
‘Unemployment is low; inflation is low; valuations have compressed 15 to 20 percent this year because earnings are up and stock prices aren’t. I think this is a normal correction in an ongoing bull market. Until something changes at the macro level and with valuations, we’re fully invested.’
That’s how Bill Miller, a Wall Street legend who earned his status by guiding his fund at Legg Mason to 15 years of beating the S&P 500 SPX, -0.23%[1] , currently views the state of the stock market.
By we, Miller is talking about his Baltimore-based firm Miller Value Partners, where he manages about $2 billion with his two sons.
When he was at Legg Mason LM, -0.28%[2] , Miller managed $70 billion in assets. But that was before the financial crisis hit and completely ravaged his fund, which was top-heavy with financial stocks like Citigroup C, +0.21%[3] and... Bear Stearns.
His current fund is performing well, having outperformed the S&P over the past decade by about 3 percentage points annually, according to Morningstar data. Investors are taking notice, with some $377 million flowing into Miller Opportunity Trust LMOPX, -0.39%[4] last year.
“This is the only time in my 37 years of managing money that we’ve seen inflows despite a market correction,” Miller told Institutional Investor. [5]
He went on to name four of his favorite stocks at the moment: Facebook FB, +0.46%[6] , ADT ADT, +0.50%[7] , Avon AVP, +1.55%[8] and Amazon AMZN, +0.28%[9] ...