Value investing themes revive

Value investing is back in circulation on social media, with posts in April 2026 reviving an older playbook: buy pieces of businesses, not just cheap-looking tickers. (x.com) The posts point readers toward price-to-book ratios, a measure that compares a company’s market value with the net assets on its balance sheet, and away from using low price-to-earnings ratios alone as a shortcut. New York University finance professor Aswath Damodaran notes that price-to-book can be a “stable, intuitive measure of value,” but says it works best when accounting is comparable and asset values still mean something. (pages.stern.nyu.edu) Several of the threads also stress “moats,” Warren Buffett’s term for durable competitive advantages such as cost advantages, brand power, or switching costs that can protect profits over time. That framing shifts the screen from statistically cheap stocks to businesses that can keep earning high returns on capital. (x.com) A Seth Klarman quotation recirculating in the same discussion describes value investing as more than a bargain-hunting formula and says the discipline requires “fundamental analysis” and resistance to “crowd psychology.” The line is widely attributed to Klarman’s 1991 book *Margin of Safety*, which remains a touchstone for contrarian investors. (x.com) (goodreads.com) The timing follows a long stretch in which growth stocks, especially large technology companies, dominated market returns and left classic value strategies looking dated. Eugene Fama and Kenneth French wrote in a 2020 paper that value premiums were “on average much lower” in the second half of their 1963-2019 sample than in the first. (papers.ssrn.com) Even so, the academic machinery behind value investing is still active. Kenneth French’s data library shows the high-minus-low value factor, or HML, gained 8.05% over the 12 months through February 2026, after changes in the underlying data process took effect in January 2025. (mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu) That does not mean a low price-to-book ratio is automatically a bargain. Damodaran’s framework ties price-to-book to return on equity and growth, and he warns that book value can be distorted by accounting choices or become less useful for service and technology firms with few tangible assets. (pages.stern.nyu.edu) Klarman has kept making the same case in recent interviews. In an August 1, 2025 episode of Columbia Business School’s *Value Investing with Legends*, he discussed market inefficiencies, patience, and what the show described as the “contrarian” side of value investing. (valueinvestingwithlegends.libsyn.com) The thread revival does not settle whether value will outperform next month or next year. It does show that, in April 2026, investors online are again arguing that price matters most when it is attached to a business they think they understand. (x.com)