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 the performance of two Oakmark funds through the end of 2019. Both funds delivered solid long-term returns of about 12% per year over 10+ years, and a strong 27% gain in 2019 alone—meaning value investing (buying cheap stocks) had a good year. But one fund only returned 4.3% over the past 5 years, much lower than the other, showing that even funds from the same company can differ. For regular investors, the takeaway is to hold for the long run, choose low-cost funds (fees under 1% here), and avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
The Oakmark Fund report presents performance data as of December 31, 2019. The Oakmark Fund (inception date: August 5, 1991) has an annualized return of 12.48%, a 1-year return of 26.98%, a 3-month return of 11.33%, a gross expense ratio of 0.92%, and a net expense ratio of 0.88%. The Oakmark Select
This section presents the performance data of the Oakmark Fund and Oakmark Select Fund as of December 31, 2019, including long-term, medium-term, and short-term returns, as well as expense ratios. The market environment was at the tail end of the 2019 U.S. stock rally, with value investing strategies performing strongly in the short term.
The report implicitly argues that both funds have achieved positive long-term returns, strong short-term performance, and low expense ratios, validating the effectiveness of value investing strategies. A counterintuitive point is that while the 5-year returns (Oakmark Fund 8.82%, Oakmark Select Fund 4.30%) are lower than the 10-year returns, the 1-year returns (26.98% and 27.69%) are significantly higher than the long-term averages, suggesting that recent market conditions may favor value stocks.
The data comes directly from the fund performance table, with no additional analysis. Key comparative data are as follows:
| Metric | Oakmark Fund | Oakmark Select Fund |
|---|---|---|
| Inception Date | August 5, 1991 | November 1, 1996 |
| Annualized Return Since Inception | 12.48% | 11.56% |
| 10-Year Annualized Return | 12.43% | 10.60% |
| 5-Year Annualized Return | 8.82% | 4.30% |
| 1-Year Annualized Return | 26.98% | 27.69% |
| 3-Month Return | 11.33% | 11.47% |
| Gross Expense Ratio | 0.92% | 1.07% |
| Net Expense Ratio | 0.88% | 1.00% |
The data indicates that the long-term returns of the two funds are close (12.48% vs 11.56%), but the Oakmark Select Fund's 5-year return is notably lower (4.30%), implying its holdings performed relatively weakly during the 2015-2019 period. Both funds' 1-year returns exceed 26%, reflecting a strong rebound in value stocks in 2019.
This section does not mention specific companies or assets, only the two funds themselves. The Oakmark Fund and Oakmark Select Fund are both value-oriented funds under Oakmark; the former was established earlier and is larger in scale, while the latter has a slightly higher expense ratio.
For investors, the data suggests: