A value firm founded in 1992 by Donald Yacktman, known for buying quality consumer companies cheaply and holding plenty of cash when bargains are scarce.
Life story
Donald Yacktman graduated magna cum laude in economics from the University of Utah (1965) and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa; he then earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard. He lived in Arlington Heights, Illinois, with his wife Carolyn; they have seven children. Little is publicly known about his birth year or childhood.
How they got started
Yacktman was a portfolio manager at Stein Roe & Farnham in Chicago from 1968 and a partner from 1972. From 1983 to 1992 he was president and portfolio manager of Selected American Shares, and Morningstar named him its 1991 Portfolio Manager of the Year.
In 1992 he founded Yacktman Asset Management: the Yacktman Fund launched on July 6, 1992, and the Yacktman Focused Fund on April 30, 1997. His son Stephen Yacktman joined in 1993 and became co-CIO in 2006; analyst Jason Subotky was promoted to manager in 2009.
In 2012 Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) acquired a majority stake, while the management team kept a substantial share of the equity and continued to run day-to-day operations.
Investment style
Yacktman buys high-quality, durable companies — especially consumer staples — when they become cheap. The portfolio is concentrated: in 2012 the fund held about 40 stocks, with the top three making up nearly a quarter of assets.
A distinctive trait is a willingness to hold large amounts of cash when bargains are scarce. That can mean lagging in frothy markets but losing less in crashes.
Best decisions
Defense in 2002 and 2008
According to The Motley Fool, the Yacktman Fund gained 11% in 2002 while the market fell more than 20%, and in 2008 it limited its loss to 26%, beating peers by over 10 percentage points.
The 2009 rebound
At the bottom of the crisis in 2009 the fund bought deeply discounted shares such as Bank of America and Viacom, and it rose nearly 60% that year.
PepsiCo
In 2012 PepsiCo was the fund's largest position, seen as a business able to weather uncertain economic periods.
Biggest mistakes
Limited public information
We could not find detailed accounts of specific mistakes acknowledged by Yacktman in the public sources we reviewed. Holding a lot of cash creates a risk of lagging in strong bull markets.
Today
The firm operates within AMG (its funds carry the AMG Yacktman name). Stephen Yacktman is chief investment officer and portfolio manager. We did not find reliable recent information on Donald Yacktman's status in 2025–2026.
What to learn from following the portfolio
- Yacktman buys quality companies when they get cheap — new positions opened during market sell-offs are especially interesting signals.
- A 13F does not show cash: the firm may be holding a lot of it, which the list of stocks won't reveal. The data is also 45 days old.
- Consumer staples companies may often pass halal screening, but banks, media and alcohol- or tobacco-related companies also appear. Check each position's halal status in the Portfolio tab.
An introduction based on public sources — not investment advice. Spotted an error? Let us know.