Hit #189 (Safeco)

Insurer Safeco (SAF) is being acquired by Liberty Mutual for around $6 billion in an all cash deal. The $68.25/share offer represents a gain of 84.3% over my cost of $37.04.

I first came across Safeco via my auto-insurance agent, and ended up as a customer for a while. It looked like a safe investment for the really long term, and hence I had bought into it in a small way.

Another investment, that in 21st Century, also happened in a similar way. I was a very happy auto-insurance client for a few years, and the insider buying had made me buy the stock in decent numbers. 21st Century was bought by AIG recently (see Hit #166) helping me recover some part of my premium payments over the last few years.

The insurance sector still looks very attractive, with large insider buying showing up recently. AIG itself, having been hammered lately by the fallout of credit crisis, is a good long-term investment for buy-and-holders. Other insurers like Progressive (PGR), Meadowbrook (MIG), Amerisafe (AMSF), Zenith (ZNT), AmComp (AMCP), Allstate (ALL), Seabright (SEAB), Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG) etc are also good, though more speculative, buys. More consolidation is set to follow in this sector.

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Previous hit - Audible (#188)