We recently released a list 10 small stocks of billionaire Mason Hawkins have huge upward potential. In this article, we will explore Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT) Small-cap stocks with huge potential with other billionaire Mason Hawkins.
Mason Hawkins is a well-known American investor, known as the founder and chairman of Southeast Asset Management. Hawkins holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Florida and later earned a degree in finance from the University of Georgia. Prior to establishing Southeast Asset Management, the billionaire gained experience as the Atlantic National Bank and the first research director of Tennessee investment management. There, he developed his own value investment strategy and has since become famous for his value investment discipline. His fund Southeast Asset Management also holds the same reputation and can be witnessed by his concentrated portfolio of about 40 to 50 stocks. Currently, Southeast Asset Management serves 47 customers, with assets of US$5,271,901,660 as of March 2024.
Value investing is an investment strategy that buys stocks of well-managed and high-quality companies at prices higher than their intrinsic value. The core of Hawkins’ strategy is to buy stocks when its market price does not exceed 60% of the company’s intrinsic value assessment. Value investors believe that the market has overreacted to economic news, which leads to stock price changes, but the news will not affect the company's long-term fundamentals. So investors like Mason Hawkins won’t follow the herd and use financial research and analysis to find quality companies. Value investors are also known for holding companies for a long time, but are also actively claiming undervalued stocks.
Hawkins' disciplined research-based investment strategy has won him wide recognition. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award from Investors in 2005 and was named Domestic Equity Fund Manager of the Year in 2006 as Morningstar.
Under the current market conditions, Hawkins' value investment strategy has attracted Southeast Asset Management's attention to small-cap stocks. Although small-cap stocks are largely underperforming compared to large stocks. However, according to Francis Gannon, co-host investment officer of Reus Investment Partners, the price of small-cap stocks is a long-term investment opportunity. Gannon's investment advice fits with Hawkins' strategy because he recommends investing in high-quality small companies with strong fundamentals, low debt, established long-term revenues and huge upside potential.
To compile a list of 10 small stocks with huge upside potential by billionaire Mason Hawkins, we screened the 13F file for Southeast Asset Management from the internal monkey. From these documents, we examine the upward potential of each stock in CNN and rank the stocks in the order of upward potential. We also added the shares that Southeast Asset Management has in each company and the hedge fund sentiment around each stock. Please note that the data was recorded on April 28, 2025. Also note that in this article, we define small-cap companies as companies with market capitalization between $1 billion and $10 billion.
Why are we interested in stocks that hedge funds to accumulate? The reason is simple: Our research shows that we can beat the market by mimicking the top stocks of the best hedge funds. Our strategy for quarterly newsletters selects 14 small and large stocks every quarter, returning 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (See more details here).
Aerial view of the modern city skyline, showing a diverse portfolio of real estate.
Market value: US$1.19 billion
Number of hedge fund holders: 19
Southeast Asset Management Shares: $16,068,426
Analysts' upward potential: 40.06%
Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT) is a real estate investment trust dedicated to managing and operating the real estate portfolio in New York City. It has 10 office properties, nine of which are in Midtown Manhattan. The company operates through two main business units, namely the real estate sector and the observatory sector.
On April 17, the company announced the signing of two lease renewal and expansion agreements. One with Carolina Herrera, Ltd. At 34K square feet at 501 Seventh Avenue, the other is Workday Inc. at the Empire State Building. In addition, Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT) released its full-year results for fiscal 2024, highlighting the growth of leasing space for three consecutive years. During the year, the company leased 1.3 million square feet, up from the 982,000 square feet leased in 2023.
Taking into account the company's performance improvement. On March 25, Wolfe Research upgraded Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT), with better performance than peers, the target price is $10. It is one of 10 small-cap stocks of billionaire Mason Hawkins, with huge upside potential.
Overall, ESRT Ranked eighth There is huge upside potential in the small stock of our billionaire Mason Hawkins. Although we acknowledge the potential of ESRT as an investment, our belief is that AI stocks have higher returns in a shorter time frame and offer greater hope in this. AI stocks have risen since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks have lost about 25%. If you are looking for AI stocks that are more promising than ESRT but have less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report Cheapest AI stocks.
Read the next article: Buy 20 Best AI Stocks Now and According to the billionaire, there are now 30 best stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published in Inside monkey.