Amerco (ticker UHAL) the parent company of U-Haul has released their most recent earnings. I mention these earnings because they are of interest to many of us that have funds in the “U-haul Investors Club”. More info on the investors club can be found here.
The company really kicked butt last quarter with revenue growing over 20% and earnings up 50%. Earnings were over $400 million – over $20/share versus $13.58 a year ago. The balance sheet is rock solid with $2.3 billion in cash as well as another $2.8 billion in marketable securities. NOTE some of these assets are related to the companies insurance business and not available to the other businesses.
I note that the most recent notes available from UHAUL carry coupons of 1.75%, 2.25% and 3%. The current rates are much lower than a few years ago–the available coupons move in sync with interest rates in general.
Tim – I liked these notes when they were doing real estate in the 7% range, as they were secured by the personal guarantee by the company and then also a lien on their properties. I have about $50k invested in their property located in Carlisle, PA with a rate of 7.25% fixed for 25 years. However, they are not currently doing real estate notes at the present time.
Good investment back then. They are callable at any time, but the Shoen family owns a great amount of the notes and not sure if they will be called. The Gettysburg PA notes were the best with a rate of 7.75% fixed for 30 years. The Shoen family took off much of the issue – with good reason!
Tim – I liked these notes when they were doing real estate in the 7% range, as they were secured by a corporate guarantee by the company and then also a lien on their properties. I have about $50k invested in their property located in Carlisle, PA with a rate of 7.25% fixed for 25 years. However, they are not currently doing real estate notes at the present time.
Good investment back then. They are callable at any time, but the Shoen family owns a great amount of the notes and not sure if they will be called. The Gettysburg PA notes were the best with a rate of 7.75% fixed for 30 years. The Shoen family took off much of the issue – with good reason!
Sweet deal, too bad they’re not offering those anymore…
kaptain–current rates are pretty meager, but I don’t mind having around 3% of our money tied up there–something I don’t have to monitor and it fits my need to have a broader diversity than preferreds and baby bonds.
I have been rolling all quarterly payments over into 2 year notes. Effortless and fun too.
Same here Gary—the money comes back pretty quick and even though the earnings are meager at this time we may well see better rates sometime in the not too distant future.