ESL

 I once made many mistakes with SHLD in my life, but that is another story for another day. I just read a short post on Lampert successes with AXP, IBM, AZO, and AN in his past.

 From 1988 to 2002, ESL’s gains averaged 24.5%, nearly double that of the S&P’s 13% annual return, with only one down year in 1991. AUM rose from a mere $28mm to $5bn, with prominent L.P.s including media mogul David Geffen, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, and Ziff Brothers Investments. Although he briefly contemplated retiring, Lampert compared himself to Michael Jordan, saying that people kept criticizing him, but he kept on winning [1, 2, 5, 6].

Trading at a little over $20 per share in 1997 when he began building his stake, Lampert ultimately exited this investment for between $500 to $600 per share in 2012 for a total of approximately $1.5bn. 

A 30x in 15 years is 25.5% CAGR. If he had held, AZO from June 2012 for 12 more years to today, it would have 8.41x for 19.4% CAGR.