William H. Miller III (born 1950) is an American investor, fund manager, and philanthropist.
He is the portfolio manager of the former Legg Mason Opportunity Trust mutual funds, now housed at his own firm Miller Value Partners.
Miller then pursued graduate studies in philosophy in the Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University while working part-time in accounting.
In 2007, he was elected the chairman of the firm as well as its chief investment officer, running the Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund.
[1] Miller has reiterated his investment philosophy multiple times in letters to shareholders, writing this in his 2006 letter:Value investing means really asking what are the best values, and not assuming that because something looks expensive that it is, or assuming that because a stock is down in price and trades at low multiples that it is a bargain ...
"[8] Michael Mauboussin, former chief investment strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management, looked at the historical data on the percent of equity mutual funds that beat the market during Value Trust's 15-year streak.
[9] However, Leonard Mlodinow, in The Drunkard's Walk, notes that Mauboussin's analysis misframes the question and, when framed properly, the probability of occurrence of such a streak is much higher, around 3%.
When these periods are also included in the analysis, the odds of someone beating the market 15 years in a row at some point in the United States is around 75%—in other words, it would have been unlikely if there hadn't been such an occurrence.
In 2018, Miller made a $75 million donation to the philosophy department of Johns Hopkins University, to which he was given entry as a PhD candidate and which he left for a CFA before completion.
An arrogant fund manager named Bruce Miller and played by actor Tony Bentley debates Steve Carell's character at an investment conference,[13] "blustering on about the fundamental strength of Bear Stearns stock".
[14] In October 2024, Miller donated $132 million to his alma mater, Washington & Lee, making it the 10th need-blind university in the United States.