I don't know if Radian Group, RDN, has been mentioned here before or not. The company is involved with mortgage insurance and broad related financial operations.
Down from the 50-65 range most of last winter, the stock trades today around 13.
Here is a comment from deep value manager Marty Whitman that appeared in Fortune, according to Yahoo!
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And in early September rival MGIC Investment (Charts), the country's largest mortgage insurer, abandoned its bid to acquire Radian (Charts). The stock, which approached $70 early in the year, bottomed near $15 this summer. In a September SEC filing, Third Avenue Management disclosed that it had bought nearly 11% of Radian. Shares jumped 10% on the news, but Whitman is in for the long run, not a quick bounce.
He figures that the company has a book value of about $50 a share. In early October, Deloitte & Touche said it would no longer be Radian's auditor, raising concerns that a new auditor might force Radian to write down its assets. Whitman, though, believes that even in the worst case Radian's book value isn't likely to fall below $40 a share.
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Disclosure: I bought RDN this morning. For me, a lot. Whitman's reputation speaks for itself. |
