Under the Radar: One of the Market's Steadiest Hands Just Revealed His Best Ideas

As we close the books on the latest round of 13F filings, I want to pause and take a look at one more investor, someone whose name you are unlikely to see on financial television or in the headlines of the mainstream business press. He does not trend on social media, and even most professionals on Wall Street pay him little attention. And yet, this investor has quietly compiled one of the strongest long-term track records in the industry.

That kind of low-profile consistency is worth studying and learning from.

Most of the attention this filing season went, predictably, to the usual names. Warren Buffett’s filings always get a tremendous amount of coverage, and rightfully so, given his record and stature. But in truth, there is not a great deal of actionable information in Berkshire Hathaway’s positions anymore, at least not for individual investors. The firm’s enormous capital base limits what Buffett can buy.

The best time to follow Buffett’s moves was several decades ago, when the ideas were smaller, more nimble, and better suited to portfolios like ours.

Cathie Wood still draws plenty of interest, though her recent performance has not been particularly compelling. Her strategy is rooted in high-growth, high-turnover positions which a sharp contrast to the value discipline I tend to favor.

Navellier is another notable name. I have worked with him in the past and hold him in high regard. He is one of the best growth stock managers of our time, and I have learned a great deal from his work. That said, his portfolio turnover is high, and he does not hesitate to sell when fundamentals weaken.

That means his 13F snapshots often reflect a moment in time that may already be outdated by the time we see it.

Then there is Michael Burry. His filings get an extraordinary amount of attention, largely because of his success during the 2008 financial crisis and the fact that Hollywood turned his story into a feature film.

Burry is certainly a talented investor. But the nature of his portfolio today is quite different from the long-term value style he was once known for.

 He now moves quickly, trades around positions, and frequently uses options and leverage. For example, in his Q1 2025 filing, he had sold all of his stock positions and held a series of puts on Chinese internet companies including Alibaba, JD.com, PDD Holdings, Trip.com, and Baidu.

That was an aggressive stance, but it is entirely possible he closed those trades weeks ago. His portfolio today may look nothing like it did 45 days ago. For long-term investors, that kind of rapid turnover limits the usefulness of his filings.

Which brings us to Glenn Greenberg and Brave Warrior Advisors, an investor and firm I follow closely, quarter after quarter. While Greenberg does not seek the spotlight, his performance over the past four decades speaks for itself. He has been quietly compounding capital at an elite level since the early 1980s, using a thoughtful, disciplined approach that emphasizes quality and patience.

Greenberg’s background is well known to some, but still worth repeating. He comes from a prominent New York family. his father was Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Greenberg, and his mother’s family founded Gimbel’s Department Store. This is not a bootstraps story.

He was well-educated with degrees from Yale, NYU and  Columbia and began his career at Central National and Morgan Guaranty. In 1984, he co-founded Chieftain Capital, which went on to become one of the best-performing investment firms of the era.

Between 1984 and 2009, Chieftain delivered compound annual returns of 18%, compared to the S&P 500’s 12% return over that same period. That is an exceptional level of outperformance over a 25-year span, especially during a period that included some of the best markets in history.

After leaving Chieftain in 2009, Greenberg launched Brave Warrior Advisors. The results have continued to be strong.

Brave Warrior runs a highly focused portfolio, usually holding between 10 and 20 companies, with the top positions accounting for a large share of total assets. The team is intensely research-driven.

They focus on companies that already generate high returns on invested capital, not those that might reach that level someday. They look for durable competitive advantages and prefer to buy at a meaningful discount to intrinsic value.

Greenberg typically seeks a 20% margin of safety before committing capital.

When Brave Warrior buys a stock, they are often prepared to hold for years. Five, six, even seven years is not uncommon. But when a business’s quality begins to deteriorate, or if the valuation runs too far ahead of fundamentals, they will trim or exit without hesitation.

This is classic long-term value investing. It is not exciting, and it rarely grabs headlines—but it works. And that is precisely why we are paying attention.

While the financial media was dissecting Buffett’s mega-cap holdings or speculating on Burry’s latest options trades, Glenn Greenberg quietly filed a 13F revealing what he and his team were buying in the first quarter of 2025. Most investors will overlook it.

We will not.

Here are the top five purchases of Glenn Greenberg and his team in the first quarter of 2025:

SLM Corporation SLM, better known as Sallie Mae, is the largest private student lender in the United States. It operates primarily through the origination and servicing of private education loans, targeting students attending degree-granting institutions.

