“When he first bought Amazon, everyone said he was nuts,” said Mason. “But he was convinced he was right and it turns out he was.”
Netflix Trade
Miller’s shares of the ecommerce giant in the Opportunity Trust were purchased for an average of just above $20 a share. Today they trade for more than $525.
When Netflix lost 80 percent of its value between 2011 and 2012, Miller bought the stock at about $60 a share. “It is up more than 10-fold in three years,” he said.
Miller has made changes since the last recession. He is more sensitive to broad macroeconomic developments, a policy that kept him from investing in Europe during the Continent’s debt crisis in 2011. The fund also no longer buys hard-to-sell assets such as private equity stakes, said Samantha McLemore, Miller’s co-manager.
Michael Mauboussin, a Credit Suisse executive who has known Miller for more than 20 years, said Miller was and still is a smart contrarian investor. The wild swings in his reputation, said Mauboussin, need to be put in perspective.
“When things are going well, you are a genius,” he said. “When they are going badly you are dope. The truth is never as extreme.”