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Inside a Deep Value Fund's Playbook: Where Smart Money Is Digging for Hidden Gems

MarketDash Editorial Team
18 days ago
Aegis Financial's latest portfolio moves reveal a disciplined approach to value investing in the unloved corners of the market. The small, internally owned firm is doubling down on energy and resource names trading at deep discounts, from Canadian oil sands to gold mines in Ghana, while harvesting gains from ideas that have played out.

There's a certain breed of investment manager worth paying attention to, and Aegis Financial fits the profile perfectly. This is a small, internally owned firm that operates in territory most investors deliberately avoid: small caps, cyclicals, commodity plays, and the various unloved orphans of Wall Street. Founded in the mid-1990s and helmed for years by Scott Barbee, the firm does one thing exceptionally well. It hunts for companies trading at a fraction of their underlying business and asset value, then waits patiently for the market to catch up. The ownership structure is refreshingly simple—the people making the decisions have their own money on the line right alongside their clients, and they care far more about long term results than accumulating assets under management. That's exactly the setup you want from a deep value shop.

When you line up Aegis's investor materials with their 13F filings, the story checks out. They're hunting where the big index funds and closet indexers don't bother to look. They want cheap assets, low expectations, and a solid margin of safety. That frequently leads them into energy, mining, and other capital intensive businesses where sentiment is usually terrible precisely when opportunity is greatest. The most recent 13F filings show a concentrated portfolio packed with energy and resource names. The third quarter brought several meaningful changes: a couple of fresh positions, heavy additions to existing holdings, a trim to a long standing winner, and one complete exit. Nothing about this activity suggests style drift. It looks like a disciplined value manager recycling capital from a maturing idea into opportunities where the discount to intrinsic value remains significant.

The Buy Side: Where Aegis Sees Opportunity

The real action in the third quarter happened on the buy side, and it reveals plenty about how Aegis views the current landscape. They were buyers of Cenovus Energy (CVE), Precision Drilling (PDS), North American Construction Group (NOA), Vermilion Energy (VET), and Galiano Gold (GAU). Cenovus and North American Construction Group represent entirely new positions. In Precision Drilling, Vermilion, and Galiano, they pressed existing bets and took advantage of what they see as ongoing mispricing. On the sell side, they trimmed Equinox Gold (EQX), which remains a very large core holding, and completely exited Peabody Energy (BTU). This looks like textbook deep value portfolio management: taking money off the table where the original thesis has largely played out and rotating it into situations where the upside to intrinsic value is still substantial.

Cenovus Energy: A Long Life Cash Flow Engine

Cenovus Energy is a new position and a perfect illustration of how Aegis thinks about energy. Cenovus is a Canadian integrated oil company with a large oil sands footprint, conventional assets, and a substantial downstream refining and marketing arm. The oil sands business provides very long duration reserves, while the downstream side can cushion some of the volatility in crude prices over time. Cenovus has been busy reshaping itself through acquisitions and asset sales, using strong cash flows to clean up the balance sheet and increase shareholder returns. At the right price, a company like this becomes a long life cash flow engine with real operating leverage to any sustained strength in oil prices. Aegis didn't nibble around the edges. They built a meaningful stake because they see a large gap between what the equity market is pricing in and the long term cash generation potential of the business.

Precision Drilling: Betting on the Drilling Cycle

Precision Drilling isn't new to Aegis, but the third quarter buying was aggressive enough to signal fresh conviction. Precision is the dominant land driller in Canada with a fleet of high quality rigs and a growing presence in key North American basins. This is a classic cyclical services business. When drilling activity is weak, the stocks get crushed and the market assumes the pain is permanent. When activity picks up and rig markets tighten, day rates shift upward, margins expand, and free cash flow explodes higher. By adding heavily to Precision, Aegis is clearly betting that we're still in the early to middle innings of a healthier drilling cycle, not the late stages. They're willing to live with volatility in reported earnings in exchange for very high potential upside as utilization and pricing strengthen.

North American Construction Group: Big Yellow Iron and Contracted Cash Flows

North American Construction Group is the other genuine new buy in the quarter, and it fits Aegis like a tailored suit. NOA is a heavy construction and earthworks contractor that does a lot of work for the Canadian oil sands and other major mining operations. This is not a story stock. It's a fleet of big yellow iron, a roster of long term contracts with large resource companies, and a steady diet of recurring work maintaining and expanding pits, haul roads, and related infrastructure. The company has spent years building one of the largest independent equipment fleets in its niche and has locked in multi-year arrangements that provide strong revenue visibility. The market rarely awards a high multiple to a contractor like this, which is exactly what attracts a deep value manager. Aegis can buy a hard asset heavy business with contracted cash flows at a discount, then sit back and let time, contract execution, and occasional contract wins work in their favor.

