Rogers' takeaway from Buffett's writing was that many of the goods and services consumers loved — from cruises to peanut butter and yes, real estate — would still exist after the crisis.Whenever Rogers opened a copy of Barron's, the first thing he checked was how his fund did for the week versus its peers. He said he would also study the portfolios of peers at T. Rowe Price, Weiss, and other firms for ideas on where to find bargains.
"If you can understand what smart investors are investing in that is not performing well, that can be a source of new ideas," Rogers said. And in making his own decisions, Rogers' firm assigned a"devil's advocate" to every stock to pushback on the portfolio manager's views. These guidelines informed the decisions to invest in the companies and sectors below, and to refuse to sell even when analysts had thrown in the towel:Rogers said companies in this space, especially in television, continue to be"extraordinarily cheap," as many trade at 10x earnings or less. His favorite picks include