This past week, GuruFocus was honored to host the 2023 GuruFocus Value Conference in Omaha, Nebraska ahead of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (BRK.A, Financial) (BRK.B, Financial) annual shareholder meeting on Saturday.
After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, we invited our users to learn from a handful of prominent value investors from around the country.
On Thursday evening after a delicious dinner, Harris Associates’ Robert Bierig and Alex Fitch kicked things off with their presentation: “The Best Things Come to Those Who Wait.”
Then, on Friday morning, we heard from Artisan Partners’ David Samra, David Sather of Sather Financial Group and Smead Capital Management’s Bill Smead. They discussed their strategies, views of the market and even shared a few stocks they like currently, which included Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (XKRX:005930, Financial), Brown-Forman Corp. (BF.B, Financial) and Lennar Corp. (LEN, Financial).
GuruFocus CEO Charlie Tian then shared trends observed in the market over the past year as well as highlighted some of the major features on the website.
In the afternoon, keynote speaker Bernard Horn (Trades, Portfolio), president and portfolio manager of Polaris Capital Management, spoke on “Financial Failures and Panic in an Undervalued Sector.” During his presentation, he discussed the financial sector, the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank and gave an overview of the firm’s bank holdings around the world. Among these were United Overseas Bank Ltd. (SGX:U11, Financial) and DNB Bank ASA (OSL:DNB, Financial).
Further, he noted that the banks themselves are not structurally problematic and remain undervalued. The recent bank failures were the result of poor business decisions and poor regulation.
Jonathan Boyar of Boyar Asset Management then shared seven ideas for a stock picker’s market, which included Markel Corp. (MKL, Financial), Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC, Financial) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, Financial).
Later in the afternoon, Wedgewood Partners’ David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio) discussed Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)’s 20-punch card rule and how it helped shape his investment philosophy. After showing an overview of the firm’s top 20 holdings, he also answered questions about his views on stocks like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM, Financial) and First Republic Bank (FRC, Financial).
Wrapping up the presentations were YCG’s Brian Yacktman and Elliott Savage. The duo explained the importance of enduring pricing power. They encouraged investors to invest in global champions, meaning companies that have pricing power and long-term volume growth opportunities. Among some of the stocks discussed were Adobe Inc. (ADBE, Financial), Mastercard Inc. (MA, Financial), Meta Platforms Inc. (META, Financial) and Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK).
Thank you to all who attended! We look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
View more photos from the event below.
