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), Coach Inc. (COH), Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) and Rush Enterprises Inc. (RUSHA).
The New Buys
Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCK)
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.
Coach Inc. (COH)
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)
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)
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.
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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.