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Weiss’ “My #1 Top-Ranked Stock in the World”

Checking out the first teaser pick from Martin's Ultimate Portfolio

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, September 30, 2014

A good headline, right? That caught the attention of a LOT of Gumshoe readers over the last several days, following the flurry of ads that Martin Weiss began running for his Martin’s Ultimate Portfolio service in the middle of last week. So let’s try to figure out what his “#1 Top-Ranked Stock” is, shall we?

This new offering from Weiss is a bit more personal than most of his letters have been — he usually has one of the traders or analyst folks run portfolios for him, but he says he’s doing this one himself, with his own money. And that his goal is to be risk-averse by following the Weiss Ratings system and adding to it some kind of performance metric. He says his system would have handily beaten an investment in Berkshire Hathaway over the last decade — though, of course, it didn’t, because it didn’t exist a decade ago (backtesting and checking past charts and events, as I’m sure you’re aware, is an excellent way to be right about what has already happened — not necessarily what will happen).

Weiss is well-known to a lot of Gumshoe readers, and he gets some credit for being very bearish on financials and real estate back in 2006 and 2007, when they hadn’t yet crashed, though he has also been criticized by many for being quite bearish over the last few years too, missing out on a lot of bull market fun. Hulbert tracks only one Weiss newsletter, I think, Safe Money Report, and that has been a pretty tepid performer, with returns well below the S&P 500 average, but perhaps has been “safer” than the overall market — I last covered that one back in May here, for whatever that’s worth.

So what is the stock that he’s using to launch this new service? Let’s check the clues:

Extended Warranty Insurance Company
Holding Firm at My #1 Rank Among 12,000 Stocks.

“This unique insurance company merits a Weiss Stock Rating of A+. Plus, among all of our A+ companies, it has the #1 top-ranked Weiss Performance Index.

“You can’t do any better than that.

“You see, the company sits in a very, VERY unique spot. It tops among its publicly-traded peers in its industry โ€” property-and-casualty insurance. But its shares are greatly undervalued relative to those peers.”

Ah, extended warranties. Haven’t thought about those in a few years — the worst deal for consumers since “rent to own”. So what is this extended warranty company? More clues:

“But what really makes this insurance company rise heads and shoulders above the ordinary in this sector (including Warren Buffett’s insurance companies) is the fact that it favors safety.

“It will only cover products of larger manufacturers, the likes of General Motors or Microsoft, which meet its strict underwriting criteria. And that’s also a key reason why the numbers don’t disappoint:

“This big division of the company has grown by 79 percent year over year in the last quarter. And that’s after growing some 59 percent in 2013.

“Net earned premiums? Up 54.5 percent!”

OK, so it’s not just an underwriter of extended warranties (which are, if you think about it, just another kind of insurance — it’s not unusual for warranty underwriting to be done by the same folks who do insurance underwriting).

Some more clues:

“Net profit margins at 10.7 percent, compared with an average 7.8 percent among everyone else in its peer group.

“And the flipside of that number โ€” its expense ratio at just 22.5 percent โ€” is a lot lower than that of its peers.

“Most importantly, none of this is just a short-term, on-again-off-again phenomenon. To make it up to the top of my charts, every company has to have these kinds of strengths firmly in place over long periods of time….

“Shareholders’ equity: Up nonstop, year after year since 2009.

“Dividends per share: Ditto, with the biggest spurt of all coming in the first quarter (calculated on an annualized basis).

“Return on operating equity: Up dramatically since 2012.”

OK… anything else we can feed into the Mighty, Mighty Thinkolator to give us a good shot at an answer?

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“The company recently acquired an extended warranty company in Asia.”

Interesting — are Asian consumers going to be as gullible about warranties as US consumers?

Finally, Weiss says it’s also cheap:

“This company’s shares are, relatively speaking, very, very cheap.

“They trade at 7.7 times forward earnings. But the shares of the company’s peers are trading, on average, at a whopping 13.1 times forward earnings. And the overall market is now trading at 16 times!”

So who is it? Thinkolator sez Martin Weiss is teasing… AmTrust Financial Services (AFSI)

Which will cause a spit-take among some of you who might be enjoying a mid-afternoon coffee — at least, those who follow stocks closely. AFSI, far from being a “#1 ranked safe” stock in many peoples’ eyes, is a battleground stock that’s tangentially involved in the (sometimes kind of scummy) business of life settlements as well as the (arguably scummier) business of extended warranties and the (seemingly perpetually in crisis) California Worker’s Compensation insurance market — and it has been hotly debated in the financial press over the past year, with lots of sharply worded short “attacks” on the stock and some equally sharp retorts.

Which isn’t to say that AFSI won’t be a good stock — it might be, and it is pretty cheap on many metrics, and often buying sketchy or embattled stocks on the cheap works out very well. But it really doesn’t look “set it and forget it” safe to me.

