On the US bourses, the shares of sleepy companies have recently bested those of exciting companies. This is just the beginning of a big trend, says the billionaire money man running AQR
Clifford Asness, co-founder of AQR Capital Management
Image: Guerin Blask or Forbes
Vindication is coming for fund manager Clifford Asness. It was certainly a long wait.
For a depressingly protracted period, the value-conscious portfolio managers at AQR, which Asness, 56, co-founded in 1998, lost ground to competitors chasing hot growth stocks. Then came last year’s stock market rout. As the air exited inflated tech stocks, AQR funds became winners.
This is how Asness describes what bubbles do to value players: “It starts out ugly and then it turns wonderful.” Wonderful, that is, if you hang in there. Which some clients didn’t.
Asness is not one to cut and run, and he is not shy about expressing his convictions. On Twitter, he has been waxing indignant about bond yields below the rate of inflation and welfare for Silicon Valley Bank’s depositors. In academic papers and pronouncements for clients he makes the case that value’s rebound is far from over.
There is a lot going on in the data-intensive stock picking at AQR, a far-flung operation with six branches abroad, a headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, $100 billion under management and a roster of researchers festooned with advanced degrees. But one theme shines through: The idea that value beats growth over the long haul.
(This story appears in the 05 May, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)