“Value investment is an investment strategy that employs buying stocks of well-managed and quality companies at prices significantly below their intrinsic value. The core of Hawkins’ strategy is to purchase equities when their market price is no more than 60% of the firm’s appraisal of their intrinsic value. Value investors believe that the market overreacts to economic news, which leads to movement in stock prices, however, this news does not affect the long-term fundamentals of a company. Therefore, investors like Mason Hawkins do not follow the herd and use financial research and analysis to find quality companies. Value investors are also known for holding companies for the long term, but also actively ferret out stock that the market is underestimating.
Mason Hawkins is one of the key figures for value investment literature. He has been a keynote speaker for the Value Investment Conference at the Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing, where he discussed how a company has to be fit both qualitatively and quantitatively. Hawkins noted that Benjamin Graham, who is known as the father of value investing, talked about all great investments being a qualitative and quantitative fit, the quantitative nature being judged by the Price to Value ratio, whereas qualitative health being judged by the competitiveness of the business and the quality of your partner. He further explained that investors should look at businesses that are likely to get better with time, not vice versa. Moreover, on the management side, investors should look at the partners that are running the company and their ability to generate free cash flow and reinvest it very intelligently.
Hawkins also has a famous quote related to Graham’s strategy, which has been cited in a renowned book, The Art of Value Investing: How the World’s Best Investors Beat the Market by John Heins and Whitney Tilson.
“Our view is simply that superior long‐term investment performance can be achieved when financially strong, competitively entrenched, well‐managed companies are bought at prices significantly below their business value and sold when they approach that corporate worth. The quantitative piece of that is that we only want to buy when we can pay less than 60 percent of a conservative appraisal of a company’s value, based on the present value of future free cash flows, current liquidation value and/or comparable sales.”
This qualitative and quantitative value investment strategy is reflected in Southeastern Asset Management’s strategies. The fund has a concentrated stock portfolio of only 40 to 50 companies. Let’s now take a look at stocks with huge upside potential from Billionaire Mason Hawkins’ portfolio.
Our Methodology
To compile the list of billionaire Mason Hawkins’ 10 mid-cap stocks with huge upside potential, we sifted through 13F filings of Southeastern Asset Management, from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock’s upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of the upside potential. We have also added the stake Southeastern Asset Management holds in each company and the hedge fund sentiment around each stock. Please note that the data was recorded on May 4, 2025. Also note that for this article, we have defined mid-cap companies as those with a market capitalization between $10 billion to $55 billion.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (H): Among Billionaire Mason Hawkins’ Mid-Cap Stocks with Huge Upside Potential
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) is an international hospitality company that owns and manages franchises of a diverse hotel portfolio. Its portfolio is segregated into five main categories, including the Luxury portfolio, Lifestyle, Inclusive collection, Classics, and Essentials. It operates around 1,460 hotels and resorts in 79 countries.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) employs an asset-light approach, which relies on managing and franchising hotels rather than owning them. This way, the company generates income through the fees and also remains away from economic downturns. During the fiscal first quarter of 2025, the company reported a strong revenue per available room, which grew 5.7% year-over-year. This was also boosted by a 10.5% growth in net rooms. The company had more than 138,000 rooms franchised during the quarter, generating $307 million in gross fees and reflecting a 16.9% growth year-over-year.
Looking ahead, Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) anticipates RevPAR growth to be around 1% to 3%, with net room growth at 6% to 7%. The company ranks as one of billionaire Mason Hawkins’ 10 mid-cap stocks with huge upside potential.
Nightview Capital stated the following regarding Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Travel and entertainment are transforming as consumers prioritize experiences over material goods. This isn’t a return to pre pandemic norms—it’s a reinvention of how we connect, explore, and enjoy life. Travelers seek uniqueness and personalization, while entertainment blends digital and physical realms to create new experiences. The companies leading this evolution are redefining tradition through innovation, delivering unforgettable moments to a new generation. These businesses are not just adapting—they’re shaping the future of the experience economy.
Overall, H ranks 4th on our list of billionaire Mason Hawkins’ mid-cap stocks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of H as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than H but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
