After blowing up his funds in 2008 with disastrous financial picks, veteran value manager Wally Weitz has changed strategy and staged an impressive comeback this year.
Weitz Partners Value fund is up 14% while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index total return is still down about 2%. That is a big improvement from last year, when the fund fell 38%, much the same as the broad market. That followed an 8.5% drop in 2007.
The results illustrate how value managers are starting to dig out of their embarrassing losses. Helping value mavens like Mr. Weitz are the drastic changes they have made to their portfolios, after accepting that their approach has been wrong.
"I thought we had healthy humility two years ago, but we've been further humbled," Mr. Weitz says.
Still to be seen is whether the improved results will be enough to lure investors back to the value fold. Value managers' biggest selling point -- that they can find cheap stocks that will rally in coming years -- is lately open to question.
For now, the results are putting Weitz Partners Value far ahead of the average large value fund, which is up only one percentage point this year. But many of Mr. Weitz's best-known value peers also are showing strong results, including Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust, up 10%, and John Rogers's Ariel fund, up 13%. U.S. stock funds broadly have gained this year, especially since the market's March low.
Read the complete story at WSJ.com
Weitz Partners Value fund is up 14% while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index total return is still down about 2%. That is a big improvement from last year, when the fund fell 38%, much the same as the broad market. That followed an 8.5% drop in 2007.
The results illustrate how value managers are starting to dig out of their embarrassing losses. Helping value mavens like Mr. Weitz are the drastic changes they have made to their portfolios, after accepting that their approach has been wrong.
"I thought we had healthy humility two years ago, but we've been further humbled," Mr. Weitz says.
Still to be seen is whether the improved results will be enough to lure investors back to the value fold. Value managers' biggest selling point -- that they can find cheap stocks that will rally in coming years -- is lately open to question.
For now, the results are putting Weitz Partners Value far ahead of the average large value fund, which is up only one percentage point this year. But many of Mr. Weitz's best-known value peers also are showing strong results, including Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust, up 10%, and John Rogers's Ariel fund, up 13%. U.S. stock funds broadly have gained this year, especially since the market's March low.
Read the complete story at WSJ.com
