A list of the “next Warren Buffetts”

It’s difficult to give an exact number, but many investors and fund managers have been touted as the “next Warren Buffett” over the years. Some have even been given this label by Buffett himself, while others have earned the comparison through their investment strategies and track records. Some notable names that have been called the “next Warren Buffett” include Mohnish Pabrai, Li Lu, Guy Spier, and Chris Davis. However, it’s important to note that while these individuals may share similarities with Buffett in terms of their investment philosophy or success, they each have their own unique approaches and strategies. Buffett, who is known as the “Oracle of Omaha” (here’s how he got that nickname) has many adherents.

Mohnish Pabrai – “The Warren Buffett of India”

Mohnish Pabrai is an Indian-American investor, philanthropist, and author. He is the founder and managing partner of Pabrai Investment Funds, a family of hedge funds inspired by the investment principles of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Pabrai is a value investor known for his deep value investment strategy and concentrated portfolio.

Prior to founding Pabrai Investment Funds, Pabrai worked in the tech industry as an entrepreneur and founded TransTech, Inc., an IT consulting and systems integration company. He later sold the company to Kurt Salmon Associates, a subsidiary of Management Consulting Group.

Pabrai is also a well-known author and has written several books, including “The Dhandho Investor” and “Mosaic: Perspectives on Investing.” He is a member of the board of trustees of the Dakshana Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities to low-income students in India.

Li Lu – “The Warren Buffett of China”

Li Lu is a Chinese-American investor and hedge fund manager who has been dubbed “China’s Warren Buffett.” He was born in Tangshan, China in 1966 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. After participating in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, he was forced to flee China and eventually made his way to the United States.

Li Lu attended Columbia University, where he studied economics and political science. He became involved in value investing and was mentored by value investing legend Warren Buffett. After graduation, he worked for a short time at an investment bank before founding his own hedge fund, Himalaya Capital Management, in 1997.

Li Lu’s investment philosophy is heavily influenced by Warren Buffett’s value investing principles, with a focus on finding undervalued companies with strong fundamentals and long-term growth potential. He is known for his deep understanding of Chinese companies and his ability to identify high-potential investments in the country.

Prem Watsa – “The Warren Buffett of Canada”

Prem Watsa is a Canadian investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings, a holding company with a diverse portfolio of subsidiaries engaged in various industries, including insurance, investments, and media. Watsa is often referred to as the “Canadian Warren Buffett” due to his value investing style and long-term investment approach.

Born in India in 1950, Watsa earned a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology before moving to Canada in 1972. He started his career as a research engineer with a subsidiary of International Nickel Company, but soon shifted his focus to finance.

In 1985, Watsa founded Fairfax Financial with the goal of creating a financial conglomerate modeled on Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Like Buffett, Watsa is known for his value investing strategy, focusing on undervalued companies with strong fundamentals and holding them for the long term.

Under Watsa’s leadership, Fairfax has grown into a global investment and insurance company with operations in more than 100 countries. Watsa has also made a number of successful investments in distressed companies, including BlackBerry, Bank of Ireland, and Greek government bonds during the European debt crisis.

Peter Lynch – “The Warren Buffett of Mutual Funds”

Peter Lynch is a legendary American investor and mutual fund manager. He is best known for his role as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund from 1977 to 1990. During that time, he achieved an average annual return of 29.2%, making it the top-performing mutual fund in the world.

Lynch is known for his investment philosophy of investing in companies that he understands and that have strong growth prospects. He believed that ordinary investors could outperform professional investors by doing their own research and investing in companies that they knew well.

Lynch is also famous for his popular books on investing, including “One Up on Wall Street” and “Beating the Street.” In these books, he shared his insights and experiences as a successful investor and provided practical advice for individual investors.

Joel Greenblatt – “The Warren Buffett of Small Cap Stocks”

Joel Greenblatt is an American investor, writer, and professor. He is the founder of Gotham Asset Management LLC, a New York-based investment firm. Greenblatt is also the author of several best-selling books on investing, including “The Little Book That Beats the Market” and “You Can Be a Stock Market Genius.”

Greenblatt is known for his investment strategy known as “value investing with a twist.” This involves identifying undervalued companies with strong fundamentals and growth potential. He uses a variety of metrics to evaluate companies, including earnings yield, return on capital, and price-to-earnings ratios.

Philip Fisher – “The Warren Buffett of Growth Investing”

Philip Fisher (1907-2004) was an American stock investor who is widely considered one of the most influential figures in the history of modern investing. He is best known for his seminal book “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits,” which was first published in 1958 and has since become a classic of investment literature.

