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 1991 launch to June 2018. While it only returned 2.13% in the last three months, its annualized returns over 10 years, 5 years, and since inception all exceeded 12%. For regular investors, this means that if you can tolerate short-term ups and downs and hold a low-cost (0.86% expense ratio) actively managed fund for the long haul, you could see solid gains. It's worth a read because it uses real numbers to back up the idea of staying invested.
Oakmark Fund - Investor Class Report Average Annual Total Returns as of June 30, 2018: Since inception (August 5, 1991) 12.84%, 10-year 12.48%, 5-year 13.07%, 1-year 13.46%, 3-month 2.13%. Expenses: As of September 30, 2017, gross expense ratio 0.90%, net expense ratio 0.86%. The core view is that t
This section focuses on the long-term historical performance of the Oakmark Fund - Investor Class, presenting return data since its inception in 1991 and disclosing its fee structure. The report provides annualized returns across multiple time horizons, offering investors a benchmark for evaluating the fund's risk-adjusted returns.
The author's core investment argument is that the Oakmark Fund has delivered consistent and robust long-term returns over 27 years of operation, with annualized returns significantly exceeding the market average. The counterintuitive insight is that despite a recent (3-month) return of only 2.13%, the long-term annualized returns (10-year, 5-year, and since inception) all exceed 12%, indicating that short-term volatility does not undermine its long-term value creation ability.
The report supports its thesis with annualized return data across the following time horizons, with all figures preserved:
| Time Horizon | Annualized Total Return (as of June 30, 2018) |
|---|---|
| Since Inception (August 5, 1991) | 12.84% |
| 10-Year | 12.48% |
| 5-Year | 13.07% |
| 1-Year | 13.46% |
| 3-Month | 2.13% |
Fee data further reinforces the fund's cost advantage:
This section covers only the Oakmark Fund - Investor Class product itself, without mentioning specific portfolio holdings or assets. The fund serves as a representative of long-term value investing, with its performance data used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategy.
For investors, the data suggests that long-term holding of low-cost, high-return actively managed funds is a viable strategy. The specific direction is: if investors can accept short-term (e.g., 3-month) lower returns of 2.13% and maintain holdings for over five years, they may achieve compound annual returns exceeding 13%. With expense ratios below 1% further enhancing net returns, it is recommended to focus on similar low-fee funds.