Your Guide To Contrarian Investing: Understanding Allan Gray'S Contrarian Investment Approach
Your Guide To Contrarian Investing: Understanding Allan Gray'S Contrarian Investment Approach
CONTRARIAN INVESTING
UNDERSTANDING ALLAN GRAY’S
CONTRARIAN INVESTMENT APPROACH
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
For us, contrarian investing means buying an investment when it’s undervalued in a less optimistic
environment, and then selling it when its price has improved.
We actively look to buy shares that others are selling and sell when others are buying. Why? Because if
you buy and sell the same shares as the majority of investors, at the same time, it is by definition almost
impossible to outperform the market.
Our contrarian approach is not about being different just for the sake of it, but driven by performance and
a desire to succeed. To seek better-than-average returns, you need independent thinking. You can’t just
follow the herd.
This guide will give you an understanding of the Allan Gray contrarian investment approach. It also
uses empirical research to demonstrate how this strategy can provide value by diversifying portfolios and
recognising opportunity where it is being overlooked.
We do this by searching for value in companies that others overlook or undervalue. Then we determine the
things that drive the company’s performance and hence its value over the next five or even ten years.
This is how we’ve been investing in Australia for the past 15 years and how the broader group has been
investing globally for over 45 years.
CONTRARIAN
To give us a competitive edge in a market where every investor has access to the same information, we thrive
on not following the crowd. As contrarians, we resist trends and uncover opportunities in places where no one
else is looking. It puts us in a space where we face little competition – where an investor’s greatest assets are
patience and independent thinking.
LONG-TERM
In an increasingly competitive market, practising patience can give you a distinct advantage. By waiting
for the right opportunity to buy and giving an investment time for its value to develop, you may discover
enormous potential for an undervalued company.
FUNDAMENTAL
We seek out companies that are out of favour and wait for an opportunity to buy their shares at a price well
below their value. We study a company’s fundamentals then calculate what we believe to be its true value.
AS CONTRARIAN INVESTORS,
WE DON’T RUN WITH THE PACK
FETY
VALUE
VA L U E IN OF SA
RU E SELL M A RG
I T Y ’S T
SECUR
MEN T OF A
A SSESS
1. O U R
2.
TIME
As shown in the chart above, our investment in a security starts with an assessment of the company’s true
value, with the aim of investing when the price is well below this value. This increases the likelihood that
potential risks are already in the price, to reduce future risk and increase return potential. We then look to
sell the security when it reaches our assessment of its true value.
When we first start to buy a security, the price can continue to fall. After all, we are buying at a time of
negative sentiment and news often gets worse before it gets better. We see this as an opportunity. If the
price continues to fall but our thesis remains intact, this is a great chance to buy more of the security at a
lower price, increasing our anticipated gain if and when the price rises.
When the price rises and gathers momentum it may reach or even exceed our assessment of its value.
This is the ideal time for us to sell, as there are often plenty of willing buyers in the market making it easier
for us to sell the security.
In 2005, Allan Gray Australia was established based on the same investment philosophy and values as
Allan Gray South Africa and Orbis Investments. The same contrarian approach is applied globally –
underpinning our beliefs and our behaviour.
The Brandes Institute examined the performance of falling knives in the US stock market from 1980 to
20031. The author of the study defined a falling knife as a stock whose price had fallen 60% or more over a
12-month period, when investors are generally cautioned against jumping into a stock as the share price may
fall further. Despite this, the report found that ‘investors who never catch a falling knife could be forgoing
significant opportunities’. They recognised that the average falling knife went on to outperform the S&P 500
by a wide margin.
In the US, even counting those companies that went bankrupt, the knives returned an average annual
performance of 11.2% in the following three years, versus the 4.6% average of the S&P 500. For non-US
knives, the average was 10.8% per year, while their MSCI country index advanced at an average annual rate
of only 5.3%.
The report however did note that for both US and non-US falling knives, stock selection could be critical to
successful falling knife investments. This reinforces our belief that when choosing a contrarian fund manager,
you need to ensure they have the right processes and approach in place to identify the most promising stocks.
