Reader Provides Link to Markel Portfolio

Controlled Greed.com reader Jim Heggarty provides this link in the comments section of my post yesterday about buying more Fairfax Financial (FFH/NYSE) stock. It's so good that I'm featuring it in a post of its own:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Markel, it's a niche-focused specialty insurance company that is modeled on Berkshire Hathaway, and like Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett, the executives at Markel have an enviable track record investing in public equities.

Vice chairman Steve Markel and chief investment officer Tom Gayner head the firm's stock-picking, and over the last decade their equity investments have appreciated by 13.1% annually, far outpacing the S&P 500's 7.31% annual gain. To put this in perspective, $10,000 invested with the team at Markel 10 years ago would now be worth $34,251, while the same amount invested in the S&P 500 would be worth only $20,251.

Markel's top 10 holdings are:

6.33%   Berkshire Hathaway B
5.95%   Fairfax Financial Holdings
5.89%   CarMax
5.75%   White Mountains Insurance
5.41%   Diageo PLC
4.86%   Berkshire Hathaway A
4.53%   Anheuser-Busch
3.92%   General Electric
2.66%   Brookfield Asset Management
2.60%   Forest City Enterprises

Note that adding both classes of Berkshire stock brings the company to 11.19% of Markel's portfolio assets.

You'll find the rest of Markel's holdings at the bottom of the linked article. Thanks again, Jim.

Comments

[Neal]

You know if they held the stock in late March. Do they hold it now? How about some details on why Merrill doesn't like it or why people are shorting? Is it because of the risk of another severe hurricane season? We know its been cheap - we also know it can get cheaper.

[John]

Neal,

Markel held FFH as of the end of 3/06. I don't know if they hold it now, but would be surprised if they didn't. BTW, I'm more impressed that various Cundill and Southeastern Asset Management entities own roughly 40% of Fairfax.

I don't know what Merrill says about FFH and don't really follow that firms recommendations.

Why are so many people short Fairfax? I don't claim to know, primarily because shorting stocks isn't my game. My reading indicates some shorts are betting the "finite reinsurance" investigations will kill the stock. Some think its 80%-owned reinsurance subsidiary will go into runoff.

I even read that Jim Chanos said FFH was "a zero" and gave as one of his reasons that Prem Watsa had been dubbed the Warren Buffett of Canada. I don't know how that figures into Fairfax's balance sheet, but there you go.

Finally, you're right. What's cheap can get even cheaper.