These Investors Earned 20% to 33% Returns Using The Same Philosophy on Completely Different Stocks

The Investing for Beginners Podcast recently revisited one of the most influential ideas in modern finance. That was Benjamin Graham’s concept of buying with a margin of safety. In fact, according to host Andrew Sather, Graham’s Columbia students went on to compound capital at extraordinary rates using the same principles applied to wildly different portfolios. Walter Schloss earned 21% a year. Tweedy Brown earned 20% a year. Warren Buffett earned close to 30% a year.  Sequoia Fund earned 18% a year. Charlie Munger earned 20% a year. Rick Guerin earned 33% a year over 18 years.

The takeaway for individual investors is that the philosophy travels even when the stocks do not overlap. Two living practitioners make that case clearly today: Warren Buffett at Berkshire and Tom Gayner at Markel.

Buffett’s Quality Compounders

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B | BRK-B Price Prediction) trades at roughly 14 trailing earnings and a 1.4 price-to-book ratio, with a 10.5% return on equity and a 19.3% profit margin. The stock has compounded 236.81% over the past ten years, even after a 5.43% year-to-date pullback.

The equity portfolio reads like a Graham syllabus written in consumer brands and franchises. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) just posted Q1 2026 EPS of $0.86 against an $0.81 estimate with 12.1% revenue growth to $12.47 billion and a 43.4% return on equity. American Express (NYSE: AXP) delivered EPS of $4.28 versus $3.99 expected, with billed business of $428.0 billion, up 10% year over year. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) raised its dividend 3.1% to $1.34 per quarter, extending a 64-year streak, and reported $24.06 billion in Q1 2026 revenue. JNJ shares have gained 48.18% over the past year.

Each name is mainstream, with durable cash flow, pricing power, and decades of compounded capital returns. American Express CEO Stephen Squeri summarized the Amex side of that thesis on the latest call: “We delivered 10 percent FX-adjusted revenue growth and 18 percent EPS growth in the quarter. Card Member spending grew 9 percent FX-adjusted, the highest quarterly growth in three years.”

Tom Gayner’s Parallel Path at Markel

Markel Group (NYSE: MKL) runs the same structural playbook on a smaller stage: insurance float funding equity investments and wholly owned operating businesses. Gayner’s 2025 commentary repeated the familiar compounding framework. “In 2025, the Markel Group delivered meaningful progress. Operating income was $3.2 billion and adjusted operating income exceeded $2.3 billion, with every reportable segment making meaningful contributions,” he wrote in the company’s annual filing.

Q4 2025 EPS of $48.75 beat the $25.73 estimate. The combined ratio improved to 94.6% from 95.5%, and Markel deployed $429.5 million in share repurchases. Shareholders’ equity reached $18.6 billion. The stock trades at roughly 13 times trailing earnings and a 1.23 price-to-book. It had a three-year return of 32.54% through early June.

Apply the Principles, Pick Your Own Names

Co-host Stephen Morris captured the key point on the podcast: “Munger didn’t have the same portfolio as Buffett. He still did pretty good for himself.” The Superinvestors of Graham and Dodd shared a method. Their portfolios looked very different.

For individual investors, the implication is practical. Studying Berkshire’s roughly $1 trillion market capitalization or Markel’s compounding record is useful as a model of how patient capital allocation works. Replicating every holding misses the lesson. As Sather framed it, these investors were “all from the same school of thought that Benjamin Graham started, which is this idea of value investing.” The philosophy is portable. The research has to be your own.