Oakmark is the mutual fund family launched in 1991 by Harris Associates, the Chicago deep-value firm founded in 1976 (about $105bn AUM). Bill Nygren runs the flagship Oakmark Fund and David Herro the Oakmark International Fund, buying businesses at large discounts to intrinsic value and holding them like owners — publishing quarterly fund commentaries, market commentaries and insight articles.
This report shows how the Oakmark Fund performed from its start in 1991 to mid-2017. The key takeaway: by sticking to value investing (buying undervalued stocks) for 26 years, it averaged 12.82% annual returns. For regular investors, this means ignoring short-term market noise and choosing a low-cost fund (expense ratio 0.89%) with a long track record can pay off. It's worth a read because it challenges the idea that value investing is dead with real, long-term data.
The average annualized total returns of the Oakmark Fund (Investor Class) as of June 30, 2017, are as follows: 12.82% since inception on August 5, 1991; 8.70% over 10 years; 15.55% over 5 years; 27.03% over 1 year; and 3.82% over 3 months. The report discusses the fund's long-term robust performance
This section focuses on the long-term performance of the Oakmark Fund (Investor Class) as of June 30, 2017. By presenting the fund’s average annualized total returns across various periods since its inception in 1991, the report aims to demonstrate to investors the sustained effectiveness of its value investing strategy.
The author’s central investment argument is that the Oakmark Fund has achieved significant and stable excess returns through a long-term commitment to value investing. The counterintuitive insight is that, despite frequent short-term market fluctuations, the fund has maintained an annualized return of 12.82% over a 26-year cycle (since its inception on August 5, 1991), challenging the market consensus that "value investing is dead."
The report provides return data across multiple time horizons to support its thesis of long-term stability. All data is as of June 30, 2017, and the expense ratio (Gross Expense Ratio of 0.89%) is relatively low, further enhancing the appeal of net returns.
| Time Horizon | Average Annualized Total Return |
|---|---|
| Since Inception (August 5, 1991) | 12.82% |
| 10 Years | 8.70% |
| 5 Years | 15.55% |
| 1 Year | 27.03% |
| 3 Months | 3.82% |
Key Data Points:
This section only covers the Oakmark Fund (Investor Class) itself and does not mention specific portfolio holdings. The fund serves as the vehicle for executing the value investing strategy, and the report takes a clearly bullish stance on it.
For investors, this means that holding a low-cost, strategy-stable value fund (such as the Oakmark Fund) over the long term is an effective way to achieve excess returns. The specific direction is to prioritize fund products with a long track record, an expense ratio below 1%, and returns that outperform the benchmark across all time horizons, while avoiding chasing short-term hot strategies.