Thomas Gayner's Trades and Holdings in Q1 2025

Breaking down the stocks Thomas Gayner (Markel Group) bought, sold, and held in Q1 2025, including their holdings at the end of the quarter. All data sourced from Markel Group's 13F filed on May 02, 2025.

Who is Markel Group?

Markel Group is a holding company focused on specialty insurance underwriting, long-term equity investing, and ownership of diversified operating businesses (commonly referred to as Markel). The company is known for its diversified equity portfolio, typically consisting of 130-140 stocks, with the top 10 holdings comprising approximately 40% of equity assets, and cash and short-term investments averaging around 15% of total invested assets when balancing liquidity needs against opportunities. Their investment strategy is a long-term value investing approach inspired by Warren Buffett, emphasizing buy-and-hold ownership of high-quality businesses evaluated through four key pillars: profitable operations with good returns on capital and minimal debt, management teams with equal measures of talent and integrity, businesses with favorable reinvestment opportunities, and purchase prices that provide a margin of safety. Markel focuses on undervalued or underappreciated companies that can compound intrinsic value over decades, with strong qualitative factors like durable competitive advantages, reliable cash flows, resilient balance sheets, industry leadership, and alignment with the company's "Markel Style" values of excellence, fairness, and frugality.

Markel.com
Markel Group on X
Q1 '25 13F filed with SEC

Holdings in Q1 2025

Current Investment Strategy

Markel Group maintained its Buffett-inspired long-term value investing approach in Q1 2025, concentrating approximately 40% of its equity portfolio in top holdings including Berkshire Hathaway, Brookfield, Alphabet, Amazon, and Visa while selectively initiating positions in CBOE Global Markets, Eagle Materials, and Sysco. The specialty insurance holding company's investment philosophy remained focused on high-quality businesses with strong returns on capital, minimal debt, and durable competitive advantages, with new additions reflecting opportunistic deployment into infrastructure-related materials, food distribution, and financial exchanges that align with the firm's "Markel Style" emphasis on profitable operations and margin of safety valuations.

New Investments

CBOE CBOE

Thomas Gayner bought $1.36M of CBOE in Q1 2025. Cboe Global Markets delivered record third-quarter revenue of $605.5 million, up 14% year-over-year, with adjusted diluted earnings per share reaching $2.67, up 20%, driven primarily by 19% growth in options revenue and strong margin expansion. The company is decisively gaining momentum through a strategic realignment that focuses on higher-margin derivatives and data businesses while exiting lower-growth segments, positioning it as a global leader in listed derivatives. The stock has surged to an all-time high of $255.30, reflecting a 28.93% gain over the past year and strong investor confidence in the company's growth trajectory.

• Adjusted diluted EPS grew 20% year-over-year to $2.67 in Q3 2025.
• Net revenue increased 14% to $605.5 million with options revenue surging 19% on 26% higher average daily volume.
• Operating margin expanded 360 basis points to 65.3%, while stock price reached all-time high of $255.30, up 28.93% over 12 months.

Eagle Materials EXP

Thomas Gayner bought $776.75K of Eagle Materials in Q1 2025. Eagle Materials missed Q3 2025 expectations significantly, with EPS of $3.59 falling well short of the $4.35 consensus forecast, and revenue of $558 million missing the $632.81 million expectation. The shortfall was primarily driven by weather-related volume headwinds in cement operations, which impacted overall demand in the construction materials segment. While the company maintained a solid 31.9% gross profit margin, the results indicate cyclical softness in demand that suggests headwinds could extend into the fourth quarter.

• Q3 2025 EPS of $3.59 missed consensus by 17.5% versus $4.35 expected.
• Revenue of $558 million fell 11.8% short of $632.81 million forecast.
• Gross profit margin held steady at 31.9% despite weather-driven cement volume headwinds.

Sysco SYY

Thomas Gayner bought $675.36K of Sysco in Q1 2025. Sysco demonstrated strong recovery in its most recent quarter with EPS of $1.15 beating consensus estimates by $0.03, rebounding from a prior quarter miss amid operational challenges from adverse weather and weakening consumer traffic. The company maintains its dominant position in the $370 billion North American foodservice market with 17% share, supported by a strong balance sheet, net debt-to-EBITDA of 2.8x, and robust shareholder return commitment of $2.25 billion annually. Recent analyst upgrades and consistent dividend returns position the company favorably despite near-term market headwinds and volume pressures in its core U.S. Foodservice segment.

• Latest quarter EPS of $1.15 beat expectations by $0.03, recovering from prior quarter's $0.06 miss on $0.96 adjusted EPS.
• Return on equity of 109.52% reflects strong capital efficiency with 2.8% dividend yield on $2.16 annualized payout per share.
• Bank of America raised price target 14.8% to $93.00 with 'buy' rating, signaling analyst confidence in fundamental recovery trajectory.

Added, Trimmed, and Exited

Added

Markel Group initiated three new positions in CBOE ($1.36M), Eagle Materials ($776.75K), and Sysco ($675.36K), while substantially increasing exposure across existing holdings. The most notable additions were doubling the RLI position (+1.2M shares), and dramatically expanding stakes in Huntington Ingalls (+350%), MGM Resorts (+113%), and Brunswick (+96%). Other meaningful adds included Airbnb (+68,510 shares), Franco-Nevada (+42,000 shares), Archer Daniels Midland (+77,000 shares), Dollar General (+33,500 shares), and smaller incremental additions to Yum Brands, Ferguson Enterprises, Linde, Uber, Nike, Hershey, Lamar Advertising, Hanover Insurance, and Old Dominion Freight Line.
What it means: The aggressive doubling down on RLI and defense contractor Huntington Ingalls signals high conviction in these core holdings during a period of market uncertainty. The concentration in consumer-facing businesses—Airbnb, MGM Resorts, Sysco, Yum Brands, Dollar General, and Hershey—suggests Markel is positioning for economic resilience through essential consumption and value-oriented retailers despite near-term headwinds. The additions to industrials and materials like Eagle Materials, Franco-Nevada, Linde, and Brunswick reflect opportunistic buying into cyclical weakness, while the CBOE purchase capitalizes on structural growth in derivatives trading. This broad-based buying across 20+ positions demonstrates classic Buffett-style opportunism during market volatility.

Trimmed

Markel Group made only one material reduction, cutting Cable One by 39,000 shares (76.6% of the position), reducing the stake from $18.4M to $3.2M.
What it means: The dramatic 83% drawdown in Cable One represents a clear loss of conviction in the regional broadband operator, likely driven by deteriorating fundamentals in the cable/broadband sector facing secular headwinds from fiber competition and cord-cutting trends. Rather than fully exiting, Markel retained a small 11,900-share stub position, suggesting either tax-loss harvesting considerations or maintaining optionality for a potential turnaround. This disciplined trimming of a losing position—while simultaneously adding to higher-conviction ideas—exemplifies Markel's value investing approach of cutting losers and adding to winners with better risk-reward profiles.

Exited

Markel Group did not fully liquidate any positions during Q1 2025, maintaining continuity across its existing portfolio.
What it means: The absence of complete exits underscores Markel's patient, long-term holding philosophy and suggests the existing portfolio companies continue to meet their investment criteria despite market volatility. This stability, combined with aggressive buying activity, indicates Markel views current valuations as attractive for adding to quality businesses rather than rotating capital out of existing holdings.

Disclaimer: All posts are for informational purposes only. They are NOT a recommendation to buy or sell the securities discussed. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing your money.