Top 25 European value stocks

The discussion around the value versus growth investing in equities has been topical for the last decade at least. Indeed, the current investment environment has been challenging for value investors for a while now, and spikes or mean reversion of value are usually short lived. The Covid-19 crisis is no exception and the spread between both investment styles was at all times high across all equity markets in Q1 2020.

Even if we maintain value Portfolio Managers in our selection, the use of an open-ended fund to implement a value investment is questionable given those very short periods of outperformance versus quality growth historically. The recommended holding period for a fund is 5 years, and some investors could be skeptical about a consistent rewarding environment for value in the years ahead, thus a more tactical instrument is needed to complement. A basket of thoroughly selected value stocks would be probably more appropriate for the more contrarians as there is always room for some specific recovery stories and idiosyncratic investment cases.

We have selected what we consider the best European Value Equity managers in their field according to their track record, tenure, acumen and purity. We have focused on the best diehard value investors, the ones that really stuck to their process and mindset with no drift despite the investment style headwinds.

This short list of Portfolio Managers displays different approaches, combining relative value, deep value, cyclical value, turnaround stories/special situations, restructuring opportunities, etc … but they always retain a clear value orientation.

Then we have aggregated their 25 best stock picks in their portfolio to build the following list of what could be considered as their best convictions in the European value equity space.

For compliance reasons, we will not disclose funds’ name or sizing related with the below securities. Nevertheless, if you would like more insight, do not hesitate to contact us to discuss how we can help you.

We hope that this list will be a valuable aid to support idea generation within your value equity portfolios.

WS Partners Team