Fisher began his career in the investment business in 1928, when he joined a San Francisco-based investment firm called Anglo-London & Overseas. He eventually became a partner in the firm and helped it grow into one of the most successful investment firms of its time.

Fisher was a pioneer of growth investing, which involves investing in companies with high growth potential rather than those with low valuations or high dividend yields. He was known for his meticulous research process, which involved meeting with company executives and industry experts to gain a deep understanding of a company’s operations, competitive position, and growth prospects.

Fisher’s investment philosophy was based on a few key principles, including the importance of investing in high-quality companies with strong competitive advantages, the value of patient long-term investing, and the need to focus on a few key investments rather than trying to diversify too much.

Fisher’s investment approach proved highly successful over the years, and he was known for delivering consistently strong returns for his clients. He also had a significant influence on many other prominent investors, including Warren Buffett, who has cited Fisher as one of his most important influences.

Seth Klarman – “The Warren Buffett of Hedge Funds”

Seth Klarman is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager. He is the CEO of The Baupost Group, a private investment partnership he founded in 1982. Klarman is known for his value investing approach, which emphasizes buying undervalued securities and holding them for the long term.

Klarman is also known for his focus on risk management and his contrarian investment philosophy. He has been successful in generating high returns for his investors over the years, with The Baupost Group achieving an average annual return of over 20% since its inception.

He is also the author of the book “Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor,” which is widely regarded as a classic in the field of value investing.

Walter Schloss – “The Warren Buffett of Deep Value Investing”

Walter Schloss was an American investor who is often described as a “superinvestor” or “value investing legend”. He was a disciple of Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, and followed Graham’s principles of investing in undervalued stocks with a margin of safety. Schloss worked as a securities analyst for Graham-Newman Corp. and later started his own investment firm, Walter J. Schloss Associates, in 1955.

Schloss was known for his disciplined approach to investing, which involved analyzing balance sheets and financial statements to find stocks trading at a significant discount to their intrinsic value. He was also known for his patient, long-term approach to investing and his willingness to hold onto stocks for years, even if they didn’t perform well in the short term.

Schloss’ investment approach was based on a simple set of criteria, which included low price-to-book ratios, low debt-to-equity ratios, high insider ownership, and consistent earnings growth. He would typically invest in small-cap and micro-cap stocks, which he believed were often overlooked by Wall Street analysts.

Over his long career, Schloss achieved impressive returns for his clients, with an annualized return of 16.1% over a 47-year period from 1956 to 2003. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 95.

John Neff – “The Warren Buffett of Mutual Funds”

John Neff was an American investor and portfolio manager who is known for his successful career at Vanguard Group, where he managed the Windsor Fund from 1964 to 1995. During his tenure, he consistently beat the market by investing in undervalued companies with low price-to-earnings ratios and strong growth potential.

Neff was born in 1931 in Wauseon, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Toledo in 1955 with a degree in economics. After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, he began his investment career in 1957 as a securities analyst with Wellington Management Company in Philadelphia. In 1964, he joined Vanguard Group to manage the Windsor Fund, which was then a struggling mutual fund with just $8 million in assets.

Under Neff’s management, the Windsor Fund grew to become one of the largest and most successful mutual funds in the United States, with assets of more than $14 billion by the time Neff retired in 1995. During his tenure, the fund had an average annual return of 13.7%, compared to 10.6% for the S&P 500.

Neff was known for his disciplined investment approach and his focus on fundamental analysis. He looked for stocks with low price-to-earnings ratios, strong cash flow, and healthy dividends, and he avoided highly speculative or overvalued companies. He was also known for his patience and willingness to hold onto stocks for long periods of time, even during periods of market volatility.

After retiring from Vanguard, Neff wrote a book about his investment philosophy, titled “John Neff on Investing.” He also served as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and as a board member of several other organizations. Neff passed away in 2019 at the age of 87.

Christopher Bloomstran – “The Warren Buffett of Financial Analysis”

Christopher Bloomstran is an American value investor and the president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group LLC. He is known for his deep value investing style, which focuses on finding companies that are undervalued by the market.

Bloomstran began his career in finance as an investment banker before transitioning to a career in asset management. He worked for many years at a Kansas City-based investment firm, before joining Semper Augustus in 2007.

Bloomstran is a well-respected figure in the value investing community and is often quoted in financial media outlets. He has also been a speaker at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, which is attended by many value investors from around the world.

Bloomstran is known for his detailed research and analysis of companies, as well as his long-term investment approach. He has cited Warren Buffett as a major influence on his investment philosophy and has praised Buffett’s emphasis on long-term value creation over short-term gains.