Oakmark Funds' Bill Nygren sees these value stock picks as cheap

Published Tue, Nov 29 20224:08 PM EST

There are opportunities to pick up value stocks in today's market, though it isn't cheap overall, according to Bill Nygren, a portfolio manager at Oakmark Funds. Still, the spread of price-to-earnings multiples today is about 40% wider than it used to be, he said. "There are lots of expensive stocks and lots of very cheap stocks," he said on CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Tuesday. His fund is always looking for undervalued names that are out of favor, he added. "Those are the ones that are hurt the least by high interest rates, so I think the value trade has a lot of room left," Nygren said. Nygren's value picks He likes Capital One , especially after the main market for the company got a boost from pandemic stimulus and wage increases in lower-paying jobs, which has led to lenders performing well in credit losses. The stock is down nearly 30% year to date. "We think they are one of the most efficient, technologically advanced lenders out there," he said. He also likes a slew of media names including Charter Communications , Disney , Netflix and Warner Brothers Discovery. Charter is a top name on the list because it is a large cable provider including internet, which is an important business segment, Nygren said. Eventually, he thinks investors will look at the company as an infrastructure play and worry less about cord-cutting in cable. "The more people stream, the faster internet service they need," he said. Nygren also likes Disney for its assets, including its theme parks and its outstanding film library. He said the stock is a deal at its current level, which is off 39% since January. His fund also owns Netflix, which has lost half its value year to date, and said it as an attractive opportunity even as streamers are getting hit hard. "We don't think the streaming business is going to be a winner-take-most business," he said. "The average consumer will end up subscribing to multiple streaming services." In the group, Oakmark thinks that Netflix, Disney and Warner Brothers Discovery are winners in that battle. "We think the companies that have strong distribution and strong catalogs are the likely winners," he added.