Third Avenue Management (Trades, Portfolio), founded by legendary value investor Martin Whitman (Trades, Portfolio), announced Wednesday it established three new positions during the quarter ended Dec. 31: Amerco Inc. (UHAL, Financial), Warrior Met Coal Inc. (HCC, Financial) and Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. (AHL, Financial).
Amerco
Whitman’s firm invested in 55,286 shares of Amerco for an average price of $374.04 per share. The firm increased its portfolios 1% with this transaction.
Amerco, the holding company of well-known rental truck dealer U-Haul, said self-moving equipment revenues increased $33.3 million during the quarter, driven primarily by higher transaction and rental revenues. Self-storage revenues increased $9.8 million primarily due to higher rates per square foot and occupancy gains at existing locations. Increased revenues across Amerco’s reporting segments led to a consolidated revenue increase of approximately $52.43 million from the prior-year quarter.
Firms other buys
Third Avenue invested in 686,383 shares of Warrior Met Coal for an average price of $25.14 per share and 158,707 shares of Aspen Insurance Holdings for an average per-share price of $41.36. With these transactions, the firm increased its portfolios 1.14% in the aggregate.
Warrior Met Coal produces and exports metallurgical coal for the steel industry. The company has a strong financial strength rank of 8, driven primarily by robust Altman Z-scores and interest coverage.
Warrior CEO Walt Scheller said the company’s strong fourth-quarter results enabled it to “exceed [management’s] full-year guidance” on key sales and production metrics. The company produced 1.6 million short tons of met coal during the quarter, up 52% from the production levels in the prior-year quarter. The strong results contributed to profit margins outperforming over 90% of global competitors in the coal industry.
Aspen
Unlike Warrior, Aspen has profit margins that underperform 86% of its global competitors in the reinsurance industry. Additionally, Aspen’s revenue has declined over the past 12 months, suggesting lower growth potential than its competitors.
Disclosure: No positions.
