One of the patterns we like to see with insider buying is a long-serving Director of the company purchasing shares opportunistically. If that Director also happens to have an investing background, we like it even better. The cherry on the top is the company also buying back stock on the open market. We saw all these factors come together last week when Thomas Gayner purchased 5,000 shares of Cable One (CABO) for Markel (MKL). Investors that follow Berkshire Hathaway and Fairfax Financial are also familiar with the third leg of the trinity of holding companies, Markel. This interview by Barry Ritholtz of Thomas Gayner on his Masters in Business podcast provides an excellent overview of Markel and its Chief Investment Officer and Co-CEO, Thomas Gayner. The little exchange they have about Mr. Gayner, as a 22 year old, discovering Berkshire when the stock was trading at around $375 and not buying it until the stock had gotten to $5,750 was amusing.
So, it was 1984, I was 22 years old, and I — I went into Joe’s office and I said, “Hey, Joe, have you ever heard of this guy named Warren Buffett.” And Joe was sort of a crusty fella, and he says, “It’s a Buffett, you idiot, and threw me out.”
Well, I went to the cutting-edge technology of the day, which was the Standard & Poor’s tear sheet.
And I — and I looked at the Berkshire Hathaway page. And my training is as an accountant. I started out as a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers. And I looked at those numbers, and I could tell without resorting to four decimal point calculations, they were good.