The controversy over AFSI has cooled considerably over the last 6-8 months, since it really started with a short-seller “attack” piece/research analysis (depending on whether you agree or not) from Geoinvesting in mid-December that helped the stock lose about 25% of its value, and was cooled fairly quickly by the response from the company and some other critiques of the short position and the stock pretty much recovered by March… but there is still a substantial 20% or so short interest (down from close to 40% last Winter, I think).

I can’t give you an in-depth analysis of whether the company’s balance sheet is really safe or not (they’re not a particularly active life settlements company, from what I can tell, though they have a chunk of their balance sheet, well under 5% apparently, in those assets), but they are very profitable and growing fast, partly from acquisitions, and they don’t really have a lot of insurance industry peers.

Given that their biggest businesses are California Worker’s Comp Insurance, which has been a struggle for many insurance companies, and extended warranties, it’s a little problematic to compare them to broader-based property & casualty insurance companies like AIG (AIG) or Markel (MKL, I own that one).

Most property and casualty insurance companies trade not necessarily on their quarterly earnings and PE ratios, but based on some small premium or discount to their book value, since earnings are inconsistent and lumpy and good long-term insurers are generally trying to steadily boost their book value per share (or, perhaps, pay dividends)… but specialty insurers and more “oddball” companies like AmTrust often make much more of their money from more profitable, riskier or highly-specialized insurance lines or from fees, or grow rapidly through acquisitions, and are sometimes priced at big premiums or very steep discounts to their book value.

So AFSI looks cheap on earnings (and is, perhaps appealingly, 10% cheaper than it was a month ago) but trades at about 1.8X book, which would be ludicrous for a large P&C insurer (Chubb (CB) is often mentioned as the “gold standard” for P&C stocks and trades at only 1.3X book), but it’s pretty similarly valued to Atlas Financial Holdings (AFH, 1.7X book), which has been talked up by Chris Mayer before and which insures small commercial auto fleets (like taxicabs). That’s just an example, the two companies are not particularly comparable.

If you want confirmation that this is Martin’s stock, you can see that he lifted the charts in his email from the company’s latest investor presentation (which is worth a look, you can see it here). If you want confirmation that this is a “safe” stock, well, you’ll have to look elsewhere — it looks interesting and may be worth some further research if you’re interested in some more specialty insurance coverage, but there remains a substantial short interest and some simmering controversy over this one that I can’t sort out for you in an afternoon. The company is also tightly controlled by insiders, who own roughly half of the shares.

My first inclination is to believe that the short-sellers may be overstepping on this one, particularly as the specialty at Weiss has long been the “safety” analysis of financial firms, and even the company’s preferred stock (AFSI-PA) is trading pretty richly (perhaps indicating a fairly limited amount of fear), but that’s just a “feeling” and I haven’t scoured the filings for the real skeletons that may well be there. So go forth, Gumshoe friends, researchify to your heart’s content, and let us know if we should be buying shares of AmTrust Financial. We await your opinions, just toss ’em into that friendly little comment box below.

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kycautious
kycautious
September 30, 2014 2:43 pm

Weiss’s deal is this? it is only the #1 stock for now, not forever. He chooses 10 stocks on the top of his list, recommends you buy them and he re-rates all the stocks every week. If another highly rated stock moves into the top 10, he will recommend you sell the stock that falls out of the top 10 and buy the new stock. So the long term view is not his schtick in this ultimate portfolio. Since he re-rates the stocks every week, the portfolio always has the stocks in it that he thinks will be the safest at that point in time that will give you growth. He is trying to hit 50% growth of his portfolio each year.

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kycautious
kycautious
October 1, 2014 2:21 am

It is actually about $1,000/yr, but he gives a full 12 months to cancel and get all your money back.

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Kevin
Member
Kevin
November 18, 2017 3:21 pm
Reply to  kycautious

The one I just read is that he gives back โ€œthe unused portionโ€.

Deborah G Flynn
October 1, 2014 7:26 pm

OK yesterday was #1 today he is teasing #2. Netherlands Petro Chemical company 55 sites around the world, most of its business in the USa? I think it may be Shell???? Top of the Fortune 500 list ? Inquiring minds want to know . Get the thinkolater working thanks deb

Bill
Member
Bill
October 1, 2014 10:28 pm

I agree it must be Shell. When I searched for “Netherlands chemical companies” only the name of Shell came back as a large, familiar operation.

ELISSA JUNG
Member
ELISSA JUNG
September 30, 2014 4:42 pm
Reply to  kycautious

ISN’T THAT JUST CHURNING YOUR OWN PORTFOLIO?

Richard
Member
Richard
September 30, 2014 3:07 pm

Shah Gilani of short side fortunes, has AFSI as a short position because his research shows significant financial shenanigans at AFSI. No explanation, just a statement.

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AJ
Guest
AJ
September 30, 2014 3:10 pm

Thought it was Old Republic ORI. You are good at this Travis.

Bakermre
Irregular
Bakermre
September 30, 2014 3:14 pm

Excellent work, Travis, as always! Please tell us a little more about Markel (MKL). We know there’s a lot of controversy and news (Hank Greenberg) about AIG these days. How about MKL? Please just fill us in as a continuation of this analysis to complete the comparative aspect. Thanks, Travis!

