I couldn't personally give you any useful advice on Tejon Ranch, but I do know that it's a big holding (about 5%) of the Third Avenue Value Fund, managed by Martin Whitman. I remember reading his reasons for owning it either in his past shareholder letters (available on his web site) or in the Q&A on his website. If you poke around at www.thirdavenuefunds.com, you should be able to find these. Also, if you don't know much about Whitman's style, you can get some understanding of that there too, so you can consider the source.
My take on Whitman is that while he says he buys stocks that are "safe and cheap", his emphasis on safe is sometimes not enough for me. I recall that he was asked in his Q&A once about a specific stock he had bought and whether he really thought it met his stated criteria for Safe. His response was something like, You're right, that one's cheap, but I wouldn't really call it safe.
Hope this helps,
Brendan
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