An excerpt from our 2010 letter to the board of Biglari Holdings is now part of the Cracker Barrel defense against Sardar Biglari (Slide 35). Interestingly, this isn’t the first time our comments have made their way into SEC filings. Read more – ‘Cracker Barrel, Biglari Holdings, and Noise Free Investments’.
Charlie Munger is Chairman of a small company in California called the Daily Journal Corp. Below is an excerpt from its most recent quarterly report: During the second quarter of fiscal 2011, the Company bought shares of common stock of two foreign manufacturing companies. Source Meanwhile, the stock price of BYD, the Chinese manufacturer of [...] Read more – ‘What’s Charlie Buying?’.
Share repurchases have slowed. Credit arrangements have been made. And this nugget from the Sears Proxy: ESL provides consulting services to the Company pursuant to an agreement entered into as of January 30, 2011. The consulting services involve, among other things, strategic planning, financings and other financial matters, legal risk analysis and management, personnel, mergers, [...] Read more – ‘Is Something Up at Sears?’.
The following is an excerpt from our 2010 annual letter to clients: Analyzing Analysis One of our favorite authors is the ecologist/economist Garrett Hardin, author of works such as Living Within Limits and Filters Against Folly, as well as the famous essay on the “Tragedy of the Commons.” In Filters Against Folly, Hardin outlines his [...] Read more – ‘And Then What?’.
A few weeks ago, one of our principals (Jeff) was interviewed by Zack Miller of the New Rules of Investing blog. The interview was done over the phone, but due to some technical difficulties, Zack ended up needing to transcribe the audio as best he could. You can read the transcription here. Read more – ‘NFI interviewed by New Rules Blog’.
As we listen to the common investment advice today, in addition to observing where money is flowing, equities seem to be a much disliked asset class, while gold comes highly recommended and government (as well as other types of) bonds are being driven to all-time low yields. Of course, much analysis complements these recommendations. At [...] Read more – ‘Extrapolation?’.
In a 1992 interview with Barron’s, Glenn Greenberg (formerly of Chieftain Capital, now Brave Warrior) outlined an approach to investment which he has practiced for more than 25 years. The quote below captures a simple, effective approach: Q: You call yourselves value investors. You — and, of course, the rest of the world — are [...] Read more – ‘The Objective of an Investor’.
Secretary of the Corporation 175 East Houston Street, Suite 1300 San Antonio, Texas 78205 May 5, 2010 To the Board of Directors: In light of the company’s recent decision to implement a new incentive bonus agreement for its CEO and Chairman, Sardar Biglari, we are writing to express our concern. The current system, as proposed, [...] Read more – ‘Letter to the Board of Biglari Holdings’.
It’s the time of year my mailman hates. For him, the annual reports carried in his pack are nothing more than a pointless burden slowing him down. He always seems skeptical when I greet his handful of envelops with a welcome smile. At, NFI, we’re firm believers in paying for (actual) performance. Ideally, all CEO’s would [...] Read more – ‘In a world that doesn’t, JPMorgan does’.
Our confusion over Lions Gate’s managenment handing out stock options at “financially inadequate prices” was quoted by Carl Icahn in a Letter to Lions Gate Shareholders. Incidentally, if the Board really believed that our original $6.00 per share offer price was “financially inadequate” and that the true fair market value of the shares was $8.70, [...] Read more – ‘Icahn Concurs with NFI in A Letter to LGF Shareholders’.
Lions Gate Entertainment said that its board had voted unanimously to reject the tender offer made by Carl Icahn to buy the company for $6 a share. The board called Ichan’s bid “financially inadequate.” Jon Feltheimer, co-chairman and CEO of Lions Gate, said “We believe that nothing has changed — the offer remains financially inadequate [...] Read more – ‘Lions Gate Entertainment’.
After reading over Bell Canada’s (BCE) latest annual report, one thing became painfully obvious: the company is becoming less efficient. Bell Canada is often thought of as a dividend stock. The company’s annual yield is just shy of 6% and a lot of people purchase the stock for its income. The company doesn’t distribute all [...] Read more – ‘The Slow Death of Bell Canada?’.
Here is an article we wrote on Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) in January 2009 (that was published on NoiseFreeInvesting.com and seeking alpha). For decades the trucking industry has had significant advantage over the rail companies in shipping long-haul traffic. Rail offered a reasonable alternative for certain classes of business but failed to meaningfully challenge the [...] Read more – ‘Burlington Northern Santa Fe: All Aboard One of the Best Railroads’.
This quote was expressed over 30 years ago by the CEO of a textile company called Indian Head Mills. “The objective of our company is to increase the intrinsic value of our common stock. We are not in business to grow bigger for the sake of size, nor to become more diversified, nor to make [...] Read more – ‘The Objective of a Company’.
Previous readers, if you wish to keep receiving content form NFI you will have to re-subscribe (RSS | Email). The old RSS feed and email distribution list are no longer in use. Read more – ‘And, We’re Back.’.
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