Tom Gayner (Trades, Portfolio) manages the investing side of Markel Corp, a specialty insurance and financial holding company. A value investor, he looks at each stock as a piece of a business.
Markel’s first-quarter equity portfolio had 107 stocks with a value of $3.96 billion. Four of those stocks were new additions by Gayner and comprise a relatively small portion of the holdings.
Gayner’s four new names were: Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCK, Financial), Coach Inc. (COH, Financial), Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK, Financial) and Rush Enterprises Inc. (RUSHA, Financial).
The New Buys
Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCK, Financial)
Gayner acquired 90,000 shares of Discover Communications, a 0.07% portfolio weight. The stock’s first quarter average price was about $30 per share.
Discovery Communications Inc. was formed on Sept. 17, 2008, in connection with Discovery Holding Company DHC and Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership “Advance/Newhouse” combining their respective ownership interests in Discovery Communications Holding LLC (DCH) and exchanging those interests with and into Discovery (the Discovery Formation). Discovery Communications Inc. has a market cap of $12.5 billion; its shares were traded at around $29.08 with a P/E ratio of 18.50 and P/S ratio of 3.10. Discovery Communications Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 18.6% over the past five years.
Gayner purchased 18,000 Coach shares, a 0.02% portfolio holding. The stock’s price averaged about $40 in the quarter.
Coach Inc. was incorporated in the state of Maryland on June 1, 2000. Coach Inc. has a market cap of $10.58 billion; its shares were traded at around $38.35 with a P/E ratio of 18.8 and P/S ratio of 2.30. The dividend yield of Coach Inc. stocks is 3.6%. Coach Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 16.4% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Coach Inc. the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK, Financial)
Gayner purchased 9,000 shares of Verisk Analytics, a 0.02% portfolio holding. The company’s share price averaged $68 for the quarter.
Verisk Analytics Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 1971. Verisk Analytics Inc. has a market cap of $11.43 billion; its shares were traded at around $72.10 with a P/E ratio of 31.4 and P/S ratio of 6.7. Verisk Analytics Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 17.9% over the past five years.
Rush Enterprises Inc. (RUSHA, Financial)
Gayner purchased 9,000 shares of Rush Enterprises, a 0.01% portfolio weight. The stock’s average price for the quarter was about $28.
Rush Enterprises Inc. was incorporated in 1965 under the laws of the State of Texas. Rush Enterprises Inc. has a market cap of $1.1 billion; its shares were traded at around $27.67 with a P/E ratio of 13.9 and P/S ratio of 0.2. Rush Enterprises Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 10.1% over the past 10 years.
See more Tom Gayner (Trades, Portfolio) stocks in his portfolio here. See more of Donald Yacktman (Trades, Portfolio)'s stocks in his portfolio here. Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus?Try it free for 7 days here.
