American National Insurance (ANAT) is the "sister" company of National Western Life Insurance (NWLI), a company that I wrote about on July 17. When I call it a sister company, what I mean is that it is another closely held company controlled by the same family.
The stock has been battered the last month in two ways. It is has been tarred by association as a financial, and sold off considerably. Second, the company headquarters is in Galveston, TX, and it had to abandon its headquarters due to the Hurricane last month.
ANAT issued a press release in September giving more detail on its investment portfolio since that us the topic of the day by investors:
"While other companies have been lured by more exotic investments such as Collateralized Debt Obligations, Credit Default Swaps, and sub-prime mortgages, American National staunchly adhered to its traditional and conservative investment policy. This is not to say that some of our investments will not be affected by these difficult financial times; however, we fully expect any such impact to be very manageable. More importantly, our investment portfolio is sound and we have more than ample liquidity to fulfill all our obligations."
ANAT has a book value of $139 per share and trades at $85.00, a considerable discount. I think it bears a further look.
Disclosure - I am long ANAT.
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