Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Bob Rudd who wrote (13392)	12/6/2001 8:02:06 PM
From: Paul Senior	Respond to of 78496

ABN, CGI, BPOP, ISTN finance.yahoo.com Looks like I was premature and wrong to exit ABN. Stock's recovered slightly after ABN's ENE exposure announcement. I've added to what I believe are conservative investments in CGI and BPOP. CGI being the dominant auto insurer in Massachusetts. Reasonable p/e and div. yield, and reasonable business prospects in future (but who knows?). P/book is not great now, but reasonable. BPOP another slow grower and reasonable bet for conservative investors (imo). Return on assets for this bank is so-so. One key feature for BPOP would be the persistency and number of insider buys - for those investors who follow such indicators. In another portfolio, I'll take a very small position in MCsweet's ISTN. With new car sales at record highs, there are going to be plenty of good deals on used cars. Perhaps to tempt or assure buyers, used-car dealers may make more use of ISTN's insurance policies. Stock's at multi-year low, increasing sales every year for past few years. On surface, looks like there's plenty of cash for payout to insureds if required. OTOH it's a microcap managed by people who are in the insurance business and who are in the used-car business or deal with car dealers. A difficult combination to deliver profits to stockholders, from what I can tell in observing another of these specialty insurers (which tanked because of poor control over repair exposure). (Looks like I'm the 3rd thread buyer: I'll add ISTN to thread list.)