A little-known investor has outperformed Warren Buffett over the past 20 years — and grown his fund’s assets from $34 million to $1.3 billion

A little-known investor has outperformed Warren Buffett over the past 20 years — and grown his fund’s assets from $34 million to $1.3 billion

A little-known investor has rivaled Warren Buffett's track record by pulling from the CEO's playbook: holding stocks for the long term, concentrating his portfolio, keeping costs low, and striking private deals. Wilmot Kidd took over Central Securities in 1974, when the had $34 million in assets under management, . Kidd, now 80 years old and set to retire later this month, has grown that figure to $1.3 billion as of September 30 this year — a 38-fold increase in under 48 years. Central has outperformed Buffett's Berkshire over the past two decades, and the S&P 500 index over the past 25, 30, and 40 years, . The fund has returned an annualized 14.5% with dividends reinvested since Kidd took over, trumping an 11.7% return for the S&P 500 over the same period, the Journal said. Kidd's success largely reflects his willingness to hold stocks for decades. For example, Central spent about $6 million in 1987 for a stake in Analog Devices worth $75 million as of September 30 this year, . Moreover, Central owned a chunk of Murphy Oil for nearly 45 years — between 1974 and 2018 — and continues to hold Intel stock that it first bought in