By Paul R. La Monica
The NCAA college basketball tournament kicked off Thursday. But Mario Gabelli of Gamco Investors says it's March Madness for the stock market too.
Gabelli and Ariel investments founder John W. Rogers Jr., two prominent members of the Barron's Roundtable , talked about the recent market volatility and some of their favorite stocks during the afternoon session of the Value Invest New York conference.
Gabelli said one way to mitigate the volatility is to invest in the business of sports, an area that he has long been a fan of and which he thinks will continue to benefit from increased team valuations and higher levels for streaming and broadcast media rights.
He pointed to the stocks of Atlanta Braves, Madison Square Garden Sports, Manchester United and Rogers Communications, the Canadian media firm that owns a majority stake in the parent company of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors hockey and basketball teams.
Gabelli also said he likes Advance Auto Parts as a turnaround story. He referred to it as a "dumpster" stock that has the potential to bounce back. And he's bullish on National Fuel Gas, a utility that should benefit from rising power demand due to artificial intelligence.
But Gabelli stressed that his firm, like many other value investors, is taking a long-term marathon approach to investing. That may mean missing out on hot trends. "If you're short-termers, don't give us money to manage," he told the Value Invest New York audience.
Rogers, who is also the chairman, co-CEO and chief investment officer at Ariel, continues to be a contrarian as well. He said he's still bullish on smaller stocks, arguing that there could be "many many many mergers in many industries" and that could be a catalyst for small-caps.
Rogers added that companies may seek to take advantage of a favorable regulatory environment now and push to do more deals since it's unclear what could change in Washington over the next few years.
As for specific stocks, Rogers said he likes Scotts Miracle-Gro, the lawn care giant. He expects the company to focus more on share buybacks to boost earnings and its stock price. He added that it's a company with a strong brand. That's something else Rogers looks for, noting that J.M. Smucker is another well-known consumer stock that is a longtime Ariel holding.
Ariel is also a major holder in Sphere Entertainment, the company (and Barron's stock pick ) behind the Las Vegas entertainment venue. Rogers said he thinks there is still a lot of value and upside in the stock, despite a big surge already. He expects that Sphere, which was spun off from Madison Square Entertainment, has more growth ahead from the potential to build more smaller Sphere locations around the world.
Several other value fund managers also made their cases for bargain stocks they liked as well. Ned Reeves of Juniper Investment Company touted Lincoln Educational Services, the vocational training firm that Reeves thinks will benefit from the fact that more people will be looking for blue collar jobs that face less risk of being made obsolete by AI.
Jonathan Boyar of Boyar Value Group, who publishes an annual Forgotten Forty list of bargain stocks, said that like Gabelli, he's also bullish on Madison Square Sports. In addition, he likes Uber, which he thinks is oversold on autonomous vehicle fears, as well as casino company MGM Resorts and Cooper Cos., a leading maker of contact lenses.
It also may be a good time to scoop up some former market darlings that are now on sale. Christina Siegel Malbon of Patient Capital Management said she likes to buy stocks "when things are uncomfortable." Investor pessimism creates good opportunities. She pointed to two stocks in particular that have underwhelmed this year. Travel giant Expedia has been hurt on fears that chatbots will replace travel agents, a concern that she thinks is overblown. She also likes Amazon. Yes, Amazon.
Malbon conceded that the Magnificent Seven stock "may be out of place at a value conference." But shares have been hit by concerns about AI spending. Amazon now trades at about 22 times next year's earnings estimates, far below its 5-year and 10-year averages. She thinks that if Amazon can deliver on its growth promises, "there is no better value in the market today."
Amazon may not be a deep value stock. But investors looking for reasonably priced companies may not want to pass it up.
Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2026 18:16 ET (22:16 GMT)
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