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clarkdz1
clarkdz1
September 30, 2014 3:24 pm

the first 4 stocks in martins ultimate portfolio are afsi ,iyt, lho, lyb

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barndoor
Member
barndoor
September 30, 2014 3:30 pm

AFSI is the largest holding in one of the Motley Fool premium (real money) portfolios. It has done well for them. The PUT premiums are lucrative too if you want to attempt to buy it cheaper. December $37.5 puts can be sold for $2.60 with the stock at $39.50. So you either keep the $2.60 (29% annualized) or get put the stock at $35 (knocking off a dime for the option commissions). I’ve had 4 such positions this year.

But yes, they seem to be chronic targets of Seeking Alpha type attacks.

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Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
September 30, 2014 3:53 pm

Anything to do with Weiss is NOT wise. Flam artist.

Malcolm Jensen
Guest
Malcolm Jensen
September 30, 2014 5:09 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

Weiss is probably the best rater of life insurance companies. Unlike the others, he does not take payments from the company that he rates. Other raters have a severe conflict of interest, and rate all companies higher than does Weiss. I think you had better have a good attorney if you make a habit of injudiciously referring to someone as a “flam artist.”

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Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
October 2, 2014 5:03 am
Reply to  Malcolm Jensen

You should google Weiss’ ‘Contrarian Millionaire portfolio’ reviews. He recco’ed buying gold and leveraged shorting the $ 2+ years ago. I didnt mind that but his endless homely, patronising homilies about his dear ol’ Dad still makes me cringe.

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mel
Member
mel
October 2, 2014 8:01 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

I agree with you as I am a long time subscriber to Weiss newsletters and finally realized that he and his other writers, especially DiGeorgia, make you loose more than keeping your money in the bank.

Jay
Guest
Jay
October 27, 2014 4:36 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

Weiss may not be a flam artist, but he’s definitely a spam artist.

rosalindr
Member
September 30, 2014 4:29 pm

I subscribe to several of Weiss’ newsletters. I also get his “Heat Maps,” which list the top 25 stocks in different sectors. These cost a lot less than this new rating service and provide essentially the same information.

Roz

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tim
Member
September 30, 2014 7:50 pm

I think weiss is over priced to, and must need more money just like you see the old bands come back.

Al
Member
September 30, 2014 7:57 pm

The father of Weiss had a respected ratings service and got a high rating from
Robert Prechter

Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
October 4, 2014 7:28 am
Reply to  Al

And???
Cummon, is there anyone here who has made money (above the market avg), from his expensive advice?
Anyone?

silver1939
June 5, 2018 2:28 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

NO NO NO. Wasting your money.

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The Traders Club
Guest
October 1, 2014 2:16 am

AFSI was in Louis Navallier “Ultimate Growth” recommendation last year. It might have been in his Family Trust recommendation as well.

The Traders Club

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Chris
Member
Chris
October 3, 2014 7:56 pm

I subscribe to several Weiss entry-level publications. I never expect to be a subscriber to their higher-cost publications. It seems like every one of their daily freebie publications, is just a pitch to subscribe to one of their ridiculously-priced newsletters. I still read the ones I currently subscribe to, but probably won’t renew any of them, as I haven’t felt much urge to act on many of the recommendations. The worst part about Weiss is, the multiple daily bombardments of e-mail reminding me that their wonderful offer(s) expire at midnight. The last straw was solicitation phone calls to my workplace office! I finally had to request complete removal from their marketing list(s).

Jay
Guest
Jay
October 27, 2014 4:42 pm

I’ve not made better than market returns with his reco’s. However, i do find his warnings to be helpful, even though they are quite premature. Usually when he starts saying a particular asset class is overvalued, i’ll set liberal stop limits so i can ride the upside without getting too burned when the apocalypse finally comes. This stratgy has actually worked well for me.

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psithyrus
Member
psithyrus
November 9, 2014 7:08 am

When an operator like this offers a portfolio of stocks with a high success rate but obtained by referring to historical figures, what’s to stop them from selectively choosing just the winners and ignoring the losers and poor performers?
Maybe i’m missing something.

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backoffice
Irregular
June 28, 2015 11:10 pm

Who do you think is at the top of their game in this crazy world of newsletters, who seem to churn the same topics and stories and fail to do anything substansial to my bottom line. Hillary Kramer promised me a minimum of 3 double gainers each month guaranteed, Not only did she fail to make good on her promises she reneged on her guarantee and instead provided me with 3 double digit losers. I cancelled before it got worse and she still charged me regardless. Be careful with who you deal.

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Kevin
Member
Kevin
November 18, 2017 3:19 pm

I just hate it when your told your going to get something for โ€œfreeโ€ only to find out at the end that you get that one portion for โ€œfreeโ€ for one month and THEN you will be billed $99 a year to keep receiving it which is exactly what an offer that came out on Nov. 18th, 2017 does. I didnโ€™t even finish the rest of the paragraph – which was of course the next to the last one. Keep up the good work!

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