Loews Corp. - circa 1969 Specimen Stock Certificate

Specimen Stock printed by Security-Columbian Banknote Company.

Loews Corporation, an American conglomerate headquartered in New York City, owns a diverse portfolio of companies, including CNA Financial Corporation, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, Loews Hotels, and Altium Packaging. Loews Corporation positions itself as a value investor with a long-term focus. In recent years, the company has also allocated significant capital for share buybacks. Between 1971 and 2020, Loews spent $1.3 billion repurchasing shares, reducing its shares outstanding from 1.3 billion to 291 million.

The roots of Loews Corporation can be traced back to 1946 when Laurence Tisch persuaded his parents to invest $125,000 in a resort hotel in Lakewood, New Jersey. Laurence’s brother Robert joined the business shortly thereafter. The Tisch brothers began investing their profits in expanding the hotel business. By 1956, they were in a position to build their first hotel, the Americana in Bal Harbour, Florida, for $17 million in cash. Following the landmark 1948 Supreme Court antitrust ruling in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., all major movie studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), were compelled to sell off the movie theater chains they owned and operated.