Cliff Sosin
FOLLOWCAS Investment Partners
Ultra-concentrated investor with 2-3 stock portfolio (Amazon, Meta); possibly the closest philosophical match to our approach; excellent track record but very low public transparency.
Modern Value Thought Leaders
Current Portfolio
2025-Q4 · 5 positions · Filed 2026-02-17
| # | Ticker | Value | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CVNA | $1.9B | 83.3%Conviction |
| 2 | HGV | $238.0M | 10.2%Conviction |
| 3 | COF-PN | $141.6M | 6.1% |
| 4 | SWIM | $6.0M | 0.3% |
| 5 | CDLX | $6.0M | 0.3% |
Allocation
Recent Changes
2025-Q4 vs 2025-Q3Portfolio +4.2%
| Action | Ticker | Shares Change | Value Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| DECREASED | CVNA | -279K(-6%) | +$101.0M |
| DECREASED | HGV | -326K(-6%) | +$2.0M |
| DECREASED | SWIM | -58K(-6%) | $-1.6M |
| DECREASED | COF-PN | -81K(-12%) | +$102.9K |
Score Breakdown
Investment Philosophy & Portfolio Style
Philosophy
Sosin's philosophy is one of extreme concentration and deep understanding. Key tenets: (1) Ultra-concentrated portfolio — he often holds only 3-5 positions, with a single stock sometimes representing 40-60% of the portfolio. (2) Deep, proprietary research — he spends months understanding a business before investing and develops a level of understanding that rivals insiders. (3) Long-term holding — he holds positions for years and rarely trades. (4) Focus on businesses with durable competitive advantages, strong network effects, and high returns on incremental capital. (5) He thinks about businesses as compounders — looking for companies where the intrinsic value per share grows at attractive rates over long periods. (6) Contrarian willingness — he is willing to hold positions through significant drawdowns if his thesis remains intact. His approach is similar to Buffett/Munger but pushed to an even higher degree of concentration.
Portfolio Style
Extremely concentrated — among the most concentrated hedge funds in the industry. Based on 13F filings, CAS Investment Partners has historically held massive positions in Amazon (often 30-50%+ of portfolio) and Meta/Facebook (often 20-40% of portfolio). At various times, the portfolio has been essentially a 2-3 stock portfolio. He runs a long-biased strategy with minimal hedging. AUM is estimated in the $200-500M range. The extreme concentration means the fund's returns are highly correlated with the performance of a very small number of positions. He favors large-cap technology platforms with strong network effects and massive scale advantages.
Background
Cliff Sosin is the founder and managing member of CAS Investment Partners, a New York-based investment partnership. Before founding CAS in 2012, he worked at Fir Tree Partners (a multi-billion dollar hedge fund) and before that at Cerberus Capital Management. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton). CAS Investment Partners is structured as a long-biased, concentrated hedge fund focused on a very small number of high-conviction positions. Sosin is known in the value investing community for his extreme concentration, deep fundamental research, and willingness to take very large positions in companies he understands thoroughly. He is relatively low-profile and rarely gives public interviews, preferring to let his results speak for themselves.
Track Record
CAS Investment Partners has generated exceptional long-term returns, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 since inception in 2012. The fund has benefited enormously from its massive concentrated positions in Amazon and Meta, which have been among the best-performing stocks over the past decade. Performance has been volatile due to concentration — the fund likely drew down significantly during Meta's 2022 decline and Amazon's pullback — but the long-term compounding has been outstanding. His willingness to hold Meta through the 2022 drawdown (when it fell ~75%) and ride the recovery demonstrates extraordinary conviction and a strong process. Estimated compound returns since inception are well above market returns, though exact figures are private.
Notable Holdings
Based on 13F filings: Amazon (historically 30-50%+ of portfolio — his largest and most enduring position), Meta/Facebook (historically 20-40% of portfolio — held through the 2022 drawdown), and a small number of other positions that rotate. The portfolio is overwhelmingly dominated by Amazon and Meta, reflecting his conviction in large-scale technology platforms with network effects. At times, these two positions alone have represented 70-90% of his reported holdings.
Transparency & Integrity
Transparency(Score: 3/10)
Low to moderate transparency. Sosin is quite private and rarely gives public interviews or presentations. His investor letters are not publicly available. His 13F filings provide the primary public window into his positioning, and these reveal an extraordinarily concentrated portfolio. He does not maintain a blog, podcast, or social media presence. The few interviews he has given reveal a thoughtful, deeply analytical investor. His low profile is both a feature (he focuses on investing, not marketing) and a limitation (less opportunity to learn from his thinking publicly).
Integrity(Score: 9/10)
Very high integrity based on available evidence. He has significant personal capital invested in the fund alongside clients, ensuring strong alignment of interests. His extreme concentration demonstrates conviction rather than asset-gathering behavior — a fee-focused manager would never concentrate this heavily. He does not engage in self-promotion or marketing. His background at reputable firms (Fir Tree Partners, Cerberus Capital Management) and his Wharton education suggest strong professional credentials. He appears to be a genuine investor, not a fee-extractor.
Relevance to Us
Very high relevance. Sosin's approach is perhaps the closest match to our philosophy among this group: extreme concentration, long-term holding, focus on durable competitive advantages, no leverage/shorting in practice (long-biased), and willingness to hold through drawdowns. His portfolio overlap with our own analysis (Meta is our first deep-dive company) is notable. His Amazon/Meta concentration suggests he has reached similar conclusions about the durability and value of large-scale technology platforms. The main gaps: (1) his low transparency means we learn less from him than from more public investors, (2) he does not appear to publicly discuss AGI or transformative AI, though his portfolio positioning in Amazon and Meta implicitly benefits from AI tailwinds.