At the Value Invest New York 2026 conference, Mario Gabelli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GAMCO Investors, detailed his firm’s research-driven approach, and several stock ideas spanning professional sports franchises, energy infrastructure, and auto parts retail. Gabelli, who founded GAMCO nearly 50 years ago and has compounded returns at 14.9% annually for his partnership clients, brought his characteristic energy to pitch the ideas.
Gabelli opened with a joke “I only invest in hiring PhDs, passion, hunger, and drive,” he told the audience. GAMCO’s approach remains what it has been since 1977: research-driven, fundamentals-based value investing centered on the concept of private market value, what an informed buyer would pay for an entire business.
The firm, which manages assets through a range of structures including mutual funds, institutional accounts, and private equity vehicles, employs approximately 180 people with offices across the United States, London, Tokyo, and Shanghai. Gabelli highlighted the firm’s extensive research conference program, which covers sectors from auto parts and utilities to aerospace, defense, water infrastructure, and sports, the last of which would feature n his stock picks.
Before diving into individual ideas, Gabelli noted the major challenges facing the U.S. economy. The federal government collects roughly five trillion dollars in revenue while spending seven trillion, creating persistent deficits that remain unresolved. Household wealth in the United States has reached approximately $162 trillion, but Gabelli emphasized the growing K-shaped divide: wealthier Americans are benefiting from rising asset prices in equities and housing, while those at the lower end of the income scale face mounting affordability pressures across student debt, auto loans, and everyday living costs.
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