Mason Hawkins
Founder of Southeastern Asset Management and the Longleaf Partners funds — a concentrated value investor who buys good businesses at a steep discount to their intrinsic worth and holds with conviction.
Who he is
Mason Hawkins built Southeastern Asset Management into one of the most recognizable deep-value shops in America, running the Longleaf Partners funds with a tightly concentrated, long-horizon style.
He is known for thinking like a business owner, partnering with quality management, and staying invested through painful periods when the market disagreed with his appraisals.
Core philosophy
Hawkins anchors every decision to a "price-to-value" ratio: he wants to pay roughly 60 cents or less for a dollar of conservatively appraised business value. The wider that gap, the larger the margin of safety.
He concentrates in a relatively small number of names he understands deeply, favors honest, capable managers who allocate capital well, and treats temporary price weakness as opportunity rather than threat.
Key lessons for individual investors
- Buy at a clear discount to a conservative estimate of business value.
- Concentration in well-understood businesses can beat broad diversification.
- Management quality and capital allocation matter as much as the numbers.
- Patience through drawdowns is part of the strategy, not a bug.
- Think like an owner, not a renter of shares.
Live track record & latest portfolio
Real figures from public 13F filings and historical returns, via Southeastern Asset Management. For education only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation to copy any position.
Annual return history
Yearly returns (%) as reported by GuruFocus. Past performance does not predict future results.
Source: GuruFocus. Figures are delayed and may be revised.
Ask Mason Hawkins a question
Type a question about Mason Hawkins's classic investment theories, or pick one below.
You don't need a scale to know a man is fat
In the brutal 1973–74 bear market, the entire Washington Post Company — the newspaper, Newsweek magazine and several TV stations — traded for around $100 million. Buffett conservatively reckoned the assets were worth at least $400 million. No precise model was needed: the gap between price and value was visible from across the street.
He invested about $10.6 million, then watched the stock fall further and did nothing but wait. Decades later the position was worth more than $1 billion, plus a stream of dividends along the way — a return of roughly one hundred times. As Buffett put it: you don't need to know a man's exact weight to know that he's fat.
The point of comparing price with value is to spot obvious gaps — not to manufacture false precision.
Margin of safety is something you verify yourself
In late 1963 the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil scandal exploded: storage tanks pledged as collateral turned out to hold mostly seawater topped with a thin layer of salad oil. American Express, which had guaranteed the warehouse receipts, faced an enormous liability, and its stock was nearly cut in half. The headlines screamed bankruptcy.
Buffett did not read more headlines — he went out to restaurants and banks in Omaha and watched. People were still paying with American Express cards; travelers cheques were still being accepted everywhere. The franchise was intact. He put roughly 40% of his partnership into the stock, and within five years it had risen about five-fold.
A margin of safety comes from facts you check with your own eyes — not from the absence of scary news.
Buying a dollar for fifty cents — by the basket
Graham's signature operation was mechanical and unglamorous: buy companies trading below their "net-net" working capital — cash, receivables and inventory minus every liability — so the buyer effectively paid nothing for the factories, the brand or the future. Each one was a discarded cigar butt with one free puff left.
Any single net-net could disappoint, so Graham never relied on one: Graham-Newman held dozens at a time, selling each as it returned to fair value. Across three decades, through depression aftermath and war, the diversified baskets earned roughly 20% a year — built from stocks nobody else wanted.
A screen's edge comes from discipline and diversification across the basket — not from any single thrilling pick.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
What is Mason Hawkins' price-to-value discipline?
A rule of buying businesses only when the price is a steep discount — often around 60% or less — to a conservative appraisal of intrinsic value.
Is Mason Hawkins a value investor?
Yes — he runs a concentrated, deep-value strategy at Southeastern Asset Management, buying quality businesses at a large discount to appraised worth.
Pressure-test price-to-value ideas:
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