Replies to post #195 on Brookfield Asset Management Inc (BAM)

[Investorman]

Is Warren selling? I'm buying more - lol

[Investorman]

Indie Research
Markel Intrigues Investors Looking for a New Berkshire
Thursday January 29, 9:24 am ET
By the tickerspy.com Staff

Market pundits love to speculate on companies that might be "the next Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News, BRK-B - News)," but only a few are legitimate contenders. One such firm is Markel (NYSE: MKL - News), which shares with Warren Buffett's firm a focus on specialty insurance and a track record of generating solid investment income.

While Markel's investment business, which focuses on writing specialty insurance for unique situations involving nonstandard and hard-to-place risks, is what primarily drives the stock, Chief Investment Officer Thomas Gayner has also proved to be a shrewd stockpicker.

Unfortunately, it's been tough being a stockpicker lately.

Looking at Markel's top-15, U.S.-listed, equity holdings from the end of Q3, one can see that only a couple of the firm's picks held up during Q4, among them energy giant Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM - News) and insurance firms Fairfax Financial Holdings (NYSE: FFH - News) and RLI (NYSE: RLI - News).

There were several laggards among Markel's end-of-Q3 holdings, including General Electric (NYSE: GE - News), White Mountains Insurance (NYSE: WTM - News), Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM - News), used-car retailer CarMax (NYSE: KMX - News), and hotel company Marriott International (NNYSE: MAR).

In a challenging quarter for many of Markel's individual holdings, tickerspy.com's graph shows that, in the aggregate, these top holdings have kept pace with the volatile market. Based on Gayner's reputation as a shrewd investor, investors will be wondering where he was putting his money during Q4.

However, investors won't be sure of where Markel stands now until next month, when the deadline for Q4 filings hits. At tickerspy.com, members can track Markel's latest holdings, see a graph of their combined performance, and be notified when new holdings are made public.

[Investorman]

Do the math

Prices are down. Yields are up. Rates are low. Look, it doesn't take a market guru to see the opportunity here. For the long-run investor, the stock market is stupid cheap right now. Former highfliers Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and PotashCorp (NYSE: POT), both of which sport meaningful competitive advantages, have been beaten down to the point that even this curmudgeonly investor is kicking their tires. Meanwhile, staid dividend payers from Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) to Chevron (NYSE: CVX) sit like fish in a barrel for the long-term investor.

Indeed, these beaten-down dividend dealers have caught my interest for two reasons. First, because you're currently able to gobble up blue-ribbon stocks at flea market prices. And second, because dividend-paying stocks offer the best of both worlds: Not only are they less volatile, but according to Dr. Jeremy Siegel, portfolios invested in the highest-yielding S&P 500 stocks outperformed portfolios in the lowest-yielding by almost five percentage points a year from 1957 through 2003.