the principles of Ben Graham. Its founder, … Continue reading Nugget: Third Avenue takes on a position in Madison Square Garden common

Prem Watsa on insurance industry outlook in 2010 annual letter

Our businesses in Canada and the United States continue to be challenged by highly competitive market conditions. Excess capacityhas led to downward pressure on rates. Another year of benign catastrophe experience inNorthAmerica has encouraged aggressive pricing. While the industry’s accident year combined ratio is running at 100% or more, reserve releases from prior years have … Continue reading Prem Watsa on insurance industry outlook in 2010 annual letter