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$362.00 -2.00 (-0.55%)
10/7/2008 4:00 PM

Wesco Financial Corp (WSC)

CAPS Rating:
*****

The Company is engaged in three principal businesses through its subsidiaries: the insurance business, through Wes-FIC; the furniture rental business, through CORT; and the steel service center business, through Precision Steel.

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Avatar BADROCKER (< 20) Submitted: 6/29/08 10:53 AM : Outperform Start Price: $376.00 WSC Score: 1.15

Let me tell you about my latest love story...
This is not like most financial companies. This company sells insurance, has a rental business, and has a steel service center. And, this is the big one) is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The number 2 man at Berkshire is Charlie Munger who also is the leader at WSC. Warren (Buffett) has nothing but praise for Mr. Munger. (So I kinda like him too.) Mr Munger can get away with critiquing Warren when he disagrees with him (I like him more) and Warren listens to him. ('Atta' boy, you gotta like that.)
Munger, who at 84 is seven years older than Buffett, grew up in Omaha about five blocks from Buffett's current home. Both men worked at the grocery store Buffett's grandfather and uncle ran. (Still like him, maybe even more) Munger is Chairman, CEO and president of WSC and oh by the way WSC is 80 percent owned by Berkshire. WSC generated about $109 million profit for Berkshire in 2007 (Starting to really care deeply for him).
Munger said he believes "a lot of rot" has gotten into financial markets, and more scandals, like the current sub-prime mortgage mess, are likely.(Does this mean he and WSC were unlikely to get in over their heads with the mortgage mess? I think so (so now I think I am in love). "There will be a hell of a mess in these derivative books eventually," he said.
WSC has a CAPS rating of 8. P/E is 25.6 (even the analysts think a lot of WSC and Munger).
A statement Mr. Munger made at the recent WSC stock holder's meeting was "When I was young, Bank of America – would not have done things they do now." (No truer love than this love and warm fuzzy feeling than I feel now).
Thanks to fellow CAPS player chk999 for turning me on to WSC.

Much of this information I obtain from articles of AP Business, and some from Seeking Alpha.

Berkshire has a policy of having a succession plan in place for it's business.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/76538-2008-wesco-shareholder-meeting-detailed-notes?source=yahoo
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080516/buffett_s_no_2_man.html?.v=1
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080507/wesco_shareholders.html?.v=2

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