Value Investor Performance Leaderboard
See how legendary value investors rank by long-term return, portfolio size and recent performance — built from public GuruFocus 13F filings and historical track records.
Who are the best-performing value investors?
Ranked by publicly reported long-term (10-year) returns, the top value investors include managers like Warren Buffett and other concentrated, fundamentals-driven funds tracked through their 13F filings. Long-term return is the fairest single yardstick because it smooths out lucky or unlucky individual years.
- 10-year return is the most reliable ranking metric — it spans at least one full market cycle.
- Portfolio size (equity) shows scale and conviction, not skill on its own.
- Number of holdings reveals how concentrated or diversified each manager is.
Track records matter more than any single year. This leaderboard ranks the value investors and funds we profile by their publicly reported long-term returns, the size of their reported equity portfolios, and how many positions they hold.
Numbers come from GuruFocus and reflect each manager’s latest 13F filing and historical return series. They are delayed, self-reported figures — use them to compare track records, not to time trades.
| # | Investor / Fund | Firm | 10Y Return | 1Y Return | Equity | Holdings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ron Baron | Baron Funds | +24% | +24.6% | $66.6B | 346 |
| 2 |  David Tepper | Appaloosa LP | +20.1% | 0% | $7.7B | 27 |
| 3 |  PRIMECAP Management | PRIMECAP Management | +15.2% | +29.9% | $169.1B | 324 |
| 4 |  Warren Buffett | Berkshire Hathaway Inc | +14.3% | +10.9% | $299.3B | 29 |
| 5 |  Bill Nygren | Oakmark Fund | +13.7% | +14.1% | $22.7B | 60 |
| 6 |  Bill Ackman | Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. | +13.3% | +18.3% | $13.7B | 11 |
| 7 |  Seth Klarman | The Baupost Group | +12.8% | 0% | $5.4B | 23 |
| 8 |  Dodge & Cox | Dodge & Cox | +12.8% | +13.7% | $191.0B | 223 |
| 9 |  Chris Davis | Davis Selected Advisers | +12.8% | +29.3% | $23.3B | 112 |
| 10 |  Prem Watsa | Fairfax Financial Holdings | +12.6% | +21% | $2.6B | 32 |
| 11 |  First Eagle Investment | First Eagle Investment Management, LLC | +12.1% | +31.6% | $120.6B | 424 |
| 12 |  Yacktman Asset Management | Yacktman Asset Management | +11.4% | +19.8% | $8.4B | 75 |
| 13 |  Ruane Cunniff | Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. | +11% | +22.1% | $6.4B | 55 |
| 14 |  Mario Gabelli | GAMCO Investors | +9.6% | +16.7% | $10.1B | 983 |
| 15 |  John Rogers | Ariel Investment, LLC | +9.5% | +14.2% | $10.0B | 108 |
| 16 |  Tom Russo | Gardner Russo & Quinn LLC | +9.2% | 0% | $8.9B | 84 |
| 17 |  Bruce Berkowitz | Fairholme Capital Management | +8.9% | +29.5% | $1.5B | 13 |
| 18 |  Joel Greenblatt | Gotham Asset Management, LLC | +8.9% | +16.2% | $43.0B | 1793 |
| 19 |  Daniel Loeb | Third Point, LLC | +7.9% | +8.9% | $4.7B | 41 |
| 20 |  Wallace Weitz | Weitz Investment Management Inc | +7.7% | +3.2% | $1.4B | 51 |
| 21 |  Mason Hawkins | Southeastern Asset Management | +6.7% | +2.9% | $1.9B | 47 |
| 22 |  Jeremy Grantham | GMO LLC | +6.6% | 0% | $44.4B | 664 |
| 23 |  Tom Gayner | Markel Gayner Asset Management Corp | +6% | 0% | $12.8B | 145 |
| 24 |  Francis Chou | Chou Associates Management | +6% | +3.3% | $217M | 31 |
| 25 |  Ken Fisher | Fisher Asset Management, LLC | +4% | +1.8% | $348.3B | 1060 |
| 26 |  David Einhorn | Greenlight Capital | +3.9% | +7.5% | $3.9B | 47 |
| 27 |  George Soros | Soros Fund Management LLC | 0% | 0% | $6.6B | 252 |
| 28 |  Mohnish Pabrai | Dalal Street, LLC | 0% | 0% | $327M | 4 |
| 29 |  Carl Icahn | Icahn Capital Management LP | 0% | 0% | $8.3B | 12 |
| 30 |  Stanley Druckenmiller | Duquesne Capital Management, LLC | 0% | 0% | $5.2B | 95 |
| 31 |  Howard Marks | Oaktree Capital Management LP | 0% | 0% | $5.7B | 58 |
| 32 |  Leon Cooperman | Omega Advisors | 0% | 0% | $3.5B | 39 |
| 33 |  Ray Dalio | Bridgewater Associates | 0% | 0% | $24.4B | 999 |
The $25 million lesson that changed Buffett
In 1972 the sellers of See's Candies asked $30 million; Buffett, trained on Graham's cigar butts, refused to go above $25 million — roughly three times book value, a price the old Buffett would never pay. The deal nearly died over $5 million. Charlie Munger pushed back: a beloved brand with loyal customers and genuine pricing power deserved a premium.
They paid the $25 million. See's went on to ship more than $1.65 billion of cumulative pre-tax earnings back to Omaha while needing almost no additional capital — raising prices every year without losing a single loyal customer. Buffett later called it 'the prototype of a dream business' and credits this one purchase with rewiring how he invests.
Quality compounds quietly for decades. Temperament and a clear circle of competence beat chasing the cheapest price.
The only deal Munger ever pushed
In the depths of the 2008 crisis, Munger did something he had never done before: he actively lobbied Buffett to invest in BYD, a Chinese battery and car maker led by engineer Wang Chuanfu — a man Munger described as "a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch". The conviction came through Li Lu, whose circle of competence covered what Omaha's did not.
Berkshire paid $232 million for about 10% of the company — a tiny position by its standards, in an industry Buffett had publicly sworn off. At its 2022 peak the stake was worth roughly $9 billion, close to a forty-fold gain, before Berkshire began trimming.
A circle of competence can be extended honestly — by trusting someone who genuinely has one where you do not.
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Frequently asked questions
How is the leaderboard ranked?
You can rank investors by 10-year return, 1-year return, reported portfolio size (equity), or number of holdings. The default is 10-year return, which is the fairest measure of long-term skill.
Where does the data come from?
All figures come from GuruFocus, based on each manager’s latest 13F filing and historical return series. The data is delayed and self-reported, so treat it as a directional comparison rather than real-time portfolio tracking.
Why do some famous investors not appear?
Investors without an active 13F filing or reported return history (for example managers who have passed away or who run private vehicles) are not included, because there is no current public performance data to rank them by.
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