Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) outperformed in the fourth quarter and for the full year as improving results through the year led to upward revisions in earnings forecasts. Underlying fundamentals remain strong in the roofing and composite businesses and a recovery in the insulation business appears imminent. The company is executing well in all three business segments and will also see a positive benefit from tax reform. The shares remain attractive, trading at 16 times normalized earnings.

From Leith Wheeler Investment Funds' 4th quarter 2017 commentary.

The fourth quarter of 2017 rounded out what was a very strong year for investment performance across most asset classes.

Equity market returns were solid, particularly in the United States where expectations of late-cycle stimulus (in the form of tax cuts) provided a boost to valuations into year-end and drove the market 7.2% higher (in Canadian dollars) over the fourth quarter and 13.8% for the year.

These returns also were delivered with limited market volatility; in fact, 2017 marked the first year since the early 1980s where S&P 500 returns were positive in every calendar month. While our US equity

Just last week I attended an Insight Forum sponsored by First Trust. Interestingly, neither First Trust nor any of the other top five fund families are based on Wall Street or even in the New York City environs. State Street and Natixis are in Boston, American Funds and Pimco are in southern California and First Trust is headquartered in Wheaton, a suburb of Chicago where I once lived.

None of these firms are known for their offerings of passive index investments, although they may be invested so close to their benchmark in some cases that they may as well be.

The following are some of the stocks that outperformed the S&P 500 Index over the last 12 months and have been bought by gurus during the last quarter.

Humana Inc. (HUM) has a market cap of $27.17 billion, and during the last 12 months has outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 17.9%. Currently seven gurus are holding the company that has returned 2% year-to-date and 190% during the last five years. It is now trading with a P/E ratio of 21.74 and according to the DCF calculator, it looks overpriced by 15%.

Humana has a profitability and growth rating

Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), founder and managing partner of Gotham Asset Management, acquired more than 200 new stakes in the fourth quarter, but it was his divestiture in Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) that got the most attention.

Greenblatt’s most noteworthy fourth-quarter transaction was the sale of his 2,590,574-share stake in Twenty-First Century Fox, a New York-based mass media company, for an average price of $29.03 per share. The divestiture had a -0.68% impact on Greenblatt’s portfolio.

Dodge & Cox is Twenty-First Century Fox’s leading shareholder among the gurus with a stake of 46,925,807 shares. The stake

The New Jersey-based hedge fund Appaloosa Management LP, led by David Tepper, has disclosed an equity portfolio valued at $2.86 billion as of the end of the third quarter of 2015. The equity portfolio is mainly invested in Consumer Discretionary stocks (32%), Transports (17%) and Technology (15%) stocks. The fund’s last 13F filing showed that the fund also raised its exposure in industrials stocks.

The top three picks in the industrials sector at the end of the quarter were Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Owens Corning (OC) and JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU). The stocks comprised 9.5%, 4.9% and 4% of

New Jesey-based hedge fund Appaloosa Management LP has disclosed an equity portfolio valued at some $5.7 billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2015. The equity portfolio is mainly invested in Consumer Discretionary (30%), Finance (25%) and Technology (13%) stocks. The fund’s last 13F filing showed that the fund raised its exposure towards materials and tech stocks but reduced its holdings in the industrials sector.

In this article we will look into the top three picks held in the industrials ‘sector at the end of Q1. These are United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL), Delta Air Lines, Inc.

David Dreman (Trades, Portfolio), a leading contrarian investor and pioneer in behavioral finance, founded Dreman Value Management in 1997.

Dreman’s previous research has proven that the stock that are out of favor as indicated by their P/E ratio performed significantly better than those considered to have better outlooks. He has written five books on the subject, the most recent of which was Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Psychological Edge. Dreman has also been a columnist for Forbes for more than 30 years.

GuruFocus will have a Q&A with Dreman in the next few weeks and invites readers to

Since its founding in 1970, Manning & Napier Advisors has been providing added value for its clients by way of managing individual assets, corporate benefit plans, union pension and annuity funds, endowments, foundations, profit-sharing plans and 401(k) plans.

“We’re majority employee-owned,” the firm declares on its website, “which means we’re able to give you the kind of service and commitment that only comes from people who have a direct stake in your success.” In 2012, Manning & Napier provided a return of 13.42% and more than doubled that rate of return the following year.

In the third quarter of