Longtime friends and clients of Apollo Wealth Management know we are big fans of the team at Tweedy, Browne and their commonsense, value-conscious investment style. Their research-intensive operation shuns benchmarks, short-term performance and wholesale portfolio turnover. Instead their focus is on minimizing losses and providing positive long-term absolute returns. Equally appealing is they “eat their own cooking” – the managers invest their own money alongside fund shareholders.

Tweedy, Browne’s long-term success has garnered lots of industry praise. Morningstar named the firm International Stock Manager of the Year in 2000. Yet for all their success the firm flies below the radar of the popular press. (Can you recall seeing an ad for Tweedy, Browne on TV? Unlikely. That’s the purview of the Fidelity’s of the world and their ubiquitous green line!)

Once again Tweedy, Browne is at the forefront and it’s no accident. As a result Morningstar has nominated them for International Stock Managers of the Year. Here’s an excerpt:

“This management team has evolved since it was named International-Stock Manager of the Year in 2000: Tom Shrager and Bob Wyckoff joined the team in 2005, while Chris Browne stepped down from the team in mid-2009 (and tragically died later that year). But the team has stuck with the value discipline that has been in place since this fund opened in 1993. That discipline, which focuses on stocks from across the market-cap spectrum that are cheaper than their private market values, is distinctive as well as sound. The team pays lots of attention to lesser-known names, is willing to load up on individual markets and sectors, and is really patient. It’s also unusual that the team normally hedges most of its foreign-currency exposure back into the dollar.

The team has implemented its value discipline deftly in 2010. Thanks to a diverse mix of picks that have prospered, including lesser-owned names like the German media company Axel Springer and the Finnish elevator- and escalator-maker Kone Oyj, this fund is up 12% and leads 95% of its foreign large-value peers for the year to date through Dec. 9. The team has also executed its style skillfully in a variety of other climates in the 2000s, including the 2008 meltdown and the 2009 rebound, so this fund boasts first-rate three-, five-, 10-, and 15-year returns. That all of the team members have significant to sizable investments in this fund is another factor in their favor.”