| In July 2020, I tipped readers off to the biggest insider purchase I had ever seen. The CEO of the Canadian reinsurer Fairfax Financial (OTC: FRFHF) had just spent $150 million of his own money to buy shares of Fairfax. Clearly, this was not just a trivial insider purchase that was done so the CEO could say he believed in his own stock. This was a massive insider purchase that could have been done for only one reason... The CEO, Prem Watsa, believed his company was incredibly undervalued. But we actually didn't even need to speculate on the reason for Watsa's purchase. Because the purchase was so enormous, Fairfax was obligated to issue a press release. In that release, Watsa said... At our [annual general meeting] and on our first quarter earnings release call, I said that our shares are "ridiculously cheap." That statement reflected my recognition that in the 35 years since Fairfax began, I have never seen Fairfax shares sell at a bigger discount to their intrinsic value than they have recently. I have now backed up my strong words by purchasing close to US$150 million of Fairfax shares in the market over the last few days, as I believe that this will be an excellent long-term investment. Watsa's average purchase price was $308 per share. That turned out to be a steal of a deal, and the man has made a boatload of money. Since he bought at $308 a little more than three years ago, Fairfax shares have steadily increased and are now trading at well over $850 as I write. That investment by Watsa has outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 6X over that time. Watsa's $150 million investment in 2020 is now worth over $400 million. That means he's made over $250 million on this trade alone! But it's always wise to proceed with caution when it comes to these kinds of opportunities. Before you jump in alongside Watsa, let's take a deeper look at Fairfax's business to decide whether this profit-gushing ship has sailed. |
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