With the federal government dominating subsidized student lending, Sallie Mae focuses on creditworthy borrowers and graduate programs, positioning itself more like a specialized consumer finance company than a legacy government-sponsored entity. It also retains a legacy book of government-backed loans and has divested its loan servicing and federal loan business, narrowing its focus and improving capital allocation.

From a disciplined value investor’s perspective, SLM offers a compelling margin of safety and return profile. The company consistently returns capital to shareholders via aggressive buybacks, often repurchasing 10% or more of shares annually.

The loan book is high-yielding, and SLM maintains strong underwriting standards with a heavy tilt toward co-signed loans and high-FICO borrowers.

Greenberg-style investing is about buying quality businesses at discounted prices, and SLM fits the mold: dominant franchise, high return on equity, rational capital deployment, misunderstood by the market.

This is not a business without risk as credit quality can turn with the economy, but the risks are well-priced. With strong capital ratios and a shareholder-friendly management team, SLM is a textbook example of a cheap, durable business that rewards patient ownership.

Millrose Properties, Inc. MRP is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in residential land banking through its innovative Homesite Option Purchase Platform. Spun off from Lennar Corporation in February 2025, Millrose provides capital-efficient solutions for homebuilders by acquiring, developing, and managing homesites under purchase option agreements. This model enables homebuilders to access developed land aligned with their construction schedules, minimizing traditional entitlement risks and transforming land assets into dynamic, work-in-process inventory.

With a focus on risk mitigation, capital efficiency, and tailored financing solutions, Millrose Properties offers investors a unique opportunity to participate in the residential real estate market through a publicly traded, income-generating vehicle.

Builders FirstSource BLDR stands as the country’s largest supplier of structural building products and off-site manufactured components, playing a key role in how homes get built across the U.S. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, the company operates nearly 600 distribution and manufacturing locations spanning 43 states, reaching virtually every major U.S. housing market. BLDR’s scale is formidable, but it is the shift toward higher-margin, value-added services that has drawn the attention of long-term investors.

Over the past decade, Builders FirstSource transformed itself through a series of savvy acquisitions, most notably the 2015 purchase of ProBuild and its 2021 merger with BMC Stock Holdings. These deals turned the company into a vertically integrated powerhouse, enabling it to deliver not just raw materials like lumber and windows, but also turnkey solutions like floor trusses, wall panels, and full framing packages. Roughly half of its business now comes from these value-added products, making BLDR less sensitive to commodity lumber prices and more tied to long-term trends in construction productivity.

New CEO Peter Jackson is betting big on off-site construction and modular building as the future of residential development. For long-term investors looking to ride secular housing demand while reducing exposure to raw material volatility, Builders FirstSource offers a durable, efficient way to stay exposed to the U.S. homebuilding engine.

Capital One Financial COF has quietly positioned itself as one of the most compelling names in large-cap financials, particularly for value-focused investors. Following its pending acquisition of Discover Financial, the combined company will become the largest credit card issuer in the U.S. and the eighth-largest bank by total assets. While the market has focused on regulatory hurdles and integration risks, the long-term strategic and financial logic behind the deal appears sound.

Shares currently trade at just over 11x forward earnings, and under 10x projected 2027 EPS, levels that imply little credit for the growth and cost-efficiency potential of the Discover transaction. Compared to the broader market’s valuation, Capital One offers a substantial discount with an improving earnings trajectory and a conservative capital management approach.

The Discover acquisition enhances Capital One’s scale in card lending and introduces a new payments platform. This could create long-term advantages in both customer reach and cost efficiency. Leadership remains consistent, with founder and CEO Richard Fairbank continuing to focus on underwriting discipline and long-term value creation.

Lennar Corporation is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States, operating across diverse geographies with a disciplined focus on scale, efficiency, and capital returns. The company benefits from vertical integration, including mortgage, title, and land development operations, which enhances margins and provides greater control over the construction pipeline.

Lennar has methodically reduced its land ownership, opting instead for a more capital-light approach through land optioning, a strategy that reduces risk and increases return on equity.

From a value investor’s standpoint, Lennar represents a compelling opportunity. The company trades at a modest multiple of earnings and book value despite generating strong free cash flow, maintaining a fortress balance sheet, and returning significant capital through share repurchases and dividends. The long-term fundamentals for housing remain attractive, with structural underbuilding over the past decade creating a durable supply-demand imbalance. Lennar’s operational excellence, shareholder-friendly capital allocation, and strong positioning within an essential industry make it a high-quality business trading at a reasonable price.