Vermilion Energy: Betting on Balance Sheet Repair

Vermilion Energy is another name where Aegis chose to increase its bet in the third quarter rather than start from scratch. Vermilion is a Canadian headquartered producer with diversified assets across Canada, Europe, and Australia, and it has leaned over time into liquids rich gas and conventional gas in markets where pricing can be structurally better. Recent years have been spent repairing the balance sheet, high grading the asset base, and selling non-core properties to improve returns. That process is never pretty and usually leaves the stock in the penalty box for longer than it deserves. Aegis appears to be taking the other side of that sentiment. By adding here, they're effectively saying that the heavy lifting is mostly done, the balance sheet is on firmer ground, and the remaining portfolio of assets has embedded value that's not fully reflected in the current share price, especially if gas markets tighten again.

Galiano Gold: Operating Leverage Without the Momentum Multiple

Galiano Gold has been in the Aegis portfolio for some time, and the third quarter buying looks like a high conviction manager taking advantage of volatility to add at attractive levels. Galiano's main asset is its interest in the Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana, a producing complex with room to grow through exploration and incremental project work. The company has used internal cash flow to build and expand the operation, which fits the Aegis preference for self-funding growth rather than serial equity issuance. Gold miners are often hated as a group and rarely get full credit for incremental progress at the asset level. That disconnect seems to be what Aegis is leaning into here. By owning a de-risked producing asset in a mining friendly jurisdiction at a value price, they can get both operating leverage to the gold price and asset level value creation without paying a momentum multiple.

The Sell Side: Taking Profits and Managing Risk

On the sale side, the moves are quieter but still revealing. Aegis trimmed Equinox Gold (EQX) but didn't walk away from it. Equinox remains a very large position for the firm. Trimming a name like that is what disciplined managers do when a stock has worked well and the position size and risk exposure gets a little too large for comfort. They're not abandoning the thesis. They're managing risk and freeing up cash. The complete exit from Peabody Energy (BTU) is different. Coal has had a tremendous run as markets woke up to the reality that coal demand doesn't go to zero just because people wish it so. As the story matured and the easy money was made, Aegis chose to redeploy that capital into names with more remaining upside to intrinsic value. For a manager like this, there's always another mispriced asset to buy if you're willing to sell an old favorite when it has done its job.

What It All Means

Taken together, the firm and the recent portfolio moves are consistent. Aegis isn't trying to guess the next hot theme or chase the latest AI story. They're doing the slow, sometimes lonely work of buying real businesses and hard assets at deep discounts, holding them through the inevitable volatility, and harvesting gains when the crowd finally shows up. The third quarter 13F shows them leaning further into long lived energy and resource assets with operating and cash flow leverage to any sustained strength in commodity markets. It shows them using trims and exits to manage risk and recycle gains rather than falling in love with any one stock. This is deep value the way it's supposed to be done, and that's why watching what Aegis is buying and selling every quarter is worth the effort.

Back to News

Inside a Deep Value Fund's Playbook: Where Smart Money Is Digging for Hidden Gems

MarketDash Editorial Team
18 days ago
Aegis Financial's latest portfolio moves reveal a disciplined approach to value investing in the unloved corners of the market. The small, internally owned firm is doubling down on energy and resource names trading at deep discounts, from Canadian oil sands to gold mines in Ghana, while harvesting gains from ideas that have played out.

There's a certain breed of investment manager worth paying attention to, and Aegis Financial fits the profile perfectly. This is a small, internally owned firm that operates in territory most investors deliberately avoid: small caps, cyclicals, commodity plays, and the various unloved orphans of Wall Street. Founded in the mid-1990s and helmed for years by Scott Barbee, the firm does one thing exceptionally well. It hunts for companies trading at a fraction of their underlying business and asset value, then waits patiently for the market to catch up. The ownership structure is refreshingly simple—the people making the decisions have their own money on the line right alongside their clients, and they care far more about long term results than accumulating assets under management. That's exactly the setup you want from a deep value shop.

When you line up Aegis's investor materials with their 13F filings, the story checks out. They're hunting where the big index funds and closet indexers don't bother to look. They want cheap assets, low expectations, and a solid margin of safety. That frequently leads them into energy, mining, and other capital intensive businesses where sentiment is usually terrible precisely when opportunity is greatest. The most recent 13F filings show a concentrated portfolio packed with energy and resource names. The third quarter brought several meaningful changes: a couple of fresh positions, heavy additions to existing holdings, a trim to a long standing winner, and one complete exit. Nothing about this activity suggests style drift. It looks like a disciplined value manager recycling capital from a maturing idea into opportunities where the discount to intrinsic value remains significant.

The Buy Side: Where Aegis Sees Opportunity

The real action in the third quarter happened on the buy side, and it reveals plenty about how Aegis views the current landscape. They were buyers of Cenovus Energy (CVE), Precision Drilling (PDS), North American Construction Group (NOA), Vermilion Energy (VET), and Galiano Gold (GAU). Cenovus and North American Construction Group represent entirely new positions. In Precision Drilling, Vermilion, and Galiano, they pressed existing bets and took advantage of what they see as ongoing mispricing. On the sell side, they trimmed Equinox Gold (EQX), which remains a very large core holding, and completely exited Peabody Energy (BTU). This looks like textbook deep value portfolio management: taking money off the table where the original thesis has largely played out and rotating it into situations where the upside to intrinsic value is still substantial.

