How Has Warren Buffett Performed In The 7-Year Bull Market?

Perhaps the single most iconic investor of all time, Warren Buffett, has made a name and a fortune for himself and his investors by taking a long-term approach to stock market investing that centers on identifying durable market value. However, the “Oracle of Omaha” will be turning 86 years old this August, and critics have argued that Buffett has grown increasingly out of touch with the modern, fast-paced FinTech world of world of algorithms and high-frequency trading.

A handful of Buffett’s largest investments in recent years, such as ConocoPhillips COP and International Business Machines Corp IBM have been painful ones. In addition, Buffett’s conservative value-centric investing approach has not been aligned with the general attitude of the seven-year bull market, which has rewarded high-growth, high-multiple tech stocks with massive gains.

As it turns out, Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-B), has held up just fine during the seven years since the market bottomed. In fact, the stock has even slightly outpaced the returns of S&P 500 during that time, returning 200.1 percent versus the S&P 500’s 194.2 percent gain during that time.

The market has started of 2016 on shaky ground as investors have begun to worry that the bull market has reached its end. Now could be the time when Buffett’s value investments shine brightest. In the two years prior to the market bottom in 2009, Berkshire outperformed the S&P 500 by about 15 percent.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.