The most profitable 'value' funds earn up to 38% in six months

Value investment is living a new golden age. The best managers stand out with returns of between 14% and 38% in the first half of the year.

Spanish value funds have starred in a streak of positive returns over the last five years, which has already made investors forget those years when they lagged behind growth-style products. The best Spanish value managers achieve double-digit returns over the last five exercises, the minimum period recommended to assess a fund's results beyond punctual market movements.

However, it is worth looking at short-term movements and results to identify the investment decisions that are marking the most recent evolution of portfolios and to know which are the main bets of managers. At the close of the first half, the most profitable Spanish value fund was the Paradigma Value Catalyst Equity, managed by Andrés Allende, of A&G Global Investors.

Like other value managers, Allende looks for cheap companies in the market to build a concentrated long-term portfolio. Despite the widespread rejection of value managers to invest in technology, this fund has achieved a return of 38.4% in the half-year largely thanks to its exposure to companies in the sector that have soared on the stock market with the AI boom.

"The value can also invest in technology. What we like at the end is to see who has control over their future and who has a reasonable valuation," the manager explained in a recent interview with EXPANSIÓN. Among its main positions are several companies related to semiconductors such as SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and TSMC.

Another of its successful bets has been energy companies such as Blue Nord, a Danish producer in a mature field that, after completing its investment phase, has started paying a 30% dividend, and in Kosmos Energy, which after years of heavy spending and delays in a large project in West Africa, reaches an operational turning point that the market has started to reward.

Looking ahead to the next few years, it trusts in the potential of the health sector and companies linked to luxury on the stock market.

Bestinver's flagship fund, the Bestinfond, has achieved a return of 15.4% at the close of June. In its last quarterly letter, Bestinver's managers also subscribe to the dogma that investing in value is not incompatible with investing in technology.

"Value investment is not about buying certain industries and excluding others, but about buying good companies for less than they are worth, regardless of the sector," the managers explained, who believe that despite observing "very overvalued" technology companies, it also "offers unique opportunities for investors who strive to distinguish between a good story, a good company, and a good investment".

In recent months, the manager has increased its investment in the US giant Meta, and at an international level, it has been reinforced in companies from other sectors such as Reckitt, CNH Industrial, and BMW.

The Azvalor Internacional, with a 15.1% revaluation in the first half, is another of the value funds of the period. The manager does not reveal any of its portfolio movements but has taken advantage of its last quarterly letter to warn of the excess valuation in the market and of investing in indexes: "The market is not cheap. For the first time in 20 years, the dividend yield of the S&P500 is lower than that of treasury bills.

The index has doubled since October 2020, while profits have only risen by 30%. Watch out for investing in indexes".

Azvalor's investment team ensures that "we are still in a new golden age for our style of investment.

The star fund of Cobas Asset Management, the Cobas Selección, which combines the most convincing ideas of the managers, has obtained a return of 14.5% from January to June.

The most significant movement of Cobas during the half-year, according to its last letter to investors, was the reduction of its investment in the energy sector, which has been a fundamental part of the manager's portfolio and has also had a lot of weight in the revaluation of the funds.

The energy sector represents around 24% of the international portfolio, compared to 30% at the end of 2025 and 46% at its maximum in early 2022.

The most relevant divestment within the energy sector has taken place in energy services, made up of engineering companies and service providers along the value chain of the hydrocarbon sector.

It has sold Saipem and Weatherford, after revaluations of around 75% and 40%, respectively.

During the first half-year, however, the manager has entered new companies, such as family holdings Exor and Bolloré, and the world leader in dialysis, Fresenius Medical Care.

Another novelty of the portfolio is the acquisition of shares in the British JD Sports, which is one of the main distributors of urban and sports fashion in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.