Cenovus Energy: A Long Life Cash Flow Engine

Cenovus Energy is a new position and a perfect illustration of how Aegis thinks about energy. Cenovus is a Canadian integrated oil company with a large oil sands footprint, conventional assets, and a substantial downstream refining and marketing arm. The oil sands business provides very long duration reserves, while the downstream side can cushion some of the volatility in crude prices over time. Cenovus has been busy reshaping itself through acquisitions and asset sales, using strong cash flows to clean up the balance sheet and increase shareholder returns. At the right price, a company like this becomes a long life cash flow engine with real operating leverage to any sustained strength in oil prices. Aegis didn't nibble around the edges. They built a meaningful stake because they see a large gap between what the equity market is pricing in and the long term cash generation potential of the business.

Precision Drilling: Betting on the Drilling Cycle

Precision Drilling isn't new to Aegis, but the third quarter buying was aggressive enough to signal fresh conviction. Precision is the dominant land driller in Canada with a fleet of high quality rigs and a growing presence in key North American basins. This is a classic cyclical services business. When drilling activity is weak, the stocks get crushed and the market assumes the pain is permanent. When activity picks up and rig markets tighten, day rates shift upward, margins expand, and free cash flow explodes higher. By adding heavily to Precision, Aegis is clearly betting that we're still in the early to middle innings of a healthier drilling cycle, not the late stages. They're willing to live with volatility in reported earnings in exchange for very high potential upside as utilization and pricing strengthen.

North American Construction Group: Big Yellow Iron and Contracted Cash Flows

North American Construction Group is the other genuine new buy in the quarter, and it fits Aegis like a tailored suit. NOA is a heavy construction and earthworks contractor that does a lot of work for the Canadian oil sands and other major mining operations. This is not a story stock. It's a fleet of big yellow iron, a roster of long term contracts with large resource companies, and a steady diet of recurring work maintaining and expanding pits, haul roads, and related infrastructure. The company has spent years building one of the largest independent equipment fleets in its niche and has locked in multi-year arrangements that provide strong revenue visibility. The market rarely awards a high multiple to a contractor like this, which is exactly what attracts a deep value manager. Aegis can buy a hard asset heavy business with contracted cash flows at a discount, then sit back and let time, contract execution, and occasional contract wins work in their favor.

Vermilion Energy: Betting on Balance Sheet Repair

Vermilion Energy is another name where Aegis chose to increase its bet in the third quarter rather than start from scratch. Vermilion is a Canadian headquartered producer with diversified assets across Canada, Europe, and Australia, and it has leaned over time into liquids rich gas and conventional gas in markets where pricing can be structurally better. Recent years have been spent repairing the balance sheet, high grading the asset base, and selling non-core properties to improve returns. That process is never pretty and usually leaves the stock in the penalty box for longer than it deserves. Aegis appears to be taking the other side of that sentiment. By adding here, they're effectively saying that the heavy lifting is mostly done, the balance sheet is on firmer ground, and the remaining portfolio of assets has embedded value that's not fully reflected in the current share price, especially if gas markets tighten again.

Galiano Gold: Operating Leverage Without the Momentum Multiple

Galiano Gold has been in the Aegis portfolio for some time, and the third quarter buying looks like a high conviction manager taking advantage of volatility to add at attractive levels. Galiano's main asset is its interest in the Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana, a producing complex with room to grow through exploration and incremental project work. The company has used internal cash flow to build and expand the operation, which fits the Aegis preference for self-funding growth rather than serial equity issuance. Gold miners are often hated as a group and rarely get full credit for incremental progress at the asset level. That disconnect seems to be what Aegis is leaning into here. By owning a de-risked producing asset in a mining friendly jurisdiction at a value price, they can get both operating leverage to the gold price and asset level value creation without paying a momentum multiple.

The Sell Side: Taking Profits and Managing Risk

On the sale side, the moves are quieter but still revealing. Aegis trimmed Equinox Gold (EQX) but didn't walk away from it. Equinox remains a very large position for the firm. Trimming a name like that is what disciplined managers do when a stock has worked well and the position size and risk exposure gets a little too large for comfort. They're not abandoning the thesis. They're managing risk and freeing up cash. The complete exit from Peabody Energy (BTU) is different. Coal has had a tremendous run as markets woke up to the reality that coal demand doesn't go to zero just because people wish it so. As the story matured and the easy money was made, Aegis chose to redeploy that capital into names with more remaining upside to intrinsic value. For a manager like this, there's always another mispriced asset to buy if you're willing to sell an old favorite when it has done its job.

What It All Means

Taken together, the firm and the recent portfolio moves are consistent. Aegis isn't trying to guess the next hot theme or chase the latest AI story. They're doing the slow, sometimes lonely work of buying real businesses and hard assets at deep discounts, holding them through the inevitable volatility, and harvesting gains when the crowd finally shows up. The third quarter 13F shows them leaning further into long lived energy and resource assets with operating and cash flow leverage to any sustained strength in commodity markets. It shows them using trims and exits to manage risk and recycle gains rather than falling in love with any one stock. This is deep value the way it's supposed to be done, and that's why watching what Aegis is buying and selling every quarter is worth the effort.