12%
6%
4%
4.6 5.3
2%
0%
US knives S&P 500 Non US knives MSCI country index
1 Falling Knives around the world, August 2004. Prepared by the Brandes Institute, a division of Brandes Investment Partners®.
A famous paper written by Werner FM De Bondt and Richard Thaler in 1984 titled ‘Does the stock
market overreact?’1 also comes to the same conclusion. This compared the subsequent
performance of ‘loser portfolios’ versus ‘winner portfolios’, with loser (or winner) portfolios
consisting of the worst (or best) performing stocks for the prior period. The results showed that
over the previous half century, a loser portfolio of 35 stocks outperformed the market on average
by a cumulative 19.6% three years after portfolio formation. Winner portfolios on the other hand
earned about 5% less than the market.
Cumulative average residuals for winner and loser portfolios of 35 stocks (1-36 months into the test period).
Average of 15 three year test periods between January 1933
and December 1980. Length of formation period: Three years
0.20
Cumulative average residuals
0.15
Loser portfolio
0.10
0.05
0.0
-0.05
Winner portfolio
-0.10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
TIME
1. Does the Stock Market Overreact? Werner FM De Bondt, Richard Thaler. The Journal of Finance, Vol.40, No3, Papers
and Proceedings of the Forty-Third Annual Meeting American Finance Association, Dallas, Texas, December 28-30, 1984
(Jul, 1985), 793-805.
3. DIVERSIFICATION
A genuine contrarian managed fund can provide an attractive alternative to traditional Australian equity
funds. The vast difference in approach – and investments – can provide real diversification for investors.
A contrarian fund often holds unpopular stocks that have been written off by the market. This can offer
exposure to stocks that the average investor may not hold, providing greater portfolio diversification.
To demonstrate this point, the following chart shows the average top ten holdings of the five largest
Australian equity managers that describe themselves as active managers (as opposed to passive,
index-tracking managers). It compares these holdings with those in the S&P/ASX 300 Index as well as our
Australian Equity portfolio. As you can see, the five largest Australian equity managers’ portfolios look
similar to the index, whereas our portfolio looks very different.
Average top ten holdings of the five largest markets Exposures outside top ten
8% 90%
7% 86
80%
6%
5% 70%
4%
3% 60%
61 62
2%
50%
1%
0% 40%
CBA BHP CSL WBC ANZ NAB TLS MQG WOW RIO Weight of Average weight Allan Gray
share in of shares - 5 Australia
ASX300 largest active Equity
index managers Fund
Weight of share in ASX300 index Average weight of share - 5 largest active managers Allan Gray Australia Equity Fund
Source: Morningstar, Allan Gray Australia, as at 30 Nov 2019
Source: Morningstar as at 31 January 2020. 5 largest active managers as measured by fund size from the 'Equity
Australia Large Blend' 'Growth' and 'Value' categories.
Behavioural studies show how psychological and emotional factors impact economic decisions, and that by
nature, people tend to conform. By understanding how human behaviour can be an investor’s worst enemy,
the contrarian investor has processes in place to ensure these natural biases do not impede investment
decisions. Here we highlight some of the most common investment behaviours that can affect returns and
explore how the contrarian investor looks past this.
One of the ways people make decisions is to look at how others have behaved in the
same situation. While popular opinion might be useful when choosing something like
a restaurant, it’s certainly not good to follow the herd when investing. This is because
when stocks become popular with investors, competition to buy increases and stocks
can become overbought. This pushes the price higher, leaving you paying more, which
detracts from the future return of that investment.
At Allan Gray, we never rely on external research. In fact, we often view what the market
is doing as a contrarian indicator (for example, if a sector is running hot and consensus is
that it will continue to do well, we are more likely to avoid investing there).
