Money manager Mark Travis will never be all things to all people, and that suits him just fine.
"We have capacity constraint, where we can't really manage more than $3 billion," the president and portfolio manager of the Intrepid Capital Fund told AdvisorOne at the 2012 Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago on Wednesday. "If I ever find I'm simply hugging an index and not providing real value, I'll go hunting or fishing or something else."
He has a down-home, good-old-boy attitude that, while charming, masks a sophisticated individual (seemingly intentionally so) who knows how to make money for his clients. In addition to his duties as lead portfolio manager of the Intrepid Capital Fund, he's a member of the investment teams responsible for the Intrepid Small Cap Fund, Intrepid Income Fund and Intrepid All Cap Fund.
"For 17 years, I've been contrarian and valuation sensitive," said the Jacksonville, Fla.-raised Travis, who also happens to be a major Tim Tebow fan. "If I don't find something good in which to invest based on valuations, I'll go to cash."
Intrepid Capital Funds has assets of $1.4 billion, with $370 million in ICMBX. Travis believes price is not always indicative of value (obviously), so strategy is driven by internal research that focuses on a business's value–not changing stock prices.
The Intrepid team brags it's good at finding value in stocks not readily covered by Wall Street, and it typically invests in businesses with sustainable competitive advantages, high free cash flows and quality balance sheets. It also believes in financially strong companies that are market leaders in their industries, those have an ability to outperform when "catalysts for change exist" and can be purchased as a sizeable discount.
