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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (9517)	1/4/2000 9:10:00 PM
From: Investor2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78516

Have you considered AFL? Best wishes, I2

To: Paul Senior who wrote (9517)	1/4/2000 11:34:00 PM
From: cfimx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78516

Paul, yes I am buying some insurance stocks. There are so many cheap ones out there that I have been trading some and trying to upgrade where I can. I have been buying brk (of course) now 70% insurance as you know. I am also building a long term position in Progressive, which just gets cheaper (read goes down alot) <g>. I also have been buying White Mountains (WTM) a small New Hampshire based holding company that John Bryne spun out of American Express a number of years back. He still holds a big chunk but is no longer chairman. WTM has a controlling interest in FSA, a neat little municipal insurer, a la Jame's Ambac. I think FSA is a buy here too. One of my favorite little ideas is STFC, which is a medium sized auto insurer that's just a cut below Geico and Progressive in terms of quality. Because of pooling arrangements, it has a built in growth profile that makes the economics quite compelling here. It trades at about $9 which is it's book value. This is real quality at the right price. I like your TRH idea. Have you looked at PRE and ORI?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (9517)	3/18/2000 10:47:00 PM
From: blankmind	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78516

Paul, you mentioned two of my favorite value stocks in the same post a few months back (they're both now even cheaper if you could imagine): #1 - Allstate (ALL) - which will have bought back every last share of stock in 7 years at the current rate; was $52/sh; makes about $3 bill/yr; and is about to get in to the internet in a big way (now at $21/sh) #2 - ESG Re (ESREF) - which is wrapping up a buyback; book value stands at $15.26; pays $.32/yr dividend; its 12/97 ipo was 9 mill shares @ $20 led by Deutsche Bank, DLJ, & others; 13 mill shares o/s; and stock hit a high of around $30 back in '98 (now at $4/sh)