Loss aversion
Overconfidence
We recognise that we don’t get it right all the time, and that there are inherent risks involved in
investing. But if we get it right more often than not, we should outperform the market and perform well
for our clients over the long term. Our Australian equity strategy has outperformed the market over
the long term, but it requires restraint and patience, and past performance may not be repeated. It can
mean periods of short-term underperformance while we wait for the market to recognise the value
we’ve identified in undervalued shares. For this reason, Allan Gray’s contrarian investment approach
isn’t right for everyone.
Share price
Euphoria
Thrills Anxiety
Excitement Optimism
Fear
Value
Relief
Despondency
Despair
Time
To demonstrate this cycle, we have overlaid our chart with the performance returns of Newcrest. The red
line shows the share price relative to ASX300 and the grey shaded area shows how our holdings changed
over time. The emotions an investor may naturally feel are overlaid.
At the point of euphoria, Newcrest was producing plenty of cash flow and profits, which were reflected in
the share price. Then sentiment shifted to anxiety and fear due to extreme negative gold price sentiment
combined with production downgrades, capex overruns and higher than expected cash costs. But as
contrarian investors, we started seeing value when others saw despair. As the price fell during 2013 and
2014, we increased our position and built a relatively large position in the stock. Then as the outlook
improved and people got excited about Newcrest’s prospects, hope and optimism returned and the price
began to rise. Eventually the price reached a level where we felt it prudent to reduce our holding and
reallocate those profits to other more depressed areas.
8000
0.01
Newcrest price relative to ASX300
Euphoria 7000
Thrills
Holdings (x1000)
0.008 6000
Anxiety
5000
0.006 Fear Optimism
4000
Excitement
0.004 Hope 3000
2000
0.002
Despondency 1000
Relief
Despair
0 0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Date
Source: Allan Gray Australia and Datastream. The Allan Gray Australia Equity Fund is used to illustrate our Australian equity
strategy holding pattern.
Worley Parsons is an example of a company we bought into too early. In 2011 the share price peaked at
over $31. We didn’t own the stock then; it was riding high as a result of the commodities boom. Then, over
the next few years, the commodities boom gave way and the price continued to decline all the way through
2014. We made our first investment in the company in early 2015.
We thought we were getting a great deal, only to find that for a period of about six or seven months the
price fell almost daily. This can cause you to test your thesis again and again. But we did, and added to our
position throughout that entire period. It took 13 months, however, from our initial purchase through to the
share price trough. Psychologically this can be very hard. You need to fully trust your process and have the
discipline to stay true to your convictions.
In time, the stock recovered and rewarded our patience. But that is why this investment approach can test
our discipline and that of our investors. Sometimes we do find it challenging, but over the long term, we
believe contrarian investing adds value.
35 4500
4000
30
3500
25
Worley Parsons share price ($)
Holdings (x1000)
3000
20 2500
15 2000
1500
10
1000
5
500
0 0
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Time
Source: Allan Gray Australia and Datastream. The Allan Gray Australia Equity Fund is used to illustrate our Australian equity
strategy holding pattern.
‘He was not a military analyst, and even if he were, he had no basis to compute the odds of Napoleon’s
defeat or victory, or hard-to-identify ambiguous outcomes. Still, he knew that competition was thin, that
the seller was eager, and that his windfall pounds should Napoleon lose would be worth much more than
the pounds he’d lose should Napoleon win. Ricardo knew a good bet when he saw it’.
WARREN BUFFETT –
A RENOWNED CONTRARIAN INVESTOR
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful” is one of Warren
Buffett’s most famous quotes and sums up his contrarian approach to investing.
He is widely considered to be one of the most successful investors in the world and
is a renowned American business magnate and philanthropist. One of his famous
contrarian moves was during the 2008 financial crisis, when the markets were in crisis.
Despite investor sentiment being at record lows, he kept counselling Americans to buy.
Fast forward to now and his contrarian advice has yielded rewards, with the S&P 500
soaring over the last ten years.
