David Winters: Getting Super Values on Great Companies

David Winters is as bullish as I've ever heard him. At 46, he has been managing money half his life, but he's never seen values like this. "People are selling excellent companies at whatever prices they can get because they're afraid or because they need the cash," he says. "The opportunities are unprecedented for a long-term investor."

Winters is a canny veteran. Schooled for two decades at the Mutual Series funds (now owned by Franklin Templeton), where he started as an analyst under legendary value investor Michael Price and rose to become chief investment officer, Winters left to launch Wintergreen fund (symbol WGRNX) in 2005. The global fund has beaten the MSCI World stock index by a comfortable margin since its inception in October 2005. Although the fund plunged 34% in 2008 through October 31, it was ahead of the index by nearly six percentage points.

Because Winters buys stocks only when they're cheap, his holdings usually have some warts. Not today. "Everything is for sale, so we can shop at Tiffany's instead of some budget store," he says. "There's been almost no place to hide this year; even the highest-quality stocks have gone down."

In analyzing stocks, Winters looks for good businesses selling at favorably cheap prices and run by good managers whose interests are aligned with those of shareholders. "We've been through an extraordinary period that is now handing us these companies on a platter," says Winters.

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