About
Bill Nygren is an American value investor and portfolio manager at Oakmark Funds, where he has built a distinguished career finding undervalued businesses with strong management teams and solid fundamentals. Here's who he is:
Bill Nygren joined Harris Associates (which manages the Oakmark Funds) in 1983 and became a portfolio manager in 1990, eventually taking over management of the Oakmark Fund in 1996 and co-managing the Oakmark Select Fund since its inception in 1996. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a focus on accounting, Nygren developed an investment approach that combines traditional value investing principles with an emphasis on business quality and free cash flow generation. Under his leadership, the Oakmark funds have delivered strong long-term returns by investing in a concentrated portfolio of what he calls "good businesses at cheap prices," focusing on companies where the stock price is significantly below his estimate of intrinsic value.
Nygren is known for his focus-list approach to investing, typically holding 20-50 stocks in Oakmark Fund and just 15-20 in Oakmark Select, with top positions representing meaningful portfolio weights. His investment philosophy emphasizes three key criteria: businesses must trade at significant discounts to intrinsic value, management must have a history of creating shareholder value, and the company must have sustainable competitive advantages. Unlike many value investors who avoid growth stocks or technology, Nygren is style-agnostic, willing to invest anywhere he finds a gap between price and value. He's particularly skilled at identifying cyclical companies at depressed valuations and businesses undergoing positive changes that the market hasn't yet recognized.
Beyond portfolio management, Nygren has become one of the most articulate voices in value investing through his quarterly shareholder letters, conference presentations, and media appearances. He's known for his clear communication style, making complex valuation concepts accessible to investors of all levels. As a CFA charterholder and long-time member of the investment community, he's mentored numerous analysts and portfolio managers who have gone on to successful careers. Despite managing billions in assets, Nygren has maintained the discipline and patience that characterized his approach from the beginning, demonstrating that principled value investing can work at scale.
Bill Nygren's Best Quotes
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"We look for good businesses, run by shareholder-oriented management, available at discounts to our estimate of intrinsic value."
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"Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Our job is to find the largest gaps between the two."
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"We'd rather own a wonderful business at a fair price than a fair business at a wonderful price, but we'd like both if we can get them."
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"The market is a voting machine in the short run and a weighing machine in the long run, but sometimes it takes longer than we'd like for the weighing to happen."
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"Management quality matters enormously. We want to partner with people who think like owners and allocate capital wisely."
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"Valuation is our anchor. Without it, you're just guessing about what might happen."
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"Concentration is the key to above-average returns. You can't outperform by looking like the index."
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"We're not afraid of cyclical businesses if we're buying them at the right point in the cycle and the right price."
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"Active management isn't dead—lazy active management is dead. You have to actually do the work and have conviction."
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"The best time to buy is when a good business is facing a temporary problem that the market thinks is permanent."
作品
Oakmark Funds Quarterly Commentaries
Nygren's quarterly commentaries for Oakmark Fund and Oakmark Select Fund are among the most educational and transparent investment writings available. These letters explain his investment philosophy, discuss specific portfolio positions, and provide detailed rationale for recent buys and sells. Unlike many fund commentaries that are vague or promotional, Nygren's writings include specific examples of his valuation work, explanations of why certain stocks are undervalued, and honest assessments of mistakes. His quarterly letters during market turbulence, such as the 2008 financial crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrate how he maintains discipline and finds opportunities when others panic.
Annual Shareholder Letters
The annual letters provide comprehensive reviews of fund performance, portfolio positioning, and Nygren's outlook for various holdings. These letters often include detailed discussions of the largest positions, explaining the business model, competitive advantages, management quality, and valuation metrics that make each investment attractive. Nygren uses these letters to educate shareholders about value investing principles and to explain his thought process transparently. His annual letters have become essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how to implement value investing principles in practice across different market environments.
"The Focus Five" Portfolio Management Essays
Throughout his career, Nygren has written extensively about concentrated portfolio management and why he believes holding 15-20 best ideas generates superior returns compared to owning 100+ stocks. These essays explain his position sizing methodology, how he manages risk through business quality rather than diversification, and why conviction matters in portfolio construction. His writings on concentration versus diversification challenge conventional wisdom about risk management and provide a framework for investors seeking to understand high-conviction investing.
Case Studies on Specific Investments
Nygren has produced detailed case studies on numerous investments over the years, including both successes and failures. His analyses of investments in companies like Capital One, American Express, General Motors (post-bankruptcy), and various other holdings demonstrate his valuation methodology and investment criteria. He's particularly known for his willingness to discuss mistakes openly, such as investments that didn't work out as planned, using these as teaching moments about what to watch for in future analysis. These case studies show his actual work rather than just theoretical principles.
Conference Presentations and Industry Speeches
Nygren has been a frequent speaker at investment conferences including the Morningstar Investment Conference, CFA Institute events, and value investing gatherings. His presentations often focus on topics like finding value in different market environments, evaluating management quality, portfolio construction, and the case for active management. His talks are known for being data-driven yet accessible, using real portfolio examples to illustrate concepts. Recordings of his presentations, particularly his discussions on concentration, management evaluation, and cyclical investing, are widely referenced in the investment community.
Media Interviews and Financial Press Contributions
Nygren has given extensive interviews to financial media outlets including Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Bloomberg, where he discusses his current thinking on markets, specific holdings, and investment strategy. His interviews are substantive rather than promotional, often including specific stock recommendations with detailed valuation rationale. His regular appearances on financial shows have made him one of the more publicly visible value investors, helping to educate retail investors about fundamental analysis and long-term thinking.
Essays on Management Quality and Capital Allocation
A recurring theme in Nygren's writings is the importance of management quality and capital allocation skill. He's written extensively about how to evaluate whether management teams are creating shareholder value through their decisions on dividends, buybacks, acquisitions, and reinvestment. His framework for assessing management includes looking at insider ownership, historical capital allocation decisions, compensation structures, and how management discusses the business. These essays provide a practical guide to one of the most important but hardest-to-quantify aspects of investment analysis.
Market Valuation Commentaries
During periods of market extremes—both overvaluation and undervaluation—Nygren has written thoughtful pieces about what he's seeing in the market and how it affects his positioning. His commentaries during the tech bubble, financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, and other periods of market stress show how he adapts his approach while maintaining core principles. These writings demonstrate how to think about valuation in context and when to be aggressive versus defensive. His willingness to acknowledge uncertainty while still taking positions based on probability-weighted outcomes provides a model for decision-making under uncertainty.
Research Reports and Investment Memos
While some of Oakmark's internal research remains proprietary, Nygren has shared summaries of his research process and investment memos through letters and presentations. These materials explain how he builds financial models, what assumptions he focuses on, how he thinks about scenarios and downside protection, and what metrics matter most in different types of businesses. His research process emphasizes understanding the business economics first, then worrying about valuation, rather than starting with screens or quantitative metrics.