Wallace Weitz
Founder of Weitz Investment Management and an Omaha-based value investor — known for a flexible, cash-flow-based appraisal of business value and a willingness to hold cash when bargains are scarce.
Who he is
Wallace Weitz built Weitz Investment Management in Omaha and ran its funds for decades, earning a reputation as a thoughtful, independent value investor sometimes called "the other Omaha investor."
He is known for adapting his definition of value across changing markets — from classic asset plays to cash-generative compounders — while keeping a clear discipline around business worth.
Core philosophy
Weitz values businesses on the cash they can generate for owners over time, discounting that stream to a conservative present worth and demanding a discount before he buys.
He runs concentrated portfolios, is comfortable letting cash build when prices are rich, and prizes flexibility — owning whatever offers the best risk-adjusted value rather than sticking to a single style.
Key lessons for individual investors
- Value a business by the cash it generates, not headline accounting.
- Demand a discount to a conservative appraisal before buying.
- Let cash accumulate rather than forcing expensive purchases.
- Stay flexible — the best value can appear in different forms.
- Concentration in your best ideas can compound faster.
Live track record & latest portfolio
Real figures from public 13F filings and historical returns, via Weitz Investment Management Inc. 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 Wallace Weitz a question
Type a question about Wallace Weitz'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.
A quality compounder hiding in plain sight
In 2016, with Apple trading near 10–12 times earnings amid fears the iPhone cycle had peaked, Berkshire began buying — eventually about $36 billion of stock. Buffett's thesis required no technology forecast: a product customers would not abandon, extraordinary returns on invested capital, and a buyback machine that increased Berkshire's ownership share every year without another dollar spent.
The stake grew to be worth more than $150 billion at its peak — the most profitable single investment in Berkshire's history, earned not by predicting gadgets but by recognizing a high-ROIC franchise priced like a metal-bender.
High returns on capital plus a shrinking share count quietly multiply your slice of the profits.
A fair price for a wonderful business
In 1988, just months after the Black Monday crash, Warren Buffett quietly began buying Coca-Cola shares. By 1989 Berkshire had spent roughly $1 billion — at about 15 times earnings, hardly a statistical bargain. Wall Street was puzzled: the "cigar-butt" student of Graham was paying up for a household brand.
Buffett was not valuing the next quarter. He was estimating decades of predictable owner earnings from a product sold in nearly every country on earth, protected by the strongest brand moat in consumer goods. Ten years later the stake was worth more than $13 billion, and Berkshire still holds it today — the annual dividends alone now return a large share of the original cost every single year.
A valuation model exists to estimate long-term cash generation — not to find the statistically cheapest ticker on the screen.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
Why is Wallace Weitz called "the other Omaha investor"?
Because he built a respected long-term value record in Omaha — the same city as Warren Buffett — with his own independent, cash-flow-driven approach.
Is Wallace Weitz a value investor?
Yes — he is a flexible value investor who appraises businesses on their cash generation and buys only at a discount to a conservative estimate of worth.
Appraise businesses on cash flow:
Download Valuefocus