MYTH 1
Contrarian investing is simply value investing
People often think contrarian investors are simply value investors. ‘Value’ stocks are often considered to be
those with a low price to earnings (P/E) ratio, which measures a company’s current share price in relation
to its earnings per share. It helps investors compare the relative value of different companies. A high P/E
ratio could mean a stock is overvalued, or that investors are expecting higher growth rates in the future.
Conversely, a low P/E ratio could mean the company is undervalued.
But a contrarian investor doesn’t always invest in companies with a low P/E ratio. In fact, we will sometimes
invest in companies that appear to have a high P/E ratio, based on current earnings.
Another myth is that contrarian investors are waiting for a catalyst to trigger an earnings turnaround
and a rise in the share price, but this is rarely the case. Much like economic (or even weather!)
forecasting, catalysts are exceptionally difficult to predict.
The chart below shows why an earnings turnaround isn’t always necessary, rather the outcome only
needs to be better (or less bad) than the market predicts.
Here, the market’s expectation is for much lower earnings in future, as shown by the grey dotted
line, which is a terrible outcome for the company. As markets are forward-looking, the share price
has already reacted to the market’s expectations and dipped, as shown by the red line. The actual
outcome is worse than today, but not as bad as the market expected. Earnings are only ‘bad’ rather
than ‘terrible”, so the stock beats the market’s expectations and the share price rises. As investors in
that stock, we don’t need a catalyst to trigger an earnings turnaround, the stock just needs to beat
market expectations and we can do well.
Price Earnings
Value
Actual outcome
Market expectations
Time
When choosing a contrarian investment strategy, we believe there are four key characteristics that play an
important role in investment outcomes:
ALIGNMENT OF INTERESTS
Alignment of interest between fund managers and clients is important in
ensuring that decision-making focuses on investment outcomes, rather than
being driven by the self-interest of intermediaries. There has been plenty of
discussion around fund manager career risk and job security limiting investment
managers’ approaches. Employee ownership, co-investment and performance
fees can all play powerful roles in aligning the interests of the fund manager with
the interests of investors and help to safeguard against closet indexation as a
managed fund gathers more assets under management.
OPPOSING CONSENSUS
Doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing can be psychologically
challenging and feel uncomfortable to many investors. The fact that prospective
returns can be inversely proportional to the popularity of an investment can be
counterintuitive to investor psychology. Ironically, it is doing what is unpopular
and uncomfortable that makes contrarian investing such a rewarding and
sustainable strategy.
Going against human instinct and taking a contrarian approach to investing can be challenging. It takes
practice, and commitment in your convictions.
There aren’t many managers that invest this way, so our investments can look very different.
Phone: +61 2 8224 8641 Phone: +61 2 8224 8683 Phone: +61 7 3557 6080
Mobile: +61 409 989 719 Mobile: +61 428 391 817 Mobile: +61 439 444 121
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Phone: +61 3 9134 4042 Phone: +61 3 9134 4043 Phone: +61 2 8224 8619
Mobile: +61 488 996 621 Mobile: +61 439 801 196 Mobile: +61 425 866 638
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
This document is for Australian individuals only. Allan Gray Australia Pty Limited ABN 48 112 316 168, AFSL No. 298487. The
information in this brochure is of a general nature only and does not constitute a recommendation, an offer to sell or a solicitation
to buy any financial product. It has been prepared without taking into account the individual objectives, financial situation or needs
of any particular person. Before acting on anything in this brochure, you should consider its appropriateness having regard to
your objectives, financial situation or needs. Past performance of any financial product mentioned in this brochure is not a reliable
indication of future performance. There are risks with investing and there is no guarantee of a repayment of capital or return on your
investment. Where this document provides commentary on a particular security or company, it is done to demonstrate the reasons
why we have or have not dealt in that particular security for our portfolio. This report is current as at its date of publication, is given
in good faith and has been derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. While Allan Gray has endeavoured to ensure
the accuracy of this document, we provide no warranty of accuracy or reliability in relation to such information, nor do we accept any
liability to any person who relies on it. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